So, Do Regular Pepper Sprays Work On Dogs?

One of the most popular questions we get every time someone comes to the site to buy an animal repellent spray (i.e., bear or dog spray) is whether a regular pepper spray (for human aggressors) will work on aggressive dogs. Sometimes the question is reversed and people ask whether their dog spray will work on a human attacker. Sure, you also understand the logic of the inquirer: we all love to optimize and save money and so if one spray can do both jobs we’d all rather carry one canister. Saves money, saves space…

Hey, we don’t  fancy ourselves big shot reporters here and it’s just a blog and we just help you to buy pepper spray the right way etc. — but we still want to be factual in our response to you. Unfortunately the manufacturers of dog pepper sprays, like Mace Security, has never officially reported their dog repellent product being tested or used against human predators. It’s also understandable: they don’t want any legal troubles. The opposite is also true: they never published any results of testing regular pepper sprays on dogs or other animals, so there is no issue of cruelty to animals involved and they don’t have to pay EPA to “animal” certify their products for humans.

So it means that all we are left to do is to rely on other people’s experiences, stories and documented facts about how well regular pepper sprays work on dogs and other animals. Those we have plenty.

All report that the regular sprays do work on dogs.  We have reports from cyclists using WildFire pepper sprays on aggressive dogs successfully. Just check the comment section of this publication on the “Bicycling” magazine (link). It would really be surprising if the strongest pepper spray on the market would not work on dogs…

Here is yet another evidence of that and it’s the freshest one because it came across our screens just today. It is also a well documented one.

Here is the story from Batavia, IL reported in their local online publication here by R. Nagel, called “Rottweiler Gets Pepper Sprayed After Charging Police Officer”

To the point:

The reporting officer located the dogs and exited his squad car, when the Rottweiler charged the officer. The officer then “got back in his squad car,” reports said.

When the officer got out of his car again, the Rottweiler charged to within 3 feet, and the officer gave the dog “a quick burst of pepper spray,” and the dog turned away.

The original post is obviously a bit longer but the point is made here, in these two paragraphs: a Rottweiler was charging the officer (yes, sounds funny, isn’t it?..), the officer used pepper  spray on the dog and that changed the dogs priorities immediately from attacking to fleeing. The spray was of a regular (human) variety not a dog spray in this case.

Not all animals will be that easy to ward off, some dogs might persist. You are advised to have some “plan B” ready. It’s a topic for entirely different post but if you already have suggestions what to do, we’ll be happy to hear them and publish along with (if you wish) or without your name. Just leave your comment in the section below: ” What would be your plan B if your pepper spray did not work on an attacking dog?”