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Some places I travel to have stray dogs in the city. Can a knife be used effectively if attacked by one or more of them? I've had creepy close encounters.

It can be used for sure, but there are better options. A knife would require you to be very close to the dog, whilst a stick or pepper spray would provide much greater distance between you and the threat.

Pepper spray is used by the US Postal Service, and they have lots of experience with dog bites.

Of course, if you can avoid aggressive dogs in the first place, that's better still.

Your primary objective when defending yourself against stray dogs is not to kill the dog, but to

• avoid getting bitten


• make the dog leave you alone

If you fight a dog with a knife, even if you manage to kill it or make it run away, you will likely get a few bites and scratches. Having a stick or pepper spray is a much better option, as it gives you a range advantage. Please note, that carrying a stick or a pepper spray (and even more often, a knife) inside a city might be illegal, depending on where you are. In the outdoors, a stick and pepper spray are usually more legal, but check the laws in your jurisdiction.

What is (as far as I know) legal everywhere, is ultrasonic dog deterrents. They will make even the most vicious dog (and often even larger animals, like bears) run away in fear. Their only disadvantage is that they will not work if the dog is deaf. Still, carrying such an ultrasonic deterrent with you might be the best choice if you are afraid of stray dogs. Their advantages, compared with other options:

• no legal problems (as they are useless against humans, you won't be accused of carrying it with you to attack people)


• it makes the dogs run away, so less risk for you getting injured in the fight


• even if deaf dogs are unaffected, if a whole pack attacks you (stray dogs usually either travel in packs, or don't attack when they are alone), making the majority of the pack run away in fear usually scares those away who would have been unaffected by the ultrasounds.


• knowing that you have it with you will bolster your confidence, which by itself is a good deterrent. Dogs are very good at reading human emotions, and they are more likely to attack those who are afraid.

Knife is not a good idea. It does not give an understandable warning to an animal. Also, besides its limited range you can be facing legislation problems. In addition to those problems mentioned in other answers, in my country there is a complex legislation "Animal is not a thing" which may lead to a criminal investigation in case when you caused injury to an animal (most prominently to a dog). You may be able to prove that you needed to defend yourself, but you will need to go through the process anyway. I think it is not worth it.

One of safe solutions not mentioned so far is a bright pocket LED flashlight which can be also switched to intense fast blinking mode (about 4 flashes per second). When flashing, pointing it to any animal in close distance (up to 2-3 meters away) looks to be both very unnatural and aggressive to them, they don't know how to react to this type of stress stimulus and they typically choose to turn their gaze away from the annoying flashes (which also hamper their immediate vision of surroundings, making them instantly feeling unsafe) and leave.

The advantage is that this works universally on most of common animals and also that you are already using a tool which you already carry with yourself for other purposes.