How I’m Safeguarding Against Another Dog Attack Hiking the Camino de Santiago (Not Meant to Scare!)🐾

We had some close encounters with sheep dogs in the French Pyrenees! Thanks for sharing this info! 🙏

Thank you!! Perfect overview and very good advice!

Thanks for talking about this again. I’ll be on the camino in June and this is something I have concern about since I’m not a dog/pet person and would not know what to do. The horn is a great idea. Thanks!

This is very nice. I have been thinking doing Camino de Santiago for a while, so I am glad to come across your channel and seeing what your experience has been like. Keep up the lovely work and all the best on your journeys.

Thank you so much for the video. This is one of my greatest fears, thank you for addressing it the way you did. I'm a solo woman walker, I've done walking trips in different Europe countries, and on my last trip I suffered a dog attack by two dogs who were in a public trail (it was in Catalonia) and they simply wouldn't let me pass through. I was really scared, alone in the middle of nowhere and I acted like a prey which didn't make the situation any better. After this incident I am very triggered by dog barking and I can't enjoy my walking anymore, I am always alert to when the next house is approaching and since then haven't had the courage to take on another solo walking trip again. Now I am thinking about how I could overcome my fear, maybe doing the Camino de Santiago? My thought is that maybe because more people are there I feel like the chances of encountering aggressive dogs will be less (usually I picked more solitary trip destinations). I am thinking about buying an ultrasound dog repellent, but I am aware that they don't always work (it dependens of the wind, and if the dog is deaf or really old they don't work either). But carrying walking poles and the stone trick seem a great option too. Thank you for the video again :)

Thanks for the video. I need something like this for the bike trail. By the way, some use bright flashlights for personal protection, but I have read conflicting information about how it affects dogs.

thank you for bringing up this topic Dogs, last year I was on the Camino Del Norte, a young girl `Iris`from Holland was bitten by a farm dog just before Gernika she got treated by a doctor and immediately flew home out from Bilboa, and then it Happened to me 4 farm dogs geared up on me before Larado (Luckily I was walking with the help of Hospital Clutches) and I started swinging them around and backed up slowly, similar incident happened just after I left `Gijon` ( and then it happened again after Baamonde) now I have invested in a Siren 190 db, and a Dog taser with a blinking flash light, please be careful dont hurt yourself "Buen Camino"

Silly question perhaps but can you travel with the horn or do you purchase there?

According to the AVMA, you should NOT make loud noises when a dog is threatening. That provokes a dog attack. Stand tall, keep your ground, don’t look a dog in the eye, but keep your head so that you can see the dog from the side. Carrying a stick is better than trekking poles. Put it in front of you as a barrier, but don’t move or wave it around. Just be cool. I had a large German shepherd escape under a gate to come after me. I kept my walking stride. I could sense the dog near me, i tried peering left, didn’t see him, tried peering right, didn’t see him. I didn’t stop to turn around, i kept my same stride. The dog was inches behind me. I was on his territory and took a wrong turn. I walked back the way i came, the dog’s nose was probably a few inches from my back. A very well trained animal. He didn’t bark or growl. I’ve encountered more boisterous dogs, i do the same thing. If a dog were to approach, your best defense are your knees. Just lift the knee up if the dog jumps or comes at you. I’d prefer that over trekking poles, but a big walking stick is best. That’s how the Dog Whisperer uses a stick or even something as simple as a tennis racket. My attitude towards the situation is completely different from yours — the dogs are there for a reason and you are guests in somebody else’s land in another country. Hiker beware. Respect not just the law, but the customs. Custom is more powerful than law anyway. People in those communities know which dogs to watch out for, and the dogs are probably good at distinguishing community members from strangers. Your horn looks pretty useless and could endanger people by provoking an attack. A whistle is easier to carry (many bags come free with a whistle on the chest strap), in case you want to make noise. But experts recommend not making noise with a threatening dog. The dogs aren’t pets, they are there to serve a vital purpose, and that purpose supersedes the interests of passing tourists. Travel with somebody else, at least one of you can carry a large walking stick, it’s a sufficient barrier to ward off even a large dog from an able-bodied person. It’s not the job of poor people on countrysides to make sure their home is an adequate tourist attraction. They have livestock to protect, from coyotes, wolves and thieves. Respect that or don’t hike there.

