Tucker doesn't back down in these situations, so the best thing we have found is to remain calm, stand tall, ignore the charging dog, and keep walking. It seems to work for us and we have walked away from couple of situations that could have been bad. I think a lot of times things go bad when our dogs detect our fear and indecision. In absense of a leader, they will take on the role themselves, whether they are good at it or not.

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There is no easy way to handle this One trick that you can have up your sleeve is to use the wheel barrow technique ie lifting the aggressive dog's legs up. This will release the bite. If may not solve your problems but it may come in handy one day.
You have every right to be upset about this problem so do complain to your council.

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I can't really avoid the area either, since my back yard borders the park. That's where we walk. The only other option would be streets with no sidewalks. It would be ridiculous to drive somewhere else when we live on a 40 acre park. The same thing probably happens in every park anyway.

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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)

Ugh, I hate dealing with these situations. They happen way too often. We have two yappy dogs a few houses down from us. They can be aggressive when walking past. I might carry a stick with me from now on. Not that I would use it on them since they're so small, but there are a lot of large aggressive dogs in my area that I always worry will get loose. Ginger's hair stands up and always tries to walk on the other side of the road whenever encountering dangerous dogs. In my experience talking to the owners have made everything worse for me. I think it all depends. One lady told me she had a gun, so I haven't ever brought anything up again just in case she goes crazy one day. Try to be as polite as possible, you never know with people... sometimes that can be really hard though.

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Unbelievable. If someone mentions they have a gun just for asking them to control their dog, I'm calling the cops. That is scary.

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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)

I know, hardly ever walk past that house. She's a really strange person. Some days she says hello, and others she's blasting my head off. o_O

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Visit their blog: fluffygoldens.tumblr.com

Little dog syndrome! My little one is very dog aggressive, not so much when people come into my home or on our street, but on leash... look out! She literally will hunt for other dogs while out on a walk. Unfortunately I can't walk her and Brew together where there will be other dogs because she will teach him this behavior, I have a special place that I can take them both and have no issues. But yes, she's all of 8lbs and will take on a Mastiff if given the chance! (I found out the hard way with her one day) This was a few years back, I was at the trail I usually go to, it's a leash only place, and she was leashed up but this big droopy lipped dog was off leash and came bounding up to us, I warned the owner that mine was aggressive and I got laughed at!!!! Sure enough my Jessy lunged and grabbed onto the dogs lip and hung there! The poor droopy lipped dog didn't know what the heck to do! We got them apart and Jessy was SO worked up!!! It was embarrassing!

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I Brew

Good idea on grabbing something to deter them...

For the body blockers, aren't you afraid of getting bitten by a vicous dog too?

I let Casper handle it. He's got better dog sense than I do. I do slack up on the leash a bit, so that he "understands" he can do what he needs to do. I don't mean fight. I mean bow, or sit, or sniff, or whatever it is sends the correct message to the other dog. I do have one dog in the neighborhood I am worried about. He's basically vicious, and he is bigger than Casper. My husband wants me to carry Halt, but I'm not there yet.

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I wish I had an answer too. I live in historic area and that means very urban. We have some streets that are beautiful and well taken care of, others not so much. But, I swear on everyone there is at least one dog that roams loose. They just let them out the front door. Sometimes for the whole day. I have little barky Chihuahuas to really large boxer/pit crosses. I would love to be able to bike Jinx when she is older to condition her, but I am scared to even walk her right now. I don't think I want to tempt the chase/pray drive of these dogs

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Laura, Jinx, and Rocky
UKC CH Wildfire's A Kind of Magic CGC
http://www.k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=474956
Rocky the old min pin who thinks he's a golden