49 years ago a buddy and I were back in a wilderness area of a national forest scouting for archery season. No firearms (or bows) with us. We had hiked in nearly three miles, located the place to site our camp and scouting for sign when we had a nasty encounter with a pack of 8 feral dogs (there was NO house within 4 miles of us in any direction). The surrounded us growling and making feints toward us. I really wasn’t scared of being killed (though maybe I should have been) but I was scared to death of being bitten and winding up with rabies shots. Carl and I wound up retreating up a handy tree. The milled around growling and snarling for over an hour before they finally wandered off. We waited a bit then cautiously made our way back to my Scout. Came back the following day with an old Winchester 92 44-40 and an M1 carbine and permanently solved that problem. That was the last time I went back in the toolies sans firearm. A .380 (or even a .22) will do the job IF you do yours.