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And, by the way, that's not the best way, because it puts both your hands and your face in range of the dog's teeth. Honestly, it's a pretty daft (and cruel) way to defend yourself.
The best way is actually to allow the dog to bite something on you that's not actually you - a jacket, shirt, whatever - to distract them. Even better if you can cover their head with it. If you get bitten, don't pull away (difficult) but use your other hand and grab their back legs and lift them off the ground, which has the effect of completely immobilising the dog and keeping the pointy end away from you. From there, you can just wheelbarrow them around until help arrives.
Other than that, keeping them at a distance is the most sensible option. You have legs, which are longer than the useful range of dogs' teeth. The whole point is to keep as much of yourself away from the dangerous end of the dog.
And, of course, there are exceptions - all of this is out of the window if there are two dogs, and if you've got a Great Dane after you (highly unlikely, they can't be arsed with anything)...pretty much anything on the dog is longer than anything you've got, so I don't know...climb a tree?
EDIT: None of this is criticism of the OP, by the way - as far as I can tell, he did everything right in terms of keeping the dogs at a distance and preventing anything worse form happening. Without wishing to diminish what was obviously a scary experience...scratches and wet patches sort of indicate that the dogs weren't trying to cause damage, so it was either a fear thing or they've had absolutely terrible training and have no concept of boundaries, socialisation or bite inhibition.
My partner's colleague was recently attacked by two dogs being walked by a living, breathing bag of twat. The dogs were aggressive - one was off the lead, the other snapped the lead. Edit: the owner then ran away, leaving both his dogs to attack.
Result was a course of antibiotics and stitches for the human, and one of her dogs (safely on a lead) has had thousands of pounds of vet care, including two operations, to help. Police still haven't caught the guy, but he's apparently known.
These people cannot have dogs. If you have a dog, and you're not in the middle of nowhere with no one else around, *put it on a fucking lead*. Don't be a cunt.
I have no time for this stuff. I'm a passionate dog person, but any human that believes they have true control over their animal is kidding themselves. My border collie is sweet, friendly and has never attacked anyone in 12 years. Doesn't mean she won't.
Get the police involved. When I worked in the hospital, I worked with someone who became a multiple amputee because his own dog sneezed during a cuddle, with his tooth scratching his arm. Within hours, he was in a+e with a blood infection - turns out the dog had a bacterial infection and the saliva passed it on. The risks are very real!
All of this. I'd happily take a test to prove I can home a dog.
Key thing today is to ensure you have the means to take photo/video quickly if necessary. A gopro style camera would be perfect for this (edit: don't use the waterproof casing as this blocks out loads of audio) - if you think you see the dogs out loose, whether they are nearby or not, start filming. Even if you think you can't directly film, keep filming anyway as you can narrate to the camera with what is happening. If the dogs approach again, loudly and calmly should "please remove your dogs, they are out of control" - if you have this on video, the woman will have no defense to say that she didn't think her dogs were causing a problem.
If possible, have a thick piece of clothing with you, such that would be suitable to wrap around your forearm. If a dog is trying to bite, it is better that they bite and clamp onto a heavily padded forearm than anywhere else. Dogs will usually stop continually biting once they have clamped onto something, so this is probably your best bet. Obviously, again get as much of this on film as you possibly can.
Failling that, trying to be as calm and non-flappy as possible, and going for @digitalscream 's wheelbarrow technique might work. As might an authorative, deep-voiced, loud "Sit!", "Down!" or "Off!" - but chances are if they're badly enough managed to have got to you in the first place they may not be great on other obedience. The front legs thing is very high risk, a) because you're still at the pointy end, and b) because the dog will hate it and get more aggressive, because if you grab both front legs and pull apart you can kill them (if you're strong enough).
Actually, this is based on a bit of science and a bit of experience. A couple of our dogs have reacted defensively (which was quite out of character for them) whenever approached by anybody wearing high-vis jackets. A bit of research indicates that canine vision extends at least as far as the UV part of the spectrum (hence knowing exactly where other dogs have peed, even from a distance or in conditions where accurate positioning via smell wouldn't be possible).
Extrapolating a bit...what if that part of the spectrum looks like it does to us - but stronger than the "glow" we see from the reflective parts of high-vis jackets? Those people might practically look like they're on fire, which - to a dog - would be pretty bloody scary.
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It is odd what dogs get freaked out about. Our old dog Bilbo was very placid but went completely crazy once when he saw a man walking in the disused canal. Being in amongst the bulrushes and the rats was an odd thing to do but I still had to control my dog, I still had to apologise. My dog, my responsibility - even if the man was behaving oddly.