Quote Originally Posted by Lukie
So one of the things I'm going to try to do this summer is spend more time outside.. stuff like walking, running, maybe try to pick up stuff like biking and/or hiking.

One of the things that kind of scares me is an attack by an animal(s), particularly dogs. Say that situation comes up, what do I do? I'm about 6'3, 200lbs and in very good shape, but the last thing I want to do is fight a rabid/stray dog. Any prevention tips? Say I had no other option but to stay and fight, then what? Keep my composure and try to strangle it? What about carrying some kind of weapon, e.g. pepper spray, a gun (ccw), knife, or sharp stick?
I'd assume watch your nuts and your throat just from what I've heard/read on occasion. The main point of control on a dog would seem to be it's neck since you can get a good handful of the skin on the back of the neck (which by itself doesn't hurt the dog fwiw) and just go from there. From personal experience (a number of people in my family breed and train semi-large dogs for various purposes) if you get a dog on it's side or back and you have control of its neck then it can't get back up, leaving you numerous options as to how to deal with the situation.