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meric35 · January 17, 2011, 04:22 PM

I am new here, however I have been reading TFL for a while.

I wanted to post a situation that happened to me over the weekend, becuase I wanted to get your collective opinion on whether I overreacted and how you might have reacted instead.

I had just finished hunting rabbit with my 12 year old son on Sunday at Busch wildlife. While returning to my car, we were about 50 yards from my car when I though I saw Black dog trotting by my car. I didn't think much about it until we got about 30 yards from my car, when a large black lab came trotting from behind my car, saw me and started aggressivly barking. Then a Yellow Lab, and (2) Pit Bulls came charging from behind my car along with the black lab directly at me and my son barking aggressivly, ears down, and teeth bared. I tried to intimidate the dogs by standing my ground and yelling but they didn't stop charging so I unslung my shotgun and prepared to shoot the first dog hoping my 20 gauge would kill the dog. However before I shot I hear the owner yelling for the dogs to back off, which they didn't respond to his commands immediately. They actually continued to surround and bark at me and my son until he walked closer still yelling at his dogs. This all happened inside of 1 minute.

Once the owner got his dogs under control and saw me with my gun pointed at his dogs, he got real mad at me and started yelling that the dogs don't bite and there is no reason to threaten his dogs like that. He said he was going to report me to the MDC and generally cussing me up. I mostly ignored him while we continued to our car, however I did tell him that all dogs must be on a leash unless they were being used for hunting and asked him what he was hunting with those dogs. He didn't respond and I didn't want to escalate things either since my son was with me so we just left.

So after thinking about it, and being a responsible dog owner also, I wonder if I over reacted. I don't think I did and I think I would do it again if I was charged by dogs while out hunting. This was the first time I had ever been actually scared while hunting with my son that we were going to be killed by these dogs and I didn't think our rabbit guns were going to protect us.

Also if this violates any forum rules I apologize.

January 17, 2011, 04:22 PM	#1
meric35 Member Join Date: January 17, 2011 Location: St. Charles MO Posts: 16	Dogs! I am new here, however I have been reading TFL for a while. I wanted to post a situation that happened to me over the weekend, becuase I wanted to get your collective opinion on whether I overreacted and how you might have reacted instead. I had just finished hunting rabbit with my 12 year old son on Sunday at Busch wildlife. While returning to my car, we were about 50 yards from my car when I though I saw Black dog trotting by my car. I didn't think much about it until we got about 30 yards from my car, when a large black lab came trotting from behind my car, saw me and started aggressivly barking. Then a Yellow Lab, and (2) Pit Bulls came charging from behind my car along with the black lab directly at me and my son barking aggressivly, ears down, and teeth bared. I tried to intimidate the dogs by standing my ground and yelling but they didn't stop charging so I unslung my shotgun and prepared to shoot the first dog hoping my 20 gauge would kill the dog. However before I shot I hear the owner yelling for the dogs to back off, which they didn't respond to his commands immediately. They actually continued to surround and bark at me and my son until he walked closer still yelling at his dogs. This all happened inside of 1 minute. Once the owner got his dogs under control and saw me with my gun pointed at his dogs, he got real mad at me and started yelling that the dogs don't bite and there is no reason to threaten his dogs like that. He said he was going to report me to the MDC and generally cussing me up. I mostly ignored him while we continued to our car, however I did tell him that all dogs must be on a leash unless they were being used for hunting and asked him what he was hunting with those dogs. He didn't respond and I didn't want to escalate things either since my son was with me so we just left. So after thinking about it, and being a responsible dog owner also, I wonder if I over reacted. I don't think I did and I think I would do it again if I was charged by dogs while out hunting. This was the first time I had ever been actually scared while hunting with my son that we were going to be killed by these dogs and I didn't think our rabbit guns were going to protect us. Also if this violates any forum rules I apologize.