Is it right to hit a dog to protect yourself while on a run?

it depends but i dont know the law about it.. but if the dog is too small to injure you then there is no point.. why bother,, but if you are frightened i would give it a nudge/ light kick just to scare it off but not hurt it. if it is a big to medium dog then you can defend yourself.. if the dog comes charging out you are aloud to defend yourself but only in self defense. so my answer is yes you can but it kinda depends. but under self defense, if a dog attaked me, i would kick it right in the head to defend my life..( i am not an animal abuser.. i love animals and dogs) i hope this helps and good luck with this dog problem.

Legally, you have every right to "protect" yourself from the dog. Now, if you are in no immediate danger from this dog, then I would say no you can't harm the dog. What I mean by this is, if the dog is just barking at you and you go out of your way to hit it then you are in the wrong. If the dog is say a Yorkie, and it charges you and you hit it, you are not in immediate danger being that the dog couldn't possibly harm a grown adult. What you need to do is 1.) Talk to the owners about leashing their dog or 2.) notifying the proper authorities about an aggressive dog being unleashed. Morally, you need to ask yourself whether or not you feel physically threatened by the dog. In my view, if the dog is a really small dog, you have no business hitting it. It's one thing to protect yourself against a Rottweiler, Doberman, Pit Bull, Mastiff, etc. It's a whole different thing to protect youself against a Yorkie, Rat Terrier, Cocker Spaniel, etc.

If the dog seems vicious I think you have a right to hit it. But I would just kind of nudge it or slightly hit it just to see if it goes away. If it's a small dog that seems friendly and wants to play I would just ignore it.