The only times I encounter a dog is when I'm riding then they feel like they have to eat me, it would be impossible for me to retrieve the gun and the quick loader, load it, and shot the dog; equally when loaded for touring it's impossible to outrun a dog so the only 2 options a person has is either carry spray to repel the dog, or to give it a shot with the water bottle and hope it leaves. One female rider encountered a mountain cat and she couldn't out run it, so she dismounted her bike and kept the bike between her and the cat (she wasn't touring), eventually the cat left. But we do have cyclists that get killed by mountain cats here in the US. I think the cat is the biggest problem to a camper, most of the other animals tend to shy away unless you're stupid enough to leave food near you, and once you handle food you have to wash your hands and face to get rid of the odor or the animals will try to get into your tent, and a fabric tent is nothing for them to rip apart; but a cat is unpredictable, they could attack just for the fun of it! Bears tend to be deeper in the woods, but if they smell food they will come; raccoons are also a threat believe it or not, they may be small but if they smell food they will come, and raccoons are all over the place here. Raccoons are deadly too, I saw about a 25 pound raccoon kill a 80 pound German Shepherd, that dog didn't stand a chance! Raccoons are not afraid of people either, they'll come right up to a tent and sniff all along the border for food with you in the tent, I backhanded a raccoon once while I was in the tent because it was sniffing my head, all it did was snort and continue sniffing along the tent! But if a raccoon can kill a much larger dog within 5 seconds of battle believe me it could hurt a human pretty badly.
Stick on patches. First I only buy Park glueless patches, I've tried a lot of other ones including the Lezyne just recently and they all don't last more than about a day, the Park will stay on for the life of tube if done correctly. Putting on a glueless patch is similar to a glue on patch so some of this most of you already know how to do. First thing is you buff the tube; the second thing you do which you can also do with glue on's but most people don't, and that is to clean the area that you buffed with a alcohol pad and then clean your fingertips with it, wait for it to dry which takes about maybe 10 seconds; next peel the backing off by using your fingernail and lifting a corner making sure to touch the least area of the patch as possible (this is why you clean your fingertips); next apply the patch and then press it as hard as you can between your fingers and thumb for 30 seconds; this next part a lot of people don't think about doing with these patches and that is you have to look at the patch after you pressed it, the area that you pressed will have a sort of transparent look to it, sometimes a corner or two of the patch that didn't get covered by your thumb and finger will have a frosty look to it, you have to press those frosty areas again for 30 seconds. That's it. I much prefer glueless patches over glue ons, it takes a little less time but I don't have to bother with finding a dried glue tube, plus a wee bit less space is taken up by the lack of the glue tube. The one thing I do however is get a new ones every season, their cheap to buy so I just get new ones every year and not chance it, though I have used on occasion used ones that were 2 seasons old and they worked just fine, but I did have an issue with one that was 3 seasons old, so from that experience I play it safe and get new ones every year.
The Lezyne patches were so bad, I was able to peel the patch off, rebuff the tube, clean it and apply a Park glueless patch. Try peeling off and old Park glueless patch on a tube you're discarding, that patch will more then likely take a chunk of tube with it! 3M invented the glueless patch, I used those when they first came out, my first one failed, but then I changed what I did and they worked after that; 3M decided they didn't want to be in the bike business directly so they make them for Park, they use to make them for Specialized Fatboy patches as well not sure if they still do since I haven't been able to find these anywhere for quite a few years.
I've had as many as 13 to 15 patches on a tube that was my main tube, and that tube was about 8 years old when I finally replaced it which means my oldest patches still holding on that tube were 8 years old, the only reason I had to replace the tube was I got another flat that tore into a preexisting patch, and to patch over a patch simply would not work. I also don't have any problem with having a spare tube in my seat bag that may not get used for a very long time, and it will have a glueless patch sitting on it for that whole time and be perfectly fine when I need to use the tube.
Of course when I tour, even though I carry a couple of spare tubes, a spare tire, and those patches. I still try to prevent flats as much as possible because flats on a loaded touring bike is a headache and most flats occur on the rear where the panniers and fenders are (I have fenders on the front but no panniers just a handlebar bag), so I use the Schwalbe Marathon Greenguard tires (I tour on a vintage 85 Schwinn Le Tour Luxe and it has the original 27" size wheels, so the Schwalbe is the best tire available for that size, but they are extremely good tires and very long wearing), but I also use RhinoDillos tire liners (I chose these because they have a soft edge that goes against the tube instead of cut end that can rub a hole in the tube as you ride the miles) even though those Marathon tires are very resistant against flats, maybe an overkill on my part but like I said flats are a headache with a loaded touring bike and I would rather avoid it as much as possible. I do not use thorn resistant tubes, I think their too heavy and offer very little in protection, I would rather use that weight by using a tire liner, so I use standard 90-100 gram tubes. So far I haven't had a flat while touring.