There are also devices that generate very strong ultra sounds that people can't hear but dogs can. The idea is that you 'zap' the dog point at the dog and push a button it gets confused or scared and flees. Never used it yet don't know its effectiveness.

I use that same horn on the grandkids when they come for my waffles in the morning. Just kidding 🤣 Excellent info; thanks.

Where do you get an air horn when you start a camino? Because they're prohibited on airplanes (both hand luggage and check in).

I keep one of those Birdie alarms (where you pull it and an alarm sounds) on the front of my pack for that reason or even if I am just hurt and need assistance. Never needed to use it but I like having it on me.

I was biking and a little ankle biter climbed the fence and came after me ! I stopped suddenly to scare it and it worked..I don't know if that would always work ..I don't like biking in neighborhoods if I can help it

I was attacked by a dog while standing in my own driveway, here in Southern California. The dog was roaming the neighborhood unleashed and it completely knocked me to the ground. I was able to get away with minor scrapes. That same dog later bit another person and attacked an Amazon driver. The dog owner was eventually found and Animal Control was called. The dog was taken away for 10 days. I also now carry that same dog horn on my daily walks. It is something I never want to be unprepared for again!

Thanks for sharing some of the "real" things that happen on the Camino. I was not attacked, but was scared when several loose dogs were in front and behind me along the trail. I was in Airexe on the Frances, on my way to a restaurant around 6:30pm, so I didn't have my poles. One gigantic dog was barking aggressively and blocking me from entering the path to the restaurant with the owner screaming at the dog but the dog did not listen. I had no choice but to walk forward, which meant now I could not go back to my pension because he was following me up the path. Then another loose dog appeared, almost looked like a coyote. So I tried walking up further and there were 2 more dogs barking aggressively. I was stuck. I prayed and about 30 minutes later, 2 pilgrims came walking down the path with their poles - I told them I was scared of the dogs, so they walked me back to my pension, one on each side of me like guardian angels! The dogs barked at the three of us but did not come as close as they did when I was alone. To be fair, this was a small agricultural town and it probably was not a good idea to go out in the evening. But the pension had recommended the restaurant as there was no other place to get food. It ended up okay as the host of the pension offered to pick up some food for me from the restaurant as she saw how distressed I was. I did have one more incident on another stage with a dog growling at me that I didn't see, but it seemed I got too close to the shed that he was in. Now if you ever post a video about cyclists on the Camino, I have another story to tell you!!

I haven't walked the Camino (yet), but do bicycle tour solo internationally, and have accumulated dog encounters in countries I don't know the language. From a friend who is a skilled dog trainer at home, I observed she would say Wrong, rather than No. I started doing the same when a dog approaches in a manner that makes me uncomfortable. I think the voice intonation with WRONG is more powerful sounding, and likewise gives me a bit more feeling of control, than NO, which ends with generally ends with an uptone, especially when I'm scared. I also have a loaded touring bicycle to put between me and a dog (multiple dogs make this more concerning), but so far, it has felt helpful. Walking sticks and the airhorn are good tools as well. Bicyclists often also will squirt a dog in the face from their water bottle to startle it. That probably isn't so useful with hiking and a different style of water bottle.

I certainly would not minimize your frightening dog incident. But in multiple Caminos treks my wife and I frequently heard the urban myths of "vicious Camino dogs" and stories of "packs of feral dogs" repeated from pilgrim to pilgrim like ghost stories around the campfire. "It didn't happen to me, but I heard . . . " " I met someone at my last albergue who said they talked to someone else who said . . ." While with over 400,000 pilgrims walking a year, I am sure there may be actual cases of dog bites, but we always found these stories overblown, exaggerated, and repeated by pilgrims already fearful of dogs. We have never had a negative contact with a dog on the Camino. Most dogs were bored by the pilgrims walking past, a barking dog safely behind a fence, or a too friendly dog trying to follow us out of a village. Safety and caution with any dog is always important, but the "vicious Camino dog" rumors are grossly overstated.

You're speaking of a threatening dog not a dog attack. I had a couple of similar experiences but thankfully it did not come to fruition.

Boars are the most dangerous animals at the camino.