Attacked by Pitbull.. What would you do?

[jimmyj]

Experience shooting Pit Bulls:

Answering a "Bad Dog" Call I was attacked by three (3) Pit Bulls. I was 50 feet from my patrol vehicle and the same distance from the residence. I drew my issue Sig-Sauer P-229 .40 and fired. Two .40 caliber Speer 180 grain JHP in the chest of each dog. The bullets seen to have negative effects. The sound of the gun fire turned the dogs. I called for "Backup" and myself and other Officers hunted the dogs and dispatched them with 12 gauges. LESSON LEARNED-When answering a "Bag Dog" call, exit your vehicle with a 12 gauge. *** post death investigation revealed that the bullets have entered the chest areas, traveled though the bodies and exited the rear abdomen areas.

 

[Tom_R]

I am a dog and cat lover, and respect gods creatures.

I HATE pit bulls though. Hate them. My neighbor is an ex-Police Officer, now retired. He and I talked about Pit Bulls, and he has seen first hand how many times how problematic they are. He mentioned that the police force they were on had many officers switch from 9mm to mre powerful calibers, just to deal with pit bulls, as they deat with a pit bull that "ripped a little girls face off" and 9mm didn't do anything to it.

I would have shot the pit bull and would not have thought twice about it.

The dogs are a menace and a problem.

People will say things like, there is no such thing as a bad dog, just a bad owner, and you are more likely to be bit by a poodle or a golden retriever.

To them I say, if a poodle or a golden retriever bites me, that dog is going to have a very serious problem. If a pit bull bites me, I am going to have a very serious problem.

Too many true instances of these dogs severely harming or even killing pets and people.

I will never ever trust one, ever.

Why people rescue these dogs and bring them in their homes is totally beyond me.

 

[Tom_R]

Pitbulls are misunderstood. If we find gainful employment for them, they won't attack us.

Tigers are "misunderstood" too.

Sorry, there is n such thing as owning a pit bull. A pit bull tolerates you, until it doesn't tolerate you any more.

The dogs are dangerous, and they are a menace.

 

[FLSTFI]

Experience shooting Pit Bulls:



Answering a "Bad Dog" Call I was attacked by three (3) Pit Bulls. I was 50 feet from my patrol vehicle and the same distance from the residence. I drew my issue Sig-Sauer P-229 .40 and fired. Two .40 caliber Speer 180 grain JHP in the chest of each dog. The bullets seen to have negative effects. The sound of the gun fire turned the dogs. I called for "Backup" and myself and other Officers hunted the dogs and dispatched them with 12 gauges. LESSON LEARNED-When answering a "Bag Dog" call, exit your vehicle with a 12 gauge. *** post death investigation revealed that the bullets have entered the chest areas, traveled though the bodies and exited the rear abdomen areas.

I posted sometime back in a different thread about my experience with a pit bull. Your experience with shooting one with little to no effect brought back memories.

I was moving into a new house on about five acres in the country. I had brought over several truckloads of stuff when I went back out to get in the truck. Standing between me and the truck was my neighbors pit bull. He let it run loose in the country and I guess for years it had used my new yard as its play area before I built my house. I had already talked to the neighbor about the dog as I had a two year old son and told him I never wanted to see the dog on my property because I was not taking chances with my son around. Luckily on this day it was just me at the house and one of my first loads of stuff was my guns. I had my M&P .40 on me, but I still backed away and went back in the house for my shotgun. I came back out and the pit bull was still there and would not let me get in my truck. He growled at me and started towards me. I put some 00 buck in him from about 5 yards. It stopped him, but did not kill him. In fact, he got back up and started hobbling away. It took a second shot to head at almost point blank range to put him out of his misery. Took the head clean off.

After seeing him survive 00 buck at close range I have no doubt that my .40 would have just pissed him off.

As a side note, I put the carcass in the back of he truck and dumped it a couple miles down the road. I didn't need to deal with his owner. I found out later the dog had already killed a couple of other neighborhood dogs and many of the neighbors had already called the sheriff a number of times. I never told any of the neighbors what I did, but I think everyone was happy the dog was gone.

 

[Mainsail]

Here’s my ‘dog attack’ story. Several years ago I lived in the Stadium district in downtown Tacoma. I would park my car on Friday and didn’t need it again until Monday to get to work. I could walk or bike to almost anywhere I needed to go, weather permitting. One summer day I got on the bike to ride down to the Ruston waterfront area, a Sig P239 openly carried on my belt. I would normally cut through Garfield Park as a shortcut down to the waterfront.

