I worked as a courier for two years. During that time I was confronted by at least a dozen dogs. When a dog rushed at me barking I would freeze. In almost every case the dogs advanced only so far and then stopped. In one or two cases, when I was menaced further, the owner appeared to call the dogs back. I was unarmed but escaped all of these incidents unscathed. An armed policeman would probably have killed 3 or 4 of these dogs.
I delivered pizza as a kid. Got jumped by a Doberman once. Poor guy was just doin his job. His mom was old and slow. He bit my leg and it hurt pretty good. I gave him the meatlovers and we were cool after that. I did tell his old lady to kiss my butt if she had a problem with me giving up the goods.