I did sort of a dry run get home travel recently and found some parts of it I wasn't as prepared as I could have been.
During my travels I passed numerous yards en route where dogs were present, most of them just came to the edge of their yards barking but stopped at the edge. I paid no mind to any of those mutts.
One yard, the dog snuck up on me so well I did not notice it until I was right beside it, a fairly large rottweiler.
I saw the dog but continued on my way only, wary there was a dog in a somewhat aggressive stance at my 6.
The dog crouched slightly and came to my back as if it was going to bite me on the lower part of my legs. I turned immediately, got big, growled and charged at it. It backed off but did not leave the area.
I turned my way again and the dog came at my 6 again. I started barking, growling, snarling and charging the dog again and it ran away again.
I'm wondering why is it doing this because the road I traveled I was in the center, not near its yard edge. I turned away again and the dog went for my 6 again. I had had enough so I chased and yelled at the telling it to go home. It went home and so did I.
Since that dog was cared for by its owner, I had no worries about any type of PAW event but, I did not like the dog charging me with an apparent attempt to harm me for whatever reason.
But, what would I have done, what could I have done if this was a PAW and the dog, or dogs, decided to attack me?
A firearm was not available and my knife was not readily available being in my pocket the whole time. I was caught by surprise.
My decision to prevent a recurrence of this situation is multifold. First is to have my walking staff with me when I decide to trek the roads while civilization is still present. If TEOTWAWKI occurs, I'll have a firearm and reloads with me as well.
My staff is a near 6 feet long piece of poplar tapering from about 1-1/2 inches at the base to about 1-1/4 inch at the top. I like the poplar as it is light, flexible and very strong. And its big enough around for a comfortable grip with my paws.
The next, and obviously most important, step is to raise my situational awareness when I'm walking.
In current times it is easy enough to get into and stay in condition white, I should have been in yellow during this walk and gone directly into orange when I spotted the dog which, I didn't. I had a minor inconvenience this time around but, in the PAW I may have become dog poop.
I imagine that feral dog populations will increase considerably in the event of civilizations collapse since people won't deal with their dogs when they have to deal with their other problems and, it's not likely they will consider or use their dogs as a food source right away so, dogs will run wild causing havoc.
If you cannot carry a firearm during any of your trial runs or regular treks, keep a strong walking staff of a comfortable length and girth with you as a form of defense. I believe you can defend yourself against a fairl sized group of dogs, and maybe humans, with a good walking staff.