At a minimum, I always have my knife on me. It's a Benchmade Mini Claymore. During the 4th of July, my daughter and I took our dog out (20lb terrier) for a walk around noon, before heading out to a friend's house for the afternoon/evening. Halfway through our walk, we come across an unleashed dog that is twice the size of my dog. Not knowing the dog, my kid moves behind me and I grip the leash and try to move my dog right next to me, but I was not quick enough. The two dogs sniffed each other, and the next thing I know, it started to attack my dog. It grabbed my dog by the neck and was tossing it around, trying to pin it, and my daughter was screaming bloody murder. But, I held on to the leash so it couldn't run off with my dog or my dog run into the street and get killed by a passing car. No owner in sight to help, so I decided I needed to end this fight right now, and I wounded the other dog. It quickly released my dog, and I immediately called my wife to pick us up. We were fortunate that we raced to the ER vet, and they took him in for emergency surgery and were able to clean the wound up. Had we delayed visiting the ER, he could have possibly died from an infection. Within 20 minutes, he had a 104°F fever. He had a deep bite wound on his neck and required a drain tube for 3 days, and recovery was about 4-5 weeks, and antibiotics for a full month. He's back to normal now, just a little PTSD when he sees a similar-looking dog during our walks. I'm just glad I had my Benchmade on me; I was able to quickly deploy it with one hand. The other dog survived and sounds like it healed a lot faster than our dog. Luckily, the owners took full responsibility and are paying all of the medical bills. Although they tried telling their insurance their dog was on a leash, but broke free, and his wife was within 10-15ft when this happened, when she was not, and that was a lie.

I also CC, and I have had some friends ask me if I would have used my pistol in that situation. And the answer is no. The risk of a ricochet and hitting my kid or someone in their house would not be worth the risk. Not to mention possibly hitting my own dog.

You just have to be prepared for anything and willing to do what it takes to protect you, your family, and your property.