Something you may be missing, Elmore.  If a dog charges, people react differently depending on circumstances like whether they are accompanied by defenseless children, who can be eviscerated in an instant.  Any parent who would trust their child's welfare to the goodwill of an agitated animal is not a fit parent.   Interjecting yourself into the scenario, and claiming you would slam the door, or kick the dog is nothing more than Monday-morning quarterbacking, since you did not witness the circumstances.  There are a lot of hysterical commenters here who would rather see you face down a grizzly bear empty-handed, then blame you for smelling like food, or not following their bear-wise precautions.  I'm talking about the backwards-thinking people who commend killing the unborn, then over-compensate through fanatical defense of animals: a cowardly position which costs them nothing, and still lets them feel like Gandhi.