This goes way beyond this thread so I am going to start a new topic titled "A handgun and all that goes with it."

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned the importance of body language when dealing with dogs (and other animals).

Animals gather a great deal of information by how you carry yourself, how you move, direct eye contact (or not), the sounds you make, even how you smell. Are you predator or prey? Are you the top dog in a pack (territorial challenge)? Are you a predator that's just passing through and not looking for a fight today?

This doesn't mean the proper body language (or scent) will prevent all animal attacks. But it can deflect quite a few, and buy time in other situations.

(Aside: you may laugh, but I'm beginning to believe a person can learn to generate the right scent in an animal-related stress situation --at least in relation to dogs -- and so influence the situation. Sounds like voodoo, I know. But you can talk yourself into a certain mindset, and respond to an animal from there -- tone, body language, scent all arise from that mindset.)

All very good points, Doug

With a nod to Benjamin regarding box-thinking: the kindly folks at Cold Steel have the answer: a boar spear. (http://www.coldsteel.com/spears-high-performance-spears.html)Such spears were popular in Europe in the pre-firearm days for hunting wild boars. They have a wide, elliptical blade and behind it, a T-shaped cross-bar to keep the impaled boar from running up the shaft and doing wild-boar stuff (goring, tusking, stomping) to the hunter. Modify the walking staff to accept the spear-tip, carry the blade in a belt sheath, and have the ideal dog poker. And since Blast camps among the piggies, it might have other uses for him

Bayonet would do the same job, on lugged walking stick or military rifle. The SMLE and Springfield fans would be particularly well equipped with the long bayonets issued for those weapons. Back in the fifties, the neighborhood surplus shop had barrels full on Springfield and Enfield bayonets at $5 each. *sigh*

I've handled those boar spears. They're stupidly thick and heavy, like a lot of Cold Steel products, and excessively heavy. That's not to say people haven't killed boars with them, just that I'd not rely on it for any defensive use.

I haven´t read the whole thread yet so I don´t know if anyone has mentioned these options.

Benjammin has a good idea - the flame. I have been thinking of getting some kind of torch or even creating it myself as a self defense weapon against the attacking animals for some time. This torch should be lightweight, it should have a good range but it should not be too big.
You could attach it for example to the side of your back pack. It should be attached the way that you could "draw" it easily and very quickly. Then you could train yourself to the sequence of the moves - pull it and then light it using lighter/whatever as fast as possible.
You could keep the dogs/other animals away by waving it etc.. I think they should instinctively fear the fire even if they would not touch the flame directly.
The key feature of the torch would be that the torch cannot put out no matter how wildly you are waving it.
Maybe you could handle several dogs with it if you would be very fast, centered and therefore could detect and prevent an attack from every direction. You could then retreat and find quickly some place to go where the dogs cannot reach you (if they would still be around you) - tree, building, ... and then call for help.

At least this is my theory. And it´s unproven theory I just thought might work.

For example this torch looks quite good.

Another torch.

Do you know other commercial camping torches?



The other solution I have been thinking about would be some kind of sonic weapon.

This ultrasonic Dog Repeller looks interesting but from the description it is not 100% solution.

A promising description of the Sonic Devastator.

(Excuse my English.)

How about a belt-fed mini gun.

One of the things we used to do with WD-40 was to spray a dense line of product on the ground 10 feet or so in front of us, then ignite the spray and flamethrow to the line which would ignite and create a wall of fire. I like the idea of building a wall of flame to hide/prepare behind.

A can of flammable spray material seems much less likely to be considered a contraband weapon as well. It is also something kinda everyday. The pluses just keep adding up. Some of those Wasp killer spray cans throw a spray a considerable distance. The waterbased ones won't likely work, but those more traditional petroleum mixes might burn quite nicely.

I gotta think if a dog is on fire, he is just gonna lose interest in doing anything else but get away from it, which given their level of intelligence means running to the hills.

Disclaimer: a burning dog running through the woods is probably a big forest fire hazard. If you are going to test this theory, make sure you are in a controlled environment.

Yep. As I tell my nephews, "Don't try this at home. Do it at the old sand pit on the edge of town."

-Blast

Did you find that sand pit or did you make that sandpit?