A close friend and colleague is a surveyor. At 91 he still does field work and seems to have a talent for dealing with Miami’s more obnoxious dogs.
One client had a very expensive “attack dog” which was in the yard when he came by to do the survey. The owner not being home, he talked to the dog a bit and then entered the yard, did the survey, and left.
The owner could not believe he was able to get the dog to allow him into the yard.
Just gotta speak dog, I assume.
After a while you learn to read the dog’s signals.
Really, its not the big strong dogs that tend to be the problems; its the small down-bread dogs that cannot be effectively dealt with, even when the owner is right there.
My biggest fear is not attack, its losing the dog by not keeping the gate secure.
Back about 50 years ago I was at a friend’s house, sitting in the kitchen shooting the BS. The father had recently purchased an Alaskan wolf/malamute male that was over 100 pounds although still a pup. He offered me 100 bucks to try to take the dog’s food away. I immediately just reached down and took the food, and the dog did absolutely nothing.
Had a hard time getting him to pay up, and back then $100 was $100.