Yesterday evening I was walking Elvis, my 110 pound bloodhound. I have invested several years training him for tracking lost persons. I have invested about $4000 in professional instruction for him as well. He's 4 years old now, and coming into his prime.
We were walking a loop road in my neighborhood, a private community - all the streets belong to the homeowners.
At about the halfway on our walk, there was one of our very-part-time neighbors walking a dog unfamiliar to me on the other side of the road. She was trying to get her dog to sit and ignore us as we walked past, while talking on her cell phone with the other hand. Her dog was a powerful pitbull mix of some sort. We proceeded on our way without any pause. When we were about 15 yards down the road, I heard a commotion, turned, and saw the lady being dumped on her side and dragged about 2-3 yards, after which the dog broke loose completely and latched onto my bloodhound around the neck firmly, and began trying to kill him by shaking his neck and biting. One of his beautiful soft ears was in the attacker's mouth as well.
The lady was still on her phone while on the ground. Indeed, she clutched her phone in her hand, with an active call on speakerphone the entire rest of the incident.
In my county, it is legal to kill aggressive dogs that are chasing or molesting livestock.
I was armed with a suitable handgun, a suitable fixed blade knife, and a folding knife.
I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and tennis shoes.
My 21 year old daughter was with me on the walk. There were several houses nearby within 150 yards. The other dog's owner was trying to haul her dog off with no result, and was yelling at it with no result.
What would you have done?