Best water weapon for my mom. - Help me help my mom defend against dogs.

[chewywater]

Hey everybody.
We've got a dog problem in our neighborhood.
I want to fill a supersoaker with watered down ammonia (dogs hate this), and give it to my mom for when she goes for walks.

Which weapon do you think would be ideal for this purpose?
Can you recommend something with decent range, but not too conspicuous?
I'd also like to be able to release the pressurized air without releasing the liquid after her walk so that if the gun went unused it wouldn't be laying around pressurized all the time.
Is any of this possible?

I know this isn't exactly a post about water warfare, but i figure you guys are the ones to ask.

thanks!

[SilentGuy]

I'd go with a smaller gun, maybe a pistol, made by Buzz Bee (also known as Water Warriors), Super Soaker, or Storm. The Buzz Bee Cricket and Hornet are fairly small and nice. Super Soaker doesn't make any nice pistols right now, but if you can find some from the Max-D lineup of a few years ago, they're good as well. Storm pistols are very nice, but availability isn't that great.

[chewywater]

Hey thanks!
those buzz bee's look about the right size. I'll go checkemout.

[Rook]

I think you should use something else. Super Soakers are not meant to be used with ammonia. The gun won't last long. I recommend getting an airsoft pistol or a BB pistol. They're lighter, and there is no chance of spilling ammonia on yourself. Plus, you don't have to pump them up.

[SilentGuy]

I was going under the assumption that ammonia was safe enough, since it's generally safe anyway.

An airsoft or BB pistol is going way overboard. Why hurt a dog, possibly take its eye out, and use a dangerous pistol? You might as well use pepper spray.

In my opinion, ammonia should do the job well. In fact, water alone scares my dog ever since my friend shot her tail.

[Rook]

A spring airsoft pistol only shoots around 250 fps. At point blank range it stings, and leaves a red mark. It's not going to seriously injure the dog. Besides, dogs have fur to cushion the impact. Perhaps a BB gun is a little much, but an airsoft gun would be fine.

[Adrian]

Welcome to the forums.

I should note, right off the bat, that Isoaker forums only condones the use of crisp, sparkling clear water in all water-dispensing toys.

I'm in agreeance with that in that I don't think a water pistol filled with watered-down ammonia is a good weapon to use on dogs. For the yelping neighborhood weiner-dog, it's overkill. For something that could do actual damage if it was of mind to, it's not enough. A couple of companies online sell reinforced walking-sticks. Quite stylish, and enough to deter something with less than devotional intentions. Kimber America just released their new LifeAct defensive spray - it has all the use of pepper-spray but w/o the possibility of being caught in your own fog. Not sure how much of a shine your local constabulary takes to hauling around defensive sprays though. A can of mosquito spray would also do the trick I think, if using something actually designed to protect people upsets the tender sensibilities of the local donut crunchers.

All of these are sort of half-measures. If you've got dogs you're afraid of in the neighborhood, talk to their owner. If they're feral dogs or the owner is a bonehead and refuses to do anything, give a call to animal control - they'll pick the critter up and it'll take the owner $50 or so to get Snookums back. Check out the local leash laws. Tell the cops - there's the odd chance they might stop by and have a friendly chat with the owner.

You should only be considering using something as a weapon if you've exhausted all other options. Not that I have a problem with people toting weapons (for example, if you have mountains lions descending into town, as they do occasionally in Vegas and other areas, I'd recommend at least a .357), but you could be getting yourself into a serious amount of trouble carrying around something that either you don't need, or isn't enough of what you need.

Hope this helps,

Adrian

[SilentGuy]

Hope this doesn't turn into another debate...

I think there's no need to do anything overkill. As I said, even plain water should work. The problem is if it angers the dog...so I would be wary no matter what.

[chewywater]

I appreciate the great advice from everyone!
Thanks again guys!

[Dr. D]

A spring airsoft pistol only shoots around 250 fps. At point blank range it stings, and leaves a red mark. It's not going to seriously injure the dog. Besides, dogs have fur to cushion the impact. Perhaps a BB gun is a little much, but an airsoft gun would be fine.

Ehhh..... I've always been sketchy about the idea of carrying around an airsoft gun in public, especially for something as simple as keeping a pesky dog away. I know this is probably just dateline scaring soccer moms again, but I've heard all kinds of horror stories about police mistaking airsoft for real pistols. If this was a mugging problem, then I'd be more keen to the idea. But if its just a dog....

