Attack Dogs

[Johnlogic121]

Dogs like rottweiliers and pittbulls are so aggressive and vicious that they sometimes even go crazy and attack their own owners. Little dogs like chihuahuas can even get so anxious and excited that they will try to bite. The medical term for a animal bite is called an "avulsion wound," and these can be very painful and in some cases even deadly. Military attack dogs, for example, can leap up in the air and bite someone's throat. If given a different command, they will latch onto someone's wrist or hand and immobilize that person while the dog's trainer and partner does something else, like ready a revolver. Ordinary dogs will commonly bite at the genitals, because that is a target that they can reach and latch onto with their jaws. To defend against attacking dogs, particularly a large number of them, you might try this approach. Kneel on the ground and curl your body up into a ball so that your forearms cover your ears and your hands are folded together tightly over the back of your neck. With your head down in this position, it minimizes the surfaces that the dogs can really bite onto, and since you are obviously surrendering, the person controlling the dogs might call them off. Other than this, your best option is to feed them sausages! This takes out dogs everytime. I have heard that running is normally not advisable, since a dog's natural instincts are such that it loves to chase, and most dogs can catch a runner. If you do run, however, the heels of your feet can hit the dog in the nose or chin and thus discourage the animal from chasing you. If you stand and fight by kicking low kicks at the dog, it might get by your defense and bite your genitals, but you could possibly hit it in the nose and make it run in pain. Hitting a pitbull in the nose might make the animal outraged, however, so I would prefer to throw sausages. Does anybody else have any ideas for dealing with dog attacks? Encountering a dog that has been trained to kill is uncommon outside of certain areas of the military, but many people have pets that are potential biters. Does anyone know the legal repercussions in the United States if you defend yourself against a dog bite by kicking the pet dog until you kill the owner's animal? Does anybody have any stories about facing a dog? Thanks, -JL

[pittbullJudoka]

I've had a few situation were I've had to face an angry k-9. First yelling and making large movements will sometimes surprise and put fear in to an animal. Sometimes you will have to strike the animal if doing so a straight punch directly to the end of the nose if much more effective than the traditional snap to the topof the nose. This affects adog as is does a human by causing blurred vision watery eyes and in dogs it induces sneezing. If that doesn't work the soccer kick to the throat, abdomon, and genitals work quite well.

If the dog is aggressive enough to leap at you with mouth open either offer it you forearm instead of your throat. If you time it right you can attempt a kickto the leaping k-9. If you are brave enough to reach into a the snarrling pooches mouth grab the toungh k-9s hate this. If you miss the toungh push you hand on into the pooches throat to set off the gag reflex.

If you opt to run. First quickly evaluate your surroundings. Look for vehilces, trees, buildings ect. If a vehicle is nearby get on top of it the dog may follow you but you have the advantage because the surface of the vehicle is almost like ice to the pooch. Best if it is your vehilce simply get in and drive.

Trees to be useful need to be climbable of course. Get in the tree and call for help and if you still have your cell at this point call 911.

Building for obvious reasons and angain call 911.

Personally I carry a pocket clip easy opening knife and if I encounter a strange k-9 my right hand immediatley hits my knife. This is not sayingI pull it I just get my hand on it. Because if something happens and I can't get it open I know I can get it out and use it as a kubaton.

Also it you carry pepper spray that would be a great option since k-9 sent glads are very sensative.

[bushido_man96]

Loren W. Christensen's book Fighter's Fact Book 2 has some good tips on doggy defense, should you need to use it. Using objects to keep you and the dog seperate can be of use. Things like boxes, or tricycles, or any obstruction. Strikes to the neck and chest, and even chokes can be used. Look him up; he has a whole section on dog defense.

[Roys15]

If you have to "fight" the dog, its generally best to get around behind the dog and put it in a choke hold or a blood choke. with either one of these techniques you can put the animal down without totally killing it. If worst comes to worst, as long as you're not on the owner's property, it's perfectly legal to kill a dog that attacks you. no matter what you should probably stay away from any dogs likely to go for you.

[marie curie]

1. Generally breed doesn't matter for people aggression (yes for dog aggression), but strong breeds are just that strong. In my experience as a PetCo associate, the little ones are way more likely to be vicious because many people who tend to buy them often are bad pet parents (a dog is a dog- not a fashion accessory!), buuuut if a chihuahua bites you 12 times, you have a cut up hand, while if a german shepherd bites you once you likely have a broken and mangled hand.

