Let me get this straight, Leeneia: you're feeding cat food to a dog ("two bits" how many times a day?), and you want me to read up on dogs? I'm sure you're aware that cats and dogs have different nutritional needs and that one should not deliberately feed cat food to a dog and vice versa. Whatever the animal's owner lets it eat is the owner's business, but it's not up to the owner's neighbors to decide what foods will or will not "harm" his pet. (For example, my last cat was under the vet's strict orders NOT to be fed fish in any amount, so the regular Cat Chow that contains fish would have been quite harmful to him.)

Besides, rewarding a yappy dog with a tasty treat will only show the dog that yapping=treat. It trains the dog to bark at you! So again I say that one should get the owner's permission before feeding anything to his dog.

As for reading up on "city life", I don't know what life is like in the concrete jungles of Kansas, but here in the Philadelphia PA area, feeding someone else's dog might get you shot by an irate owner who assumes you're trying to poison it. I am not exaggerating. But then, around here, just sitting on your front stoop might get you shot (in the crossfire of a drug battle).

Around here we have more than enough news stories about dog attacks, dogfighting, fools and brutes, believe you me. I totally agree with you that an aggressive dog is dangerous. But I don't agree that the best defense is to "approach it slowly, speaking gently, and toss it something nice to eat." As you said, that might work for "normal" dogs (whatever "normal" means), but do you really think it would've saved the victims you cited? I don't.

But this thread isn't about killer Rottweilers running loose. It's about yappy little dogs next door that stay on their own side of the fence and make noise while their owners ignore them (or are partially deaf!). When you said in your post of 04 Aug 08 (09:39 AM) that your "standard procedure" for dealing with "an aggressive dog right on your home territory" was something you'd tried with the dachsund next door, it certainly sounded as if you considered "next door" to be part of your home territory. Sorry if I misinterpreted that statement and your attitude toward your neighbors.

As for "getting military", if that were the case I would have been barking orders (if you'll pardon the pun). I can't imagine a drill sergeant saying "I suggest that you seriously consider marching forward"! :^D