I think Adrian gave the best advice for the situation. If the dogs are bothering you, tell the owners for god's sake. Also, what's the extent of the dog problem? Stray pitbulls that wander the streets eating babies or just annoying small dogs?

[chewywater]

A spring airsoft pistol only shoots around 250 fps. At point blank range it stings, and leaves a red mark. It's not going to seriously injure the dog. Besides, dogs have fur to cushion the impact. Perhaps a BB gun is a little much, but an airsoft gun would be fine.

Ehhh..... I've always been sketchy about the idea of carrying around an airsoft gun in public, especially for something as simple as keeping a pesky dog away. I know this is probably just dateline scaring soccer moms again, but I've heard all kinds of horror stories about police mistaking airsoft for real pistols. If this was a mugging problem, then I'd be more keen to the idea. But if its just a dog....

I think Adrian gave the best advice for the situation. If the dogs are bothering you, tell the owners for god's sake. Also, what's the extent of the dog problem? Stray pitbulls that wander the streets eating babies or just annoying small dogs?

It's odd. The dogs are very small. And this makes you think they can't hurt you. But they team up on you like a you're a wounded water buffalo and start trying to draw blood. They could take out a small child. Given enough time they could probably take down an adult as well. I went out to get the mail one day and figured I would just punt them if they got aggressive. Then they launched a well orchestrated attack as if fully intending to take me down. Surrounding me, they attemted to draw blood from whatever direction I wasn't looking. They moved in and out so fast I couldn't even punch them or kick them. It got pretty darned scary. I moved slowly back to my house, punching at themwhenever one of them moved in to nip. I'll never underestimate the power of a pack of dogs again, no matter how small.

[WaterWolf]

This is serious.
The ideal defense would be a small group of larger dogs like we have. Working together they can defend you against practically anything, but you don't have the time to train up a dog squad like that, so I guess its out of the question.

The first thing to do is alert animal control, they should respond quite quickly to somthing this serious.
If that doesnt work, the next thing to do is take pictures of the dogs if they start ganging up on someone, then send those pictures to animal control.
If all else fails, try to lure the pack into an enclosure, such as a garage or fenced in area. Then when their all inside, slam the door/gate and call animal control to take them away.

The way these dogs are acting, they thing that they are stronger than humans.
THIS IS VERY BAD!
If this continues, your area could end up being run by these packs of piranhas. Its happened before in other places.



Edited By WaterWolf on 1173034046

[XP20Warrior]

It sort of happened here last summmer, too. Unfortunately, the mayor thinks that Parrottsville doesn't need "animal control" because we're a farming community. Whenever we'd play outside, the dogs from different owners form a "gang" and would go around and try to bite & attack you. They'd chase your car and would run around all over as soon as you get out of your driveway, making you have to drive at a crawl in fear that you may hit them.

One night during an Independence Day party at our house, they came. There were two dominant pack leaders, followed by this unknown dog that I've seen for many years. They came and started to chase our cats, so soakerman & I got the CPS-2100, CPS-4100, & a bottle rocket launcher and went after them. Soakerman hit one of the leaders with the 4100, but barely because we were chasing them. I fired off a couple bottle rockets from the launcher off my shoulder, then left them.

This behaviour continued on thru the summer until one of the leaders died. From what I know, I think he was hit by a pickup truck. We did talk to the owners about it, who really didn't care. "Beat them up if they ever bother you," They told us.

That's my story. However, note that this was about 3-4 dogs. Your problem needs local authorities immediately. We only did what we had to do because there wasn't anybody to do that.

And one note on the airsoft/bb thing, people have been SHOT carrying those things around there. Cops here are not very discriminant; kid or grown up, if you have something that looks like a gun, especially if you're dark skin, you're very likely to get it. Its not that bad in Parrottsville, however.

[Adrian]

Someone once asked me about bringing airsoft to a fistfight, the reasoning being it might have some deterence factor.

My response was that it accelerates/raises the threat condition, without bringing the necessary force to resolve it. A watergun for a dogpack is the same way. If that's all that's necessary, you honestly don't need protecting. If you need protecting, it's not going to be doing you any good.

Hardware stores sell keychain-sized pepper spray cans for between $5-12. Get a few, and practice using them for direct and area affect. Also spritz yourself a bit, so you know you can take it if the wind changes and you take some backspray, which DOES happen.

THEN, go directly to your alderman/police chief/mayor/whatever, grab him by the nostrils, and scream until this gets resolved.

Adrian