On this day the sun was out and several people were enjoying the large grassy field with their dogs (illegally off the leash), and there were a half-dozen kids playing on the playground. I rode past the playground area towards a small gate at the rear of the park when suddenly a big (and beautiful) collie dog jumped up from 30 or 40 yards away, and with snarling and growling came running up behind me on my right. I jinked left and the dog came around behind the bike and bit my left leg at the knee. I locked up the brakes and kicked my heels out to unclip from the pedals, and faster than I thought I could draw, I drew and locked the front sight on the dog’s COM. I was just starting to pull the trigger when the dog suddenly turned and trotted off.

I holstered the gun and rode home to treat the wound. I had blood run from my knee down to about my calf. I heard a call on my scanner for a MWAG at Garfield Park so I rode back there but no police ever showed up. The dog’s owner insisted her dog had never bitten anyone (so that’s two dogs that have supposedly never bitten anyone that have bitten me) and I shouldn’t try to sue her because she was on public assistance. I think she was VERY nervous about the police coming because then it would have been bye-bye doggie. The amazing part is she never noticed the 9mm on my belt and had never seen me draw and point it at her dog- and she was beyond appreciative that I hadn’t shot it.

The next day (and following the same route) I went down to Ruston and spotted a city animal control officer patrolling, which in Tacoma I believe is also a sworn police officer as well. I approached her and told her the events described here (she never commented on my open carry). She told me, “It would have been a good shoot.” I take that to mean she didn’t think I would have run afoul with the law under those circumstances.

Epilog: In the moment, that dog was attacking me. The whole event from its jump up from the grass, through the max-effort stop, draw, aim, to it trotting off was only a few seconds- so there wasn’t a lot of cognitive reasoning going on upstairs- it was, ‘something is trying to eat me, shoot it’. Normal thought returned in time to stay the trigger pull. Now, of course hindsight being 20-20 and all, and given the breed of the dog, I have a pretty good idea what happened. The dog, being a herding breed, saw the leg motion of me on my bike and its instinct took over and it tried to herd me (which sounds like ‘hurt me’ when you tell the story verbally) in some direction or another. Once I stopped, instinct shut off and it walked away content with its results. I immediately ordered some pepper spray with a handlebar mount just in case another dog that has never bit anyone decided to make me its first….again. I have no problem dropping a problem dog, but I considered how the kids in the playground nearby would have reacted to ‘the mean man on the bike killing the playful dog for no reason’.

All that said, there are a couple breeds of dogs, of which Pit Bull is one, which I will shoot on first hint it’s attacking, and will keep on shooting until it stops or the slide locks back awaiting my reload. I love dogs as much as any dog lover out there, but I will not be reduced to a gimp because someone else fails to obey the law with regards to their dog.

 

[jimmyj]

I posted sometime back in a different thread about my experience with a pit bull. Your experience with shooting one with little to no effect brought back memories.

I was moving into a new house on about five acres in the country. I had brought over several truckloads of stuff when I went back out to get in the truck. Standing between me and the truck was my neighbors pit bull. He let it run loose in the country and I guess for years it had used my new yard as its play area before I built my house. I had already talked to the neighbor about the dog as I had a two year old son and told him I never wanted to see the dog on my property because I was not taking chances with my son around. Luckily on this day it was just me at the house and one of my first loads of stuff was my guns. I had my M&P .40 on me, but I still backed away and went back in the house for my shotgun. I came back out and the pit bull was still there and would not let me get in my truck. He growled at me and started towards me. I put some 00 buck in him from about 5 yards. It stopped him, but did not kill him. In fact, he got back up and started hobbling away. It took a second shot to head at almost point blank range to put him out of his misery. Took the head clean off.

After seeing him survive 00 buck at close range I have no doubt that my .40 would have just pissed him off.

As a side note, I put the carcass in the back of he truck and dumped it a couple miles down the road. I didn't need to deal with his owner. I found out later the dog had already killed a couple of other neighborhood dogs and many of the neighbors had already called the sheriff a number of times. I never told any of the neighbors what I did, but I think everyone was happy the dog was gone.

Reference Agency Shotgun: My Agency issue 12 Gauge ammo was #00 Buchshot, or #4 Buckshot, or Slugs. I chose to carry 12 Gauge Slugs

 

[Packard]

Bear spray would be my preference over pepper spray.

