Best protection against dogs?

I figured this was the best place to post this.My wife doesn’t have her CCW - YET.I was not with her, so everything I’m relaying here is from my wife’s recollection.Yesterday my wife was out walking our 11 month old daughter with a female neighbor and her ~14 month old baby and their small (20 lb) dog, when they were approached by a very large dog - according to my wife’s description it was about 3ft tall at the top of its back, prob 200 lbs. Must have been some sort of mastiff, Great Dane, etc. Very large dog.The dog wasn’t outwardly aggressive but it was not on a leash, the owner was probably ~100 feet away, and our neighbor was getting very concerned because her small dog that was with them HAS been attacked by a larger dog before. Her dog was getting pretty riled up and scared, rightly so.The owner was a complete asshat retard; he was a big fat guy who was very dismissive of their loud and repeated demands to come get his dog, and when he finally did come get the dog, he lumbered over very slowly and took his sweet ass time. Both ladies were yelling at him that they have 2 babies with them, their small dog has been attacked, etc. Owner just kept saying “he’s friendly, he’s friendly, you are overreacting.”It is 100% illegal for him to have his dog unleashed as he did - they were not in nor near a dog park or other designated area where being unleashed would have been legal; this was on the street in a residential neighborhood.Anyhow, it all ended well in that nobody was actually hurt or attacked and the dog was not outwardly aggressive - I have no clue if he was sizing up / preparing to attack our neighbor’s smaller dog as I wasn’t there.It was just eye-opening and a reminder for me that I need to hurry the hell up & push my wife that much harder to get her CCW. She is open to doing it, she’s just been dragging her feet. Additionally, I need to look at carrying some different tools with us for situations like this, God forbid the next one involves an aggressive dog or other animal.All that said, what are some good ways to defend against dogs, especially huge ones like in this situation?I have read on various forums that defending against dogs is tricky; they are much more difficult to shoot with a firearm (or spray w/mace) because they can move so quickly and I’ve read that pepper spray / mace has varying degrees of effectiveness on them.Last I read, carrying any sort of club or stick is a felony where we are, so that’s out.The only other thing I could think of is getting my wife (and me for that matter) a few cans of bear spray - would that be effective against dogs?I can’t imagine any other implement that’s legal where we are that would work against a dog. Again, I have my CCW, but have read and can only imagine how difficult it would be to shoot a running dog.Thanks! via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/2zseRfc