Can you tase a dog?

[nolabear]

I honestly don't know. Given size differences and physiology is it workable to tase a dog you fear is on the attack rather than, as seems to be happening a lot lately, shooting it?

Anyone have any real knowledge about this?

[Orrex]

1. That would make it a shocker spaniel

[Deep13]

7. *chuckle* nt

[NuclearDem]

10. You win the internet.

[Aerows]

16. DUzy! n/t

[yesphan]

2. There's a pretty good

chance that tasers have been tested on dogs.

[Flyboy_451]

3. Yes

A tazer works on a dog just like t does on people. I prefer pepper spray for dogs though. A dog is hard to hit, but with a fogging pepper spray, it's much easier.

JW

[rdharma]

4. A better option is OC spray. nt

[Deep13]

5. Don't know about canines specifically...

...but I do know that tasing a human is problematic. You only get one shot and if both electrodes do not plant themselves right in the skin of the intended target, it won't work. Honestly, cops don't often use Tasers for defense, but instead use them to control and subdue suspects. Frankly, I think they've come to think of those dangerous gadgets as remote controls for humans.

If you are facing attack by a dangerous dog, why risk severe disfigurement by using your only electric gadget shot on a tricky, advancing target? Shooting it is by far the safest option.

[LWolf]

11. Why is anyone so afraid of dog attacks?

How many dogs are in the US...and what percentage of those dogs attack people who have not invaded their territory?

Maybe it's more than I've seen and experienced in my 53 years. In 53 years, I've experienced exactly this:

1. When I was in middle school, in the 70s, I had a friend with a Great Pyrenese. The dog was known to be aggressively territorial, so was put in a kennel whenever non-family members were visiting. One time I was invited in, because the dog was in the back yard, and somebody went out there to kennel the dog. The dog saw me through the sliding glass doors, and leapt at the door, growling. And then went into the kennel.

2. When I was in high school, I lived next door to some people with a poorly socialized malamute. I babysat their toddler. The malamute would not "attack," but if we entered his space, which included the entire back yard and pool area, he would watch. If we approached within about 12 feet, he would growl. So I didn't take the kid into the yard.

3. As an adult living in the Mojave Desert, people used to dump unwanted dogs in my remote area all the time. Those that came to me for water got watered and sent to the local shelter. Those that didn't became coyote lunch, or banded together in a local feral pack that occasionally harassed my horse and I when we rode out on the trail. In the immediate moment of harassment, I left it to the horse, who hated coyotes and dogs, and who used her teeth and hooves efficiently if they got too close.

The only time shooting or tasing a dog would have made sense was with the feral pack. Instead, I called animal control until they came out and rounded them up.

Yes, I read about them in the news. I know they happen. I'm sure there is a better way to address it, just as I'm sure there's a better way to socialize people, and to treat people who commit crimes than our current system.

[Deep13]

19. I'm thinking of cops or animal control personel, not...

...people unlikely to encounter aggressive dogs.

[Myrina]

20. Really, we have become a nation of chickenshits

Ready to shoot anyone & anything that dares to even look at us sideways.

[Savannahmann]

6. You can, and you can pepper spray a dog.

Postal Delivery Couriers aren't armed with pistols, shotguns, or rifles. They do have pepper spray though, in case they are threatened by a dog. I've often wondered why the cops have to shoot the damned dog when they have, literally at their fingertips, alternatives. I guess they're afraid they won't have enough pepper spray to hose down some poor bugger in handcuffs.

[nolabear]

8. I know about pepper spray. I'd certainly go there

But it doesn't always incapacitate. I so agree it's the best thing commonly used.

As for how a taser (see how we'll I can pick up correct spelling?) works it makes sense that two electrodes would be tricky. But accuracy with fun or taser would, I imagine, be similar.

[KurtNYC]

9. Personally no I couldn't

A tazer is designed to produce excruciating pain and basically torture a person into compliance ASAP.

Putting a charging dog into that kind of pain would have, I think, unpredictable results since the dog doesn't understand what compliance is.

As a dog owner I find the whole subject disturbing but the best way I have seen to stop an attacking dog is to kick it in the stomach. Many people hit the dog in the skull and that doesn't do anything because the skull is the thickest, hardest part of the whole skeletal structure. Knocking the air out of the dog, especially if it is holding a bite, can force it to release and stop without killing it but I hope I never have to find out how well it works.

[Ms. Toad]

15. You don't seem to understand how tasers work.

Here's a decent summary:

The relevant portion:

Initially, the effect is interpreted as pain; however, muscle spasms, confusion, and inability to control movement quickly follow. The brain becomes incapable of interpreting the nerve impulses it’s receiving (because they don’t, in fact, carry any information it can use) and is unable to send out meaningful instructions to the body.

Although you are correct that it is painful, the primary way a taser works is by making you incapable of moving because your brain cannot meaningfully communicate with your limbs to continue moving.

[ManiacJoe]

12. It is physically possible.

It would have the same affect as on humans: the muscles lock up and the dog falls over.

The problems are that dogs are hard to hit being small and fast and that you have only a one-shot device of limited range. Pepper spray would be the better less-lethal option.

[FarCenter]

13. Does anyone make "bitch in heat" spray?

[Recursion]

14. That's basically what a shock collar does

Though a lot of trainers say those aren't good ideas.

[loli phabay]

17. yes, but usually if you take the cartridge off and just spark test it they run

They dont like the noise it makes, though sometimes if you are being attacked there is not enough time to take it off.

[nolabear]

18. I feel I ought to mention here that I would NOT want to do it and that I'm not at all afraid of dogs

I was just curious, given the spate of police shootings of pets. Personally, I've worked for veterinarians (distant past) and have obedience trained many and done animal assisted therapy with one. I've owned, as an adult, a Doberman Pinscher, A Malamute-Shepherd-Wolf, an Airedale, a Golden Retriever, a Bernese Mt. Dog and now have two Cavaliers (small dogs are trippy, but I have a small place in the city now). All were carefully selected except for the Malamute mix, who came with Mr. Bear and was one of the finest, most stalwart fellas I've ever known. The Dobie was a sweet, silly prima donna who would be mortified at the thought of doing wrong. The Airedale was screwed up, and is the only dog I've ever regretted having. There was something wrong with her and I would never have left her alone with children. But we managed and she lived a long, if limited life. The Golden was my baby and my therapy dog, the Bernese a lovely, sheepish, not brilliant but not dumb girl who doted on the kids. The Cavaliers are one kind of galoot of a guy and a teeny little BITCH of a girl who is smart, passive aggressive as all get out and hates other dogs when she's on the leash in spite of years of work. She weighs twelve pounds so it's not hard to keep her out of trouble but she's embarrassing.

I go on like this because I think people generalize about breeds, and I do think there can be real problems, but if you commit to a dog I think you have to train it, work with it, live with it, and if there are problems deal with them so they cannot cause you and others and the dogs themselves pain and trauma. If it means walking them with a muzzle, walk them with a muzzle. If it means burying the fence underground or kenneling them when you're not able to be there, do it. Don't leave little kids with any kind of dog until the kids become dominant pack members, and make certain the dog knows that they are. But people who are armed seem to me to jump to use those arms awfully quickly, and while I understand the fear and sometimes real danger of being bitten, I think we need to look hard for other solutions.

I've been bitten three times. All three were dachshunds. Go figure.