I wanted to start a thread of best practices when managing interactions with unknown dogs as this seems to be my most frequent type of encounter while out and about.
I am on the trails a lot and going through my mental catalogue, have been chased/approached by a lot of barky dogs. Many were extremely large and dangerous breeds in the 100+ lb range. It is probably my most frequent animal encounter.
So what are best practices in dealing with these animals? I have never encountered a feral dog, just ones whose owners are between 10-100 yards away. My goal is to disengage with the animal and prevent it from biting one of my kids who are frequently with me on trail. This is not as great a concern as a few years back when the toddlers were eye level with teeth.
I have seen kids with faces bitten, and lots of folks with serious consequences from bitten hands and I just don’t think a dog bite is no big deal. However, most of the hand bite cases (nearly 100%) they were owners attempting to break up a dogfight.
@GJM pointed out that shooting or injuring a dog can have serious negative and unintended consequences, the Harold Fish case comes to mind, as his shooting of a human, followed by arrest and prisong time was preceded by a negative and possibly poorly managed dog interaction.
Here are his comments from a non public thread.