Dog Attack

[dbax]

Hi fellow Fishers

I was on a hunt this last Sunday early in the morning -- the hunt was going pretty good, about an hour into the hunt and I had 13 Quarters. Then something happened that was a bit unnerving. A young lady got out of her car with a pretty good sized pit bull/mix on a tether. Lucky for me I happen to be watching her and notice the dog, about 50 yards away, seemed to be fixated on me while the woman unclipped the clasp. The dog ran around in a couple of circles around her then headed straight for me. I was expecting the animal to stop short and bark but it did not. The only thing that stopped him was my metal detector as I lifted it up and put it in face. The dog was totally focused on attacking me I kept him off with the metal detector waiting for the owner to get control of this animal, which proved to be no easy task for her. Right then I was wishing I had my S&W 40 on my hip instead of my digger. I remained calm and with each attack the pit bull kept looking for a way around the coil. Finally the owner was able to get a hold of her wild dog. With a meek, "I'm sorry" she took her animal back to her car. After ward I regretted not calling animal control, because if I had been a child running across the park this animal would have attacked them. This leads to a question -- has anyone else had a similar experience and what would be a good way protect oneself. I am certain the animal would have eventually been able, or managed to get around my detector coil, as it became more brazen with each attack. Does anyone know if pepper spray will stop this kind of attack from a pit bull? Funny, the following day, at a different park, I was again attacked, but this time it was a Lab puppy and that was fun.

 

[yowow#1]

Personally, i hate the pit bulls. I have had experience with them, they are usually very trust worthy with their masters, but will attempt to kill everything else that lives. 'It is their breeding'. and that is the truth regardless of what anyone says. And they have a incredibly high pain threshold. I don't mean to sound cruel, but the only way to stop them is death. just offering my personal opinion.

 

[Steve O]

I've also known many pits in my life, it's a hit or miss with them. Some can be the best pets....some only seem to be. That lady didn't know her dog very well. Luckily you had a hand digger or a screwdriver to pry its jaw open when and if it clamped on you....that was probably its intention...you were fortunate.

They do have an extremely high pain tolerance, like yowow says....what the're bred for. The dam things have big muscles in their forehead and all around their face. Handsomely beautiful dog, but I'm always leery and uncomfortable when I'm around them.

When they do bark, it's a raspy bark, like they've been smoking cigars all their life.

Hope that lady learned a thing or two,.... could have been a tragedy if you had been a child.

I was in the woods once, detecting in the middle of nowhere. As I was kneeling down digging a target, all of a sudden, an animal was all over me...no pain, and instantly knew it was a friendly dog about 60 pounds worth.
It happened so fast, I didn't have time to get scared...my adrenaline didn't even flow....that was weird, I was calm as could be. His owner came walking by a couple minutes later after the dog licked me to death....could have been the other way

 

[Steve O]

I've also known many pits in my life, it's a hit or miss with them. Some can be the best pets....some only seem to be. That lady didn't know her dog very well. Luckily you had a hand digger or a screwdriver to pry its jaw open when and if it clamped on you....that was probably its intention...you were fortunate.

They do have an extremely high pain tolerance, like yowow says....what the're bred for. The dam things have big muscles in their forehead and all around their face. Handsomely beautiful dog, but I'm always leery and uncomfortable when I'm around them.

When they do bark, it's a raspy bark, like they've been smoking cigars all their life.

Hope that lady learned a thing or two,.... could have been a tragedy if you had been a child.

I was in the woods once, detecting in the middle of nowhere. As I was kneeling down digging a target, all of a sudden, an animal was all over me...no pain, and instantly knew it was a friendly dog about 60 pounds worth.
It happened so fast, I didn't have time to get scared...my adrenaline didn't even flow....that was weird, I was calm as could be. His owner came walking by a couple minutes later after the dog licked me to death....could have been the other way though.

 

[Silverbackbob]

These days, hit or miss seems to be the case. It didn't use to be that way. Pits were bred to fight other dogs and animals, and their owners had to be able to handle them safely when they were injured. I owned a Staffordshire Bull Terrier from 1976 until Sarge died in 1988. He LOVED people, all people. But, he wasn't trustworthy around other animals, especially other ,bigger than him, dogs.

