The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that approximately 4.5 million Americans are attacked by dogs each year. If you enjoy the outdoors or have some sort of delivery job, chances are you will encounter an aggressive dog sooner or later.

As far as bears, you are most likely to have an encounter when you are camping or hiking in the woods. According to the book Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance, by Stephen Herrero, bear spray is considerably more effective than a gun when it comes to deterring bear attacks.

With either bear or dog attacks, the animal should be sprayed in the snout area, but even just a whiff is usually enough to deter an attack. Remember, bear and dog sprays are completely different from common pepper spray. You must use the correct type of spray for each encounter.