1. Dogs are inhumanly fast in full run.
2. Dogs are mutch mutch smaller then Humans.
3. Dogs are mutch more Agile then any Human can possiblly be during a full speed run.
4. (bigger) Dogs can jump you from ~5 meters and easy reach you in flight.
and now, even if you hit, "handguns are handguns", _all_ the carry Calibers are underpowered.
in the unlikly Case that you actualy hit the charging dog once or even twice, you will need a Solid hit on the CNS or hit and break one of the Bones in the legs.
Dogs are tough that can function even with severe injurys.
a lungshot that only damages one chamber is not going to stop a dog.
a Gutshot will let the dog maul you in to little pieces before he dies.
a shot in the legs that does not break a Bone will only slow him down a bit.
Wow, are you all talking about dogs, or some new hybrid mutant breed of Grizzly/Wolverine? I know some breeds are quite tough, but really?
I don't really have a dog in this fight (pun intended, but really, I don't own a dog), but last year some new neighbors have a big dog that would lunge against our backyard fence, growling very viciously and scaring my two young kids. I would not let them out there alone because I thought he just might be able to jump the fence if he really wanted to.
These neighbors are rather different from myself, not the type that would even wave back when you say hi. They definitely live a different lifestyle.
I did finally go over and talk to them. I was very polite and explained that the dog was scaring my children. To their credit, they have been very good about it, even putting up another wire fence inside of their fence so he can't lunge at our fence. They did tell me what a "sweet, harmless baby" he is.
I have no doubt that dog would have mauled someone had he gotten through the fence, and I have no doubt that a cylinder full of .357 hollow points would stop him, if my kids were in danger (if nobody was in immediate danger, I would just call the police).
When I was a kid, my dad broke a baseball bat over the back of a stray dog that was in our yard at night on top of our collie. It didn't kill it, but it sure sent it into a limping retreat.