Posted By adam edwards
Besides training our door-to-door people in adopting safe behaviour with potentially aggressive animals, we are keen to know if other chemical / physical agents might assist. Does anyone have experience with the use of sprays / ultrasonic alarms etc., to keep dogs at bay. Also, is there any significant risk of harming the animals, which might lead to legal claims etc.?

Posted By B.Gee
Difficult call this one, I think. Any dog is potentially aggressive, irrespective of size.
Some dogs may appear to be aggressive but are actually welcoming you.
Your employees would probably need to be trained an animal behaviourists to predict when any animal is going to "attack" and therfore preventing it from happening.
Judging from your mail address I'm assuming you are referring to meter readers.
Maybe rather than be armed with a sonic and chemical arsenal of distressing proportions to both owner and dog, the art of "talk talk " could be applied. "Sir / Madam, if you have a dog in the house, may I request that it is kept in a secure area while I read your meter? Otherwise please fill in this card and return to????
Of course there may well be the unpredictable situation where dogs are loose for security reasons and I doubt very much whether audible or other deterants will stop the animal(s) seeing the individual as nothing more than an intruder. It could well be that an individual could antagonise the situation by using deterants etc on a dog. I agree that any individual has the right to protect him / herself, but to what extent?
I don't think your employees have the right to release "agents", sonic or otherwise,in someones home as a means of defence.
Are posties "armed"? No, they gain intelligence,and pass this information on to their colleages and if they can't make a safe delivery then the "offending occupier" is often requested to collect their mail from the local office.
Thats my view, however no doubt some will disagree.
BG