Surviving a dog attack.

I was taught that if a dog is running at you, the worse thing you can do is to run. Running engages the dogs predatory instincts plus puts your back to the dog and removes your ability to fight back. The dog will outrun you no question. You should brace your feet for the possible impact with your weak side facing the dog and wave your arms while screaming at it. If it doesn't stop, offer your weak arm and either claw at it's eyes or, if you have a knife, open the dog up.

Ideally, it would be better to have a firearm to dispatch it before it can damage you but not everyone can carry a gun. Dog attacks is one of the biggest reasons I carry a concealed firearm when I walk.

If a dog attacks you kick and yell.

Aim your kick at there side, neck or under the jaw.

If the dog is wearing a collar, grab it and twist to cut off there air supply.
Do not release till the dog is dead. Any dog that attacks people need to be removed before it attacks a child.

I was attacked once by a Pit-bull. it was wearing a choke collar the choke collar worked good as the dog is no longer a danger to people.
The owner told me he was going to sue me for killing his dog. I am still waiting. His lawyer must have set him straight on the laws that pertain to vicious dogs.

As for pepper spray use the bear repellent type if you can get it. not tht self defense type.
It puts out a large cloud of spray not a small stream.

reply to post by janon


Its also not realistic to just shoot every dog running towards you. I've had dogs run and jump at me in the park while I was running. He wasn't being agressive (that time) but I nearly kicked the thing a couple of feet just because he freaked me out.


I'd rather have kicked the owner because the idiot lets a dog they know chases people off it's leash, and I know several people who have had the same experience with dogs.

Ok here’s my angle as I hate the thought of hurting any dog, yes even in a video game I cringe when I have to shoot the doggies.
So, I will not go for the eyes or hit it with a stick Etc.
I have been attacked by 2 dogs in my life.
The first was my dads old partners dog, my father was K-9 so you can imagine I have always been comfortable around “dangerous” dogs.
Anyway I was being introduced to Troop and he was testing me, I was 11 I think and I freaked and dashed out of the room.
Luckily Troop was on a chain and was only able to take a chunk out of my lower back.
Now for the funny, as I was a fat kid, my dad said he had never seen me run so fast, looking back he was right.
Anyway that attack was my fault as I didn’t understand that dogs will test the waters and see just who is Alpha and who is not.
I just had never run into a dog that was that aggressive.
Second attack was about 5 years back and totally shocked me ( I mean Steven Hawking getting 2+2 type wrong shocked).
I was walking out to my work van when the junkyard dog across the street from my office had gotten out.
I had said hi to this dog for about 2 years almost every morning so I never saw him as a threat, he would bark at me and I would tell him,” Good boy, you guard your yard”.
Anyway the dog came walking up on me and barking, I stopped and stared him down as I am the Alpha, I am 6’2 and was about 240 fairly solid for my age and totally confident in myself.
Anyway, said dog nipped me on the outer thigh just enough to put a small rip in my work pants.
I was more in shock than anything so I grabbed the dog and put him in a vet cradle.
(I looked online but couldn’t find a picture of the hold but it is what we would do when we took the dogs to the vet as an added security).
Anyway I grabbed the dog and went to my back and held him for about 5 or 10 minutes until the dog went limp from exhaustion and started whimpering.
I let him go and he went home.
The cradle is a sleeper hold of sorts and you can use your knees to shore up the dogs hind end to keep him or her from backing out of it.
What I did was I had proven to the dog that I was much stronger and maybe he shouldn’t have picked this fight.
I also was on my back as a sign of submission to let him know that I was no threat.
I also talked to the dog in a strong happy tone to show there was no fear of him in me.
In any dog confrontation you are either the Alpha or you simply are not.
If you are and know your way around a dogs anatomy you can be the Alpha, if not then try one of the tips in this post.
I am just not a fan of hurting the doggies as they are my favorite of the species on this planet.

Tip #1 Make yourself appear bigger, you want to intimidate a dog as much as possible

Tip #2 Don't run away, dogs are much faster than you and will see it as a sign of weakness and fear. They also love a good chase on an instinctual level, so do not run. Stand your ground.

Tip #3 Make eye contact, do not appear submissive. Show your teeth and growl if you have to. Put fear into the animal's heart.

Tip #4 If the dog manages to get you to the ground or you fall down, the key is to keep the dog away from your face and throat. Kicking and punching is a good start, but your best bet would be to allow the dog to seize your arm in its mouth in order to occupy it's jaws. Then take your free hand and go straight for the dog's eye ball's. Poke your finger into it's eye socket, try and rip out the eye if possible. Car keys also work well. When dealing with a large and vicious dog this could be your only option.

Tip #5 If at all possible try and walk smaller dogs (weenie dogs) in a closed secure area when possible. They are a magnet for larger, more attack capable dogs. If approached, be prepared to lift up the weenie dog at a moments notice if required.

Tip #6 Carry a can of pepper spray. A squirt to the snout and the average dog, unless rabid, will haul tail and run away upon contact. Pepper spray sucks for a person when sprayed, so imagine it hurting ten times more as a dog with an acute sense of smell.

Tip #7 A leash can serve as a weapon if need be, especially a chain link sort, which can be swung about and can deliver a nice blow. It can also be used to restrain or choke a dog if need be.


Tip #8 If confronted by two or more dogs, ignore rule #2 and run for your life. Try to find a closed in building, an automobile or a home or store to run into. Two large dogs can easily kill an adult human within minutes, even a strong and well prepared one. Kick rocks, your life is at stake.


Tip #9 Be very careful when trying to seperate a male dog from a female in