I watched the video for a second time. I believe that you are wrong. The dog was running toward the car, but not directly attacking the perp. Instead of spending time pulling his gun, he could have made it back to open the car door. I’d guess that he is not a (pet) dog person. The dog likely wanted to knock him over to lick his face. Whenever I approach an unfamiliar rural homestead and get out of the car, I first get the dog situation straightened out. Most dogs will let you out of your car, but there has to be a meeting of the minds first (this can sometimes take a couple of minutes).
The dog doesn't seem to be running at the car to me. If anything it looks like the dog might go wide around the car and past the guy. I can't quite tell if the dog turned in toward him as it approached the front of the car or not, but it doesn't look like it was going to turn away just out of reach like dogs often do when running at someone.
Instead of spending time pulling his gun, he could have made it back to open the car door.
He backs up in a controlled fashion. He probably could have made it if he rushed back, however rushing away from an aggressive dog is usually not the best idea and they are probably trained not to do so.
It all happens in a matter of seconds, so using hindsight to say what he possibly could have done in the time available to him really isn't reasonable.
He wasn't aggressive. He backed towards his car door in a controlled manner, but he didn't get there before the dog got to him.
The dog likely wanted to knock him over to lick his face.
Quite possibly, though you can usually tell the difference between a dog that wants to run of and like you while jumping on you excitedly and one attacking. We can't however tell from what we can see in the video. The officer might very well have been able to tell, but if he isn't a pet person, he might not have noticed the difference.
I had neighbors with a large black lab that was actually a danger to old people or young children because of how excitedly he would jump up on people and attempt to lick them to death. A really, really friendly dog, and was a nice dog once he got a little older and calmed down some.
Whenever I approach an unfamiliar rural homestead and get out of the car, I first get the dog situation straightened out.
Yea, I delivered pizzas for a few years in a somewhat rural area. You could usually tell the houses where the dog might be a problem before getting out of the car. Of course the people who had dogs that were a problem would always say "he won't hurt you".
If I couldn't get the people to come get their dog under control I'd just give the dog a little time to calm down, get out of the car and stand by it for a short time to let the dog get used to the fact that I was there, and then slowly head to the door. It could be a real pain when I was running behind on deliveries and there were a number of people to whom we quit delivering to because they wouldn't put their dogs inside even though they acted very aggressively.
In this case, it doesn't really look like he had the opportunity to let the dog calm down. He was walking casually towards the house. You can see him pause when he sees the dog coming, and start backing up. He stays in close to the car, which limits the how the dog can come in at him, which encourages the dog to turn away at the front of the car. However, the dog doesn't appear to have turned away.
Maybe it was just overly friendly. That would explain why it kept running strait at him. Nervously aggressive dogs tend to run at people but turn away or stop when they get close if the person doesn't turn away. This dog didn't appear to turn or stop.
I guess that leave really friendly, or really aggressive, and I can't tell the difference from the video.