[quote=“Mucha Man”]Gao, look back at my report on the wild dogs in Tibet. They charged, surrounded me, barking and snarling and baring their teeth within a few feet of me. The point was, I acted indifferent and they grew tired of their efforts within a very short time. These were completely wild dogs.
The point of the expert advise is that you have to keep remaining calm, not suddenly lose it at the last second. As Stray has said many times, if a dog really wanted to bite you, it would.
I know it’s tough to stand even when the dog is so close. I didn’t have much choice in my case, but it sure proved to me that it works.[/quote]
I also hiked in the exact same place as you over five years ago. It is a wild place, and I used the same approach to some of the wild dogs there. It worked … sometimes.
Some of the dogs in Tibet are trained to kill without warning. I know this because I talked at length with several shepherds who had very serious problems with thieves (and saw them training their dogs to do this). Due to this, they had trained their very large Tibetan mastiffs to jump for the throat of the transgressor without any barks of warning. And the problem is … some of these exact dogs team up with these roaming packs. Add that to available meat that comes to them through sky burial, and you get an almost new species of dog.
Why did I bother to find all this out? My wife was almost killed when one of these dogs leaped at her throat without warning. I managed to see the shape in the dark, and push her out of the way. After that I killed the dog with my staff.
Stray dog, I know you have good intentions. Most of the dogs in Taiwan are not a threat. But I have done as you have said here and still been attacked. I have been bitten here, and ultimately these are animals we are talking about. You throw around accusations of animal abuse if we defend ourselves against attack? Give me a break.
Have you ever faced down an enraged 200 pound German Shepherd? Taiwan dogs are a completely different story. It is like comparing being hit by a bicycle versus a mac truck.
Defending oneself is never wrong. If an aggressor of any variety, animal or human, attempts to attack me (not just posturing), there will be a response.