Pepper spray is much more powerful than required for dogs. Dogs (and bears) have much more sensitive noses and respond to weaker doses of capsicum.

Bear spray has greater range and sprays in a large cone shape assuring that you will actually hit the intended animal. It comes in a larger canister, sprays longer, further in a much larger area.

For this purpose I would choose bear spray.

Shooting another person's dog could lead to a confrontation with that person. Probably a bad idea.

 

[Riccur]

My initial reaction:

As soon as that dog did not back down too my yelling at him and continued to come with intent to make contact with me it would have been shot.

Now, in the actual situation there would be a lot of other things going on that could cause me to change that reaction. None of which can be conveyed outside of being there.

 

[Packard]

Change scenario:

The dog's owner points at you and says, "Sic 'em", and the dog attacks.

Do you shoot the dog or the dog owner? The dog owner is using the dog as a weapon just as if he had a baseball bat and was attacking you.

So kill the dog or the owner?

(I think you have to shoot the owner first to get away with it, but then you'd be too late to shoot the dog. If you shoot the dog first then the owner is no longer a threat and cannot be shot legally.)

 

[Mainsail]

Change scenario:

The dog's owner points at you and says, "Sic 'em", and the dog attacks.

Do you shoot the dog or the dog owner? The dog owner is using the dog as a weapon just as if he had a baseball bat and was attacking you.

So kill the dog or the owner?

(I think you have to shoot the owner first to get away with it, but then you'd be too late to shoot the dog. If you shoot the dog first then the owner is no longer a threat and cannot be shot legally.)

Citizen self-defense isn't 'shoot to kill' it's shoot to stop. You shoot the dog to stop the threat. After that you decide if you're peeved enough for murder.

 

[Packard]

Citizen self-defense isn't 'shoot to kill' it's shoot to stop. You shoot the dog to stop the threat. After that you decide if you're peeved enough for murder.

So once the owner has sicced the dog on you it is too late to defend yourself against the owner. The dog is already in motion so shooting the owner does not stop the threat. And shooting an attacking dog is nearly impossible.

What is fairly easy (if you are not afraid of a marauding ddg is to knock the dog out.

A dog will almost always (from what I know of attack dogs, always) attack the leading arm. So if you are shooting the leading arm becomes the one with the gun. Dogs are too quick. You have a really good chance of losing the gun to a dog bite.

Much better is to extend your weak arm and shoot under it (being careful not to shoot your own arm.)

But the technique I've been exposed to is to extend your weak are and present your forearm to the dog (inviting him to bite that arm). At the last second you move your weak arm back and raise your strong arm up striking the dog under the chin. A dog struck like that will almost always be knocked out.

I was working with a dog trainer who was helping me train my German Shepherd Dog. We were walking down the street and a Great Dane came flying out of one of the retail stores going straight for us (probably going for my dog). Otis (the dog trainer) positioned himself between the Great Dane and me and my dog and knocked the dog out cold using the technique described above. He claimed it always worked and that he had done it many times in the Marines.

He also said the one test they did to see if a dog was ready was to place the dog (seated) 10 feet from another trainer who held a starter's gun. On the command to attack the guy with the starter gun (whose arm was already extended) would pull the trigger.

If the trainer was able to get off one shot before the dog hit the sleeve he was not ready.

Humans cannot respond to outside stimuli in less than 1/10 of a second. Dogs can respond in 1/100th of a second. That gives the dog 99/100ths of a second advantage. All the time in the world.

 

[Doug M.]

That sort of hand to hand technique is not for trial and error - it is for trained people in good condition. It also will not work with all dogs; some will attack in a manner that ignores that arm. I'm pretty big and strong, and in good condition (especially compared to most my age), but I am not going hands on with a dog unless there simply is no other choice.

The defense question: shoot the dog first as it is the primary threat. The owner may not perform well at any attack on you, whether simultaneous or subsequent, but the dog will not miss. In addition, if he keeps coming at you after you have dumped the dog, you will have good evidence that the owner presents a serious threat.

 

[RSanch111]

I was always amazed that after years of jumping over fences into backyards in the middle of the night, AFTER the guy I was chasing already hit the fence and woke the dogs up, that I was never bitten. And being one of the only European-Americans on the shift, it seemed like my partner and I got all of the "vicious" dog runs too. Neither one of us were ever bitten and always managed to catch our quarry with a dog stick. I think it all has to do with your confidence level. My dog trainer says that the skin cells that you shed can tell a dog whether you're scared, confident, etc. Not sure if I believe that, but there it is. Never been bitten and have gone boot to paw with a LOT of dogs over the years. I guess they just knew not to trifle with my partner and I. On there other hand...We worked with a tough guy with a Napoleon complex. Guy was about 5'2" and "tough". Karate guy, big time gun guy, etc. Saw a dog bite the bejesus out of him once after the owner put the dog on him.