2. Throwing something I've seen reccomended elsewhere, too, and it sounds good to me.

3. Running will tickle their prey instinct, so not a great idea.

4. A good portion of the time a dog attacking a human is doing it out of fear (cuz that's what they've been taught) so if you are going to try to scare the dog off as was suggested above, keep in mind that though it may work in about half the cases, it may turn the other half into an even more severe situation.

5. Keep in mind that fighting a dog is much like fighting someone with a knife. If you do it, you will probably get bit/cut. Yes, you can choke out a dog much like a person, but you are probably putting yourself at more risk than its worth. Of course if I had a bunch of small kids around or something, I could see myself making that choice. Most likely, you are stronger than the dog, and if you can get a hold of it without being to badly hurt you could overpower.

6. The best thing that I've found to do with nippers, jumpers, and any dog that I don't want around my pups is what I read above- to keep something in between like a broom or big stick, and a couple times (for a small cranky dog that lives in our apt complex) my shooed foot.

Anyway, I'm not a professional or anything, but I am around a bunch of dogs and do my reading and stuff.

[bushido_man96]

If a dog is well trained, and has a high fight drive, and he comes at you, then there may be very little you can do to stop him. I took our sheperd out in the country once, to let him run while me and a friend set off fireworks. Well, he went nuts, and there was nothing I could do to control him. I punched him a few times, hard, and it did nothing to him. We finally had to load him up and take him home, because he wouldn't calm down with the fireworks going off.

[Merciless]

I do some wrestling with dogs (mine and my cousins but they never go completely crazy). In self-defence, we do some knife fighting with fake knives, and one of the strategies to use is, if worst comes to worst, let the attacker hit your forearm (knife is in the other hand). The similar concept can be applied to dogs. Except to get cut up a bit, but if you're wearing a long sleeve shirt, preferably baggy of any material, try to let them get at that and quickly move back with the arm. If done properly, they may latch onto the clothing, although most of the time it'll be on the arm. Regardless, once they clamp down on such an area, as painful as it may be, they have no more weapons to use, whereas you have 2 arms + 2 legs to use. So, quickly apply some choke.

For myself, I rarely do this, instead, it's all play-fighting. I tend to try and grab around their shoulders to body area, nothing on the genitals, nothing on the neck area and nothing on their joints. The idea behind every move is to ensure that their main weapon (mouth) cannot bite and if it does, it's to a place that you can still continue to move, even if you're bit. Arms tend to be the best for this. I never hit any of the dogs, never throw anything, etc..., so it's simply play fighting.

Running is not a good idea as it becomes a game and you're the prey, they're the predator. As I said, for me, it's always play-fighting (i.e. we both go butt up, hands down because that's a play position, and nobody goes to being crazy). Best idea, is if for whatever reason you have food on you, use that as a distraction. If you're not armed with food, if you need to, let an arm get bit. Not the hands nor fingers.

Their secondary weapon are claws but they cant do much damage at all, at most a scratch.

Always protect the neck area, ears, face, fingers, etc... . For us men, also the meat and 2 veg.

[marie curie]

If a dog is well trained, and has a high fight drive, and he comes at you, then there may be very little you can do to stop him. I took our sheperd out in the country once, to let him run while me and a friend set off fireworks. Well, he went nuts, and there was nothing I could do to control him. I punched him a few times, hard, and it did nothing to him. We finally had to load him up and take him home, because he wouldn't calm down with the fireworks going off.

hehehe once i had a puppy and a big dog came running too hard at us... well I kicked and he flew (my big dog) into the wall, slammed his head, hopped up, shook himself off and came happily right back at us. These guys are built to take a little rough and tumble.

[glockmeister]

A well trained K-9 dog will not be deterred by someone throwing sausages. they are trained to not accept food from strangers for this reason. they have demonstrated this with my k-9 dogs we have at work.

If a dog get hold of a limb, such as an arm, drive that limb straight into it's mouth. This will cause a lot of pain and force the dog's jaw open. Using a knife to flay it open or shooting it will work often, but unarmed against a well trained attack dog, let's just say you are in real bad shape.

[Roys15]

I would like to retract my previous statement about dealing with attack dogs. After a recent experience with an angry dog, I realize I have no clue about how to deal with them.

As I was walking along the beach the other day, a Great Dane came bounding across the sand at me. After i got past the sudden rush of fear, I backpedaled to the ocean, then froze (I did all of this in about 2 seconds with no conscious thought). Every time I tried to move the dog would snarl at me. Luckily the owner was nearby and was able to pull the dog off.

I don't now what I would have done if those huge jaws got ahold of me...

Edited July 3, 2008 by Roys15