My sling lives in my back left pocket, and I carry two smooth stones in the front left pocket.
Some of you might think that this is a bit much, but last week I was walking home from work, and a fairly large dog came out of the bushes. He was in a stiff posture, tail straight and giving me a huff and growl. I raised my voice and said" go on now!" but he took a step towards me.
So out came my sling, slipped on the retention loop, took the stones out of my pocket and loaded one.
I gave the mutt one more chance to move on, but he chose not to , so I let loose with an underhand cast. I missed to his left but that got his attention and he decided to move across the road away from me. At the tree line he turned back to look at me, so I sent the other stone at him.
I missed with that one too.....It went over his head and hit a tree with a good solid thunk. At that, he moved into the bushes and I never saw him again.
I'm glad I didn't hit it, I'm not looking to go around popping stray dogs. But i'm glad I was able to convince the hound that I was dangerious enough to not mess with.