Any one concerned with your own safety should get a practice dummy and learn to be comfortable with sticking your thumbs deep into eye sockets. Works on humans equally as well.
There’s a big coyote in the woods behind my house. It snatched a Pomeranian off the porch of a condo while the pet’s owner was nearby. The coyote carried the dog into the woods and killed it. When police arrived 15 minutes later they found the dog’s head and collar.