 

[Silverbackbob]

Sorry, new computer glitch. Sarge basically raised my two daughters. I became a police officer when Sarge was 8 yrs old. He came out to the Police camps with me in the summer and the kids all loved him. Best dog I will ever own IMHO. But...it's how they are bred and raised.
I am much more leery of a Rottweiler or a Doberman as they were developed to be used against humans as guard or attack dogs, especially Dobes. Rotts originally were bred to work and pull carts I believe.
Anyway, all large dogs should be watched carefully while detecting. They can probably hear the squeals chirps

 

[Silverbackbob]

Darn coputer..again.
One more tip, I was told that the stun weapons that are on the market only piss off a large dog like a Pit. I don't care how many volts they shoot out. Just FYI. Maybe bear spray, but your .40 would have been the surest bet. That young lady is a moron and is likely to be facing a huge lawsuit in the near future. Be safe out there. Bob.

 

[Idxpro]

True story for you:

Two years ago our neighbor's pit got loose and attacked my then 7 year old son in our front yard while my 17 year old daughter was dragging him in the screen door. No real damage and may have even been "playing rough" rather than attacking. Tore his jeans and ripped his shoe before they made it through the front door. I was out back and heard the screaming and ran around front and on my side is my Walther PP9. The dog was now running down the street with my neighbor running behind him. (Ps, my neighbor is a loose term, lives next street over). By now i'm standing in the street watching as the neighbor's wife pulls up and they get the dog in the car. After the chaos settled and I made sure the kids were ok, I approached him and let him know how upset I really was. I told him had I caught his dog in the act, it would have been over, and that's a promise. He didn't like my comment, got feisty, and I layed a beating on him he will never forget in front of the whole neighborhood. He cried as they drove away. I never heard from him again. SOme may say it was harsh, Oh well, dogs are dogs, it's the owners who need the beating sometimes...Welcome to Boston..

 

[sprchng]

There's alot of misinformation spread about pits , mostly by people who own them. They are as much like "any other dog" as a Thoroughbred racehorse is like any other horse and should be owned and handled by people competent in doing so. I don't care if it takes licensing , liability insurance rates , bonding or a combination of all three but owners of pit bulls need to be held accountable for the breeds problems or they leave banning them as the only remaining alternative. Not to get too far off topic , I was attacked by a pair of non pit bull canines one day and could easily have suffered severe Fisher damage had I been using it. The F75's ergonomics come largely from it's dainty , lightweight build and it would have not survived the blows I dealt to one of the dogs to keep it away. Fortunately , you could a beat a chupacabra to death with an e-trac which is what I was using that day.

In terms of a deterrent , try one of those compressed air horns for emergency boat use. You can fashion a hanger for your belt out of a coat hanger and I'll bet it will both startle a charging animal as well as sound a distress signal to the nearest authorities.

 

[mudpuppy]

Perhaps a 12ga. bang stick attachment for the lower rod? Man, good stories here, Dbx, good thing that dog didn't tear the coil off your machine, Idx, I'd a loved to seen that brawl! Seems dogs are really interested in these detectors for some reason, they always come running up all excited.
Mud

 

[Mike Hillis]

I'm not a fan of pit bulls. I think they should be banned in urbania and shot on sight when found running loose in rural environments.

HH
Mike

 

[dbax]

Great input Steve O, Getting licked to death would be a messy death but what fun, right? Guess we should all take a little time to be aware of our surroundings and maybe turn the phones down a bit. Thanks for the info on the breed, from someone who knows. I have heard all kinds of advice from people around home but it is obvious none of them have faced a Pit bull head on, and your description is quite good. I kept trying to see a weakness in the animal if it came to hand to mouth combat and could find none -- short snout, thick broad head, short muscular neck, body built like tank. One friend told me next time to grab it by its snout and pull back -- hum, I thought about that for about 2 seconds -- nah, that will never happen. Thanks Steve for the great input. Hopefully this exchange will wake all of us up the dangers out there, after all, many of us hunt at some pretty unsavory hours to avoid the commoners. Peace, I pray, to you all, Dan

 

[dbax]

Thanks for the great reply, Bob,

I was wondering about the Tazer thing and kind of had the same thought. I have seen the police vids where a guy on drugs or in an adrenaline rush seems to ignore the voltage and so, like you said, using one on a raging animal intent on harm would most likely *&^%$ off all the more. What about the smaller pepper spray cans like those sold to women to keep the rapist off? Anyone used one of these smaller models on a dog before? I know they work on people, or so they say. Bear Spray is in third large canister -- I guess I could give up my water bottle and replace it with the Bear spray? Thanks again for the input, Dan

 

