About a month ago, my husband and I were walking in the next block to check on my office mate. On our way back, there were those 2 dogs that were incessantly barking. My husband held my arm to move me away from the dog in case we are attacked. One of the dog had its teeth out so I think it bites. When we were past the position of the dogs, that one baring its teeth started to chase us. My husband pushed me with the instruction that I walk faster while he knelt and stared the advancing dog in the eye.

That trick was learned by my husband when he was young because dogs in their area were loose and some were vicious. Anyway, the attacking dog seemed stymied and eventually retreated though slowly. That saved us from a probable dog bite. So next time, my husband said, we should bring along a walking stick that would be our defense against attacking dogs.

I am terrified of Pitbulls and my neighbor's dog seem to sense my fear of him. Lol, of that is possible. He would hardly bark but just stand at attention staring at me and growling, appearing as if he is going to attack if I even flinch. He scares the daylights out of me. I remember one time he was running towards the fence and I literally wet myself, not realizing he couldn't jump the fence. I still keep my distance, just in case he gathers the willpower to jump that fence one day.

I echo your experience Christavia, when I see a pitbull on my side of the road, I will intentionally cross the road in order to get out of his way. I was bitten by a dog once, so the experience left me wondering whether all dogs can be that agressive even when not provoked, It's an experience I will never forget.

I've been bitten, multiple times, including twice that needed stitches. I'm absolutely positive that all dogs can bite and have the potential to be aggressive, especially when they are scared (fear aggression), injured, or territorial. I've never seen any particular breed as "scary" but some are more difficult to manage than others.

My first major incident needed 8 stitches. I had tripped over our senior German Shepherd in the dark and landed on top of him. He was 9 years old at the time and I was 14. He was also probably sleeping and woke to the pain of me tripping and landing on him. He lashed out and got my arm. When I cried out, he released me, got up with a whimper, and retreated to his corner dog bed. We hurt each other that day and I think we were both sorry.

My second major incident needed 12 stitches in the back of my ankle from my mom's current chihuahua; she's a little monster and mom thinks it's "cute". I'm not her only bite and one of the others was on someone's FACE because everyone wants to pick the little 3-pound critter up. She was not sorry about the bite at all and her and I still haven't made peace. No matter what I try, unless mom is holding her, she bites me or tries to bite me every time I'm around but it's apparently not personal because she'll rush at and bite most people given a chance. If she was a German Shepherd who did that, she would have been put down by now.

The rest of my bites have been mostly stubbornness on my part, trying to help scared or injured dogs or getting between dogs who want to fight. Most of my bites that bled have come from small to medium dogs. I've never had a pitbull bite me, though a stray bully breed of some sort with a litter offered a serious threat display when I approached and my sister's pit-mix snarls fiercely from behind her fence until her person assures her that a visitor is okay.

Nothing escarier than a mean looking mastiff, pitbulls in general , a big tosa inu, a bulky American Bandogge, a boxer with anger issues, a rottweiler owned by beginners. I got bitten by Chow Chows and german shepherds several times, since these dog breeds were popular in my neighborhood, and some people are not responsible enough to properly care these kind of dogs.

My first dog was a rescued german shepherd, It bit me and my father a few times. We eventually had to gave it to another person that needed a guardian dog for a private car parking lot.

Some breeds are naturally more territorial and aggressive, but I agree with another poster that said all dogs have the potential to bite, even if it's not in their general temperament. If any animal gets scared or mad, they can lash out. I have not been bitten myself, but I know several people that have and they are now completely terrified of dogs, particularly ones that they are unfamiliar with. We have some really scary dogs in our neighborhood, too. While our city has fairly strict laws about keeping your dog either on a leash, tied up, or fenced, sometimes they get out. Even the most diligent owner can have a dog escape their control from time to time. However, some of the folks in our neighborhood are pretty careless with it and I fear about some of the children in the area particularly getting hurt.

I have seen where owners have been walking dogs and the dogs have attacked or intimidated passersby and sometimes the owners know that the animals may become aggressive and had failed to maintain a tight reign on the dogs. There was an instance where an owner was walking some dogs and without provocation, the dogs attacked a lady and was in the process of mauling her, the owner was powerless to stop the dogs, the police which fortunately came on the scene just then had to shoot two of the dogs to stop them. I am saying if the owner knows that that dog is aggressive and is difficult to control, the dog should be kept away out of the path of unsuspecting people.

I think a large part of the problem is that some breeds really do require experienced owners who are confident trainers. Too many people get a dog because they like the look of them or the 'idea' of having that breed as a pet without really understanding a breed, having the correct skills to train them, or considering the personality of different individual dogs even within a breed. Over-breeding of unsuitable, unstable, dogs has contributed to the problems. The emphasis on rescue also contributes because when you get an untrained large-breed adult dog, they need a lot of work to retrain them and you don't know what may trigger bad reactions because you don't know their past. Rescues even more so than dogs gotten as puppies, need experienced homes.

People need to be responsible for their dogs-especially if they have a temperament problem. It's not fair to you that you had to be cornered by their dog. I'm not really afraid of big dogs. It's only when dogs become violent or temperamental that I become afraid. I would have a talk with your neighbors about making sure that dog is always locked up. As silly as it sounds, a dog can do some real damage.

I've never had a problem with other peoples dogs but people are often scared of my dog because she looks mean. It's sad because my dog always wants to play with people but people will walk across the street to avoid her.

All dogs can be aggressive, regardless of the breed. I don't get scared of big dogs if they look calm. But, if I see an agitated or restless dog, that's when I back up a little bit. I think those dogs might have more tendencies to bite. It all comes down to how the owner trained the dog and it's not the dog's fault at all if it becomes aggressive to other dogs or people. Owners should be responsible trainers, too.

This sort of thing should never happen. Dogs are normally well behaved around us because they look at us for guidance, but once they are by themselves it's difficult to know what they get up too.

That sounds really scary, actually on of the things that I'm more afraid about is getting barked by a random dog on the street, because I tend to get scared really easily...
We used to have our dogs almost facing the street just with a regular fence in front of them, and they used to scare people quite often, actually one day this guy literally pulled a gun out of his pocket and threatened my biggest dog, luckily nothing bad happened, but I got really scared, so, since that day we keep our dogs inside the house all the time.

i agree with Corzhens. It's a trick that actually works! It may take a little courage to stay still in front of a charging dog. But don't lose your ground or break eye contact. Bend down a little to appear to have a bigger mass. And just widen your eyes and stare straight at the dog. If it's a friendly dog just wanting to play, it would probably continue running towards you and jump at you. If it's an angry dog, it gets terrified because you don't show any fear, and will leave.