Alexey

Some time ago a stray dog started to bark on me and got rather close. I took out the tear gas spray and sprayed it a bit. The dog run away and I was left with my hand wet with this tear gas chemical residues. I immediately cycled home to wash my hands with soap, as I suspected that the chemical could be irritating to the skin. The ride was spoiled completely.

I understood that the tear gas spray is far from perfect protection. I decided to give some thinking to the problem and to discover a better way to protect myself against an aggressive dog.

I came out with the following solution. I bought a pack of the processed dog food. This dog food consists from sort of pellets of the same size, about 3/4 of inch in diameter. The idea was to throw these food pellets before dog to switch its attention from me.

Yesterday I gave it a try. I was lucky that already on the second block from my home a small dog started to bark and run on me. I threw about 5 - 6 pellets before it, the dog stopped barking and started to sniff and search for food. However the owner of the dog behaved not the way I expected. She run to the dog and snatched the dog away. Like she thought the food was not OK, expired or something. The food was OK, but she apparently did not believe me for some reason.

With the stray dogs it worked OK, but I was a bit uncomfortable when 3 dogs came close around me asking with eyes for more. So I threw about 10 pellets far to the side and cycled away while they were searching and eating.

In general I liked this more than spray, but this technique requires more testing. A pack of processed dog food costs peanuts and will last long.

My impression is that I found a good way to deal with dogs. Has anyone tried this method of protection before? Are there drawbacks I should be aware of?