[dbax]

idxpro,

I think I have to agree with you. It is funny how often parents of these animals defend them when they behave badly. I wonder if your beating of the owner taught them anything -- doubt if the dog learned any thing. Your kids are lucky to have such a protector -- I love dogs and they can be a great asset to the family, especially with kids, but unruly dogs, like unruly children are usually the product lax and lazy parents. Yeah, crazy, how some people make their dog one of their children. Love dogs but they are still dogs. Thanks for you input PRO. I don't think I would have gotten off so easy if I had beat my attackers owner into pudding, the owner being a young (28 or so) female. So far it looks like the pistol is the real solution to ending such a vicious attack, next the bear pepper spray, then a long sharp knife, but be prepared to give up some of your own blood. Sounds like Tasers are out. Maybe someone will one day do an experiment on vicious animals to see what works best. I see cops taking a taser hit to see how it all works, maybe they should test these things out on their dogs, it would be good info for them as well as us. Later, Dan

 

[Idxpro]

Haha...My other neighbors now bake me apple pie and goodies all the time....Lol. If I could just get them to shovel my driveway in the winter.. My daughters last year of middle school was a nightmare with girl bullies. She's a peach and hates conflict, but it was really bringing her down. School did nothing, a talk with the girls did nothing, (made it worse), and police said just ignore it. Well, I had a plan, and it worked. I knocked on one girls door, asked for the dad and told him"if your daughter says one more thing to mine, even looks at her, I will be back, drag you out of this house, and beat you silly in your own front yard. Don't **** with me!" I was nervous and supper mad at the same time. I had that crazy look in my eyes ya know. I turned around and walked away. He said NOTHING! She must have contacted her other looser friends and my daughter never had a problem ever again! Sometimes, you gotta do what ya gotta do! It was a gamble, but I was ready for the show.

 

[dbax]

Hi Mud,

This is one of those things where they say, "You had to be there", this animal was not interested in my detector and had eyes only for me. One piece of advice I got was to not make eye contact --yeah, try that -- look away as that beasts blasts past your coil and latches onto a leg, keep looking away -- yeah, you had to be there to see this was not some puppy wanting to play with my toy, nope, this pit-bull wanted to make me his chew toy. Funny, like one of the others commented, under a similar event, I was surprised at how calm I was, not adrenalin rush, just focusing on the happening and keeping the dog away from my limbs. The 12 guage would be a good one, I thought about a cattle prod? Don't know how long I would last with the extra weight? Thanks, Dan

 

[knarfj]

Bummer of an encounter dbax! Glad to hear you came through OK, physically.

I always carry pepper spray with me while I'm THing. I'm too darn old to be doing battle with man, beast or anything else, other than the good earth and its desire to keep its treasures from me.

FWIW, Here's just one of many reasons I started carrying pepper spray:

Not that long ago I received permission to hunt a promising home site from the owner. There was a dog on the premisses that barked when I arrived but I was assured by the owner it wouldn't be a bother and at that moment it seemed so. The dog took a couple of sniffs of me and wondered off. Just like any other dog I've encountered while door knocking looking for potential sites.

After a couple of hours of hunting I was returning to my truck which was parked near the house and around the corner of the house came the dog in a full run and bit the #%@^& out of my leg. It then started barking like hell at me, which brought the owner out of his house.

He quieted the dog and asked what all the ruckus was about. I told him his dog had just bit the #%@^& out of my leg.

His response was "It never happened, she wouldn't bite anyone". So I pulled up my pants leg and showed him the bite marks. A couple of marks had actually punctured the skin and were bleeding puncture wounds, although the bleeding was slight.

His next remark was "Looks more like you tangled with my barbed wire fence to me." Without any further comment on my part I promptly got in my truck and left.

The above happened before I was aware of pepper spray. True, it happened so fast I can't say for sure I would have had time to use the spray. But..........just maybe!

Just food for thought. Take care!

knarfj

 

[salmonriverhotrock]

I open carry a handgun out and about in public often and on or near me at all times is pepper spray. I've had a couple run In's with Pit Bulls and I have absolutely no use for the worthless things. To be quite honest, I have not one problem with offing someones precious little snowflake (Pet) if it's attacking someone on public accesses and properties or on private properties it does not belong or was not invited to. If they are harassing or killing livestock, they are automatically in many places, fair game. I've been attacked and bitten or nipped by dogs before but there aint no bite like a Pits.

 

[Prep1957]

Bear spray puts them out quick ,But park cops frown on you carring it they look at you as possible rapist.Hornet spray works great that shoots 20 feet you should have about 5 cans around your house for 2 legged pit bulls.I was asked by a friend to put his pit bull down was acting funny around there first child.So I did ,have been asked 7 more times and I did.I was told by local law Enforcement what I was doing was illegal but all left with big smiles on there face after telling me.I hate to tell you how many boa and python snakes I got rid for people.Hornet spray works for hornets too.

 

[Cajuncoinhunter]

Glock 26 or some OC Spray. Glad you weren't hurt. CCH