mentality of Iranian sheperd dogs

Hi, everybody,
having traveled a lot through the Caucasus I now wonder:
are the Iranian dogs in the countryside as bad as the Georgian or Azeri sheperd dogs?

I will a do a lot of walking through northern Iran, and try to figure out at the moment what to carry to survive passing a flock of sheep: a whip, pepper spray, a gun, a stick, rocks or neither of it ? One or the other will probably spoil the athmosphere with the dog owner...

If the dogs rather behave like normal animals (or halfway like the Armenian ones) I'll have no problem. In fact I have never been bitten, but had many veery scary encounters with up to six at once in Tusheti.

Thanks,

Daniel

I travelled with my own dog through Iran - i vote for yelling, then stones and as a last resort pepper spray. Most dogs shy away when i reached for a stone on the ground. Some still come closer - even when throwing stones. My dog wil also start growling which has always been effective.

However Iran wasn't the worst country - it was actually Turkey in my case.Most dogs in Iran know about stones and only the gesture of getting one makes them run immediately.

Travel safely,