I'm a bit late to this thread... My wife and I live in an area where we always have this problem. The area we live is very liberal [read as "hippie"] so most dog owners believe their dogs should be "free to roam". Unfortunately most of their dogs are also rescues, dogs from rural working or fighting lines that are discarded and are not the type of dog that should be "roaming free". My wife and I are small. My wife is 5' 100# and I am 5' 5" 140#. Due to the type of breeds we own our dogs are NEVER off lead, unless in our fenced in yard or in our home. So an off leash dog, or pack of dogs, wondering the Mesa is a big problem for us when walking our dogs - my wife could easily be dragged behind a pair of our Akita if they got into a charge. Mind you, for Akita, our dogs are pretty well mannered with other dogs - but they will not take any $hit. A few times my wife has been charged and Hilo, our male Akita, [aka Cotton Ball] has been effective in clearing up that situation. Sometimes dogs will charge and my wife will turn and walk away, but that sets our dogs off and they get very frustrated and then will, rarely, turn on each other - it really sux. Anyway, my wife is small but very comfortable with dogs and can usually warn them off w/o issue - but for time when she can't we have found a few different methods to be effective... The safest thing to do is to turn around, most dogs are warning you to not approach any closer, so turning around is what they want you to do. If the dog continues to follow you, turn and stand still facing them and yell "GO!" or "NO!" [or something like that] pointing away from you - stand up tall and straight when you do this so you don't look like an aggressor, you just look confident. If that doesn't work.... - A "Super Soaker" filled with water and Cyan pepper works pretty well - spray it at the dogs face. - As frank mentioned, a walking cane/stick is effective. Sometimes just pointing it at a dog is all you need to do. - Then there is the ultimate - a "Hot Shot" cattle prod. Its long enough to where you can keep mostly out of the way of a dog but its not large enough to be cumbersome. Even a large dog wouldn't enjoy being zapped by one of them! - Also I have seen a Air horn work well, or even a race starter's pistol. I have told my wife that if it really comes down to business, drop the leads of our dogs and walk away. I would hate to see one of our dogs get hurt but I would rather that than my wife. Its a super frustrating thing for us. I hope this helps a little! ~Brad