I was on my way to meet a friend, and I was walking through a dark street. This city has a major problem of stray dogs and cats, since there's virtually no animal control to speak of. Like many other parts of the city, that street had many stray dogs, and four of them were consistently chasing and barking at every car that passed through the street.
I stepped aside fairly quickly to evade one of the incoming cars, and one of the dogs apparently thought I was trying to run and bit me in the hip twice. The other three were barking at me, which made the possibility of a mauling flash through my mind. I stretched my arms to make myself look bigger, slammed the ground as hard as I could, and loudly shooed the dogs off. The one that had my hip let go and backed away, and the rest followed suit.
I later read that slamming the ground could be taken by a dog as a challenge, which could either go really well or really badly. Thankfully, in this case, it worked in my favor. I had only read about reacting to dog attacks out of curiosity, but the information turned out to be immensely helpful when all of that happened. Given how scared I was of a potential mauling, I would have almost certainly followed my base instincts and run as fast as I could if I hadn't known that doing so would have triggered an even more aggressive reaction from the dogs.
I rushed to a hospital and got rabies and tetanus shots. The rabies vaccine needs to be administered in five shots over 28 days, but the tetanus shot was a one-off. The latter hurt so much that my arm had a reduced range of motion for a couple of days, but the pain has mostly subsided now, and the peace of mind and protection are certainly worth it for me.
Long story short: I was charged at by four dogs and bitten by one, and I have since had multiple shots. If I hadn't randomly read about reacting to dog attacks a few years ago, I would have probably tried to run and gotten mauled. I'm glad this didn't go much worse than it did.
I stepped aside fairly quickly to evade one of the incoming cars, and one of the dogs apparently thought I was trying to run and bit me in the hip twice. The other three were barking at me, which made the possibility of a mauling flash through my mind. I stretched my arms to make myself look bigger, slammed the ground as hard as I could, and loudly shooed the dogs off. The one that had my hip let go and backed away, and the rest followed suit.
I later read that slamming the ground could be taken by a dog as a challenge, which could either go really well or really badly. Thankfully, in this case, it worked in my favor. I had only read about reacting to dog attacks out of curiosity, but the information turned out to be immensely helpful when all of that happened. Given how scared I was of a potential mauling, I would have almost certainly followed my base instincts and run as fast as I could if I hadn't known that doing so would have triggered an even more aggressive reaction from the dogs.
I rushed to a hospital and got rabies and tetanus shots. The rabies vaccine needs to be administered in five shots over 28 days, but the tetanus shot was a one-off. The latter hurt so much that my arm had a reduced range of motion for a couple of days, but the pain has mostly subsided now, and the peace of mind and protection are certainly worth it for me.
Long story short: I was charged at by four dogs and bitten by one, and I have since had multiple shots. If I hadn't randomly read about reacting to dog attacks a few years ago, I would have probably tried to run and gotten mauled. I'm glad this didn't go much worse than it did.