 

[cmort666]

Shooting another person's dog could lead to a confrontation with that person. Probably a bad idea.

A dog biting me could lead to a confrontation with ME. GUARANTEED to be a bad idea for the owner.

The dog getting shot would be the least of his worries. That dog could end up being the biggest expense he's ever had. My lawyer friend would bend him over the desk in civil court, no mercy or remorse.

Control or confine your animals to the extent that they can't harm innocent third parties. If you don't, the consequences are on you.

You can debate whether or not it's the dogs "fault". There's NO doubt that it's not MINE. I'm NOT going to get bitten to protect somebody ELSE'S uncontrolled pet.

 

[Protected One]

Never been bitten and have gone boot to paw with a LOT of dogs over the years. I guess they just knew not to trifle with my partner and I. On there other hand...We worked with a tough guy with a Napoleon complex. Guy was about 5'2" and "tough". Karate guy, big time gun guy, etc. Saw a dog bite the bejesus out of him once after the owner put the dog on him.

Why didn't he just shoot the dog rather than allow himself to be bit?

What is fairly easy (if you are not afraid of a marauding ddg is to knock the dog out.

A dog will almost always (from what I know of attack dogs, always) attack the leading arm. So if you are shooting the leading arm becomes the one with the gun. Dogs are too quick. You have a really good chance of losing the gun to a dog bite.

Much better is to extend your weak arm and shoot under it (being careful not to shoot your own arm.)

But the technique I've been exposed to is to extend your weak are and present your forearm to the dog (inviting him to bite that arm). At the last second you move your weak arm back and raise your strong arm up striking the dog under the chin. A dog struck like that will almost always be knocked out.

If I find myself attacked by a dog I won't be trying any other techniques until my gun runs dry.

 

[SeamasterSig]

You and your dog were very lucky. I would have shot the aggressive dog without hesitation in that situation if I was carrying. And I wouldn't have waited for it to get within kicking distance, either, if I had enough time to react. Shepards and Pit Bulls are both powerful animals and the situation can get out of hand faster than our ability to react or control it once they switch into attack mode.

My cousin-in-law unwittingly stepped between his neighbor's Pit Bull and its owner's wife and baby when it all of a sudden it flipped out and lunged at them. The dog latched on to his hand and dragged him around the house for more than 15 minutes before the police arrived and shot it. He lost half of two fingers as a result. Never been quite the same guy ever since.

 

[cmort666]

He lost half of two fingers as a result. Never been quite the same guy ever since.

The dogs before people types will tell you that other than the cops shooting the dog, that was the PREFERABLE outcome, certainly better than him shooting the dog.

 

[model70hunter]

Another Pit bull attack. No film at 10 PM.

My 18 year old grandson, his fiance and her 2 younger girl cousins went fishing at a lake camping area a couple of weeks ago.

About 10-12 smokers, tokers and probable illegal substance users pulled into a spot 25 or 30 feet from them. They go out fired up some loud music and got into their beer. In a short while a Pit Bull showed up and growled at my grandson. He picked up a stout stick and swung at the dog. It left. They hurriedly started packing their stuff. Then the dog came back, it went for my grandson who saw it coming and had the stick handy. He's a strong farm boy. Pretty soon the Pit had his fill and limped back to the neer do wells camp.

They still had some stuff to pack, 2 of the bunch came over and started reaming my grandson, claiming their dog was hurt and he did it. They circled in on my GS and one went for him, one punch square on the chin and the doper was out. The 2nd guy tried to jump on him. 3 or 4 more punches and he was out. He loaded the girls up leaving some chairs and fishing tackle. His only thought was to get the girls safely out of there before the rest knew what was going on.

He was afraid they might call the cops. I told him to not worry, that kind never wants the law around.

Good Grandson, his goal is to be a Highway patrolman.

 

[Doug M.]

^ Grandson should have called the cops, forthwith, as soon as they were someplace safe. Always be the complainant.

 

[Tonyman]

Pit Bulls are hard headed, you're going to need a bigger gun.

Remember SSS

Shoot Shovel Shhh

Funny But I like It ! True Enough " KISS"