You know, the situation you describe is so awful that I don't think I would ride that route. I would definitely not rely on pepper spray or tabasco water or a deep commanding voice for protection. Those things will work on a dog that is just being unruly, but it sounds like you are dealing with dogs that are very dangerously aggressive.

I don't know how it works in your area, but our Animal Control is nearly useless. They are severely understaffed -- they share a department with parking enforcement! -- and officers are only available for about four hours a day, and they don't even take calls outside of that time. We had a pack of near-feral, very aggressive dogs roaming our neighborhood and killing cats and menacing people for over a year, and Animal Control never responded to calls.

Then one time that pack of dogs menaced me and my lab when we were out for a walk, and I went home and filed a police report. I told the police that Animal Control had failed to do anything about the problem, and I gave the address of the "owner" of the dogs. And those dogs were gone within a couple of weeks.

I would call the police and report those owners. If the police do not want to take the report, then you need to get very aggressive with Animal Control, because dogs who behave that way are very dangerous dogs and they are going to kill someone. It will probably not be you, it will probably be a child, and the authorities need to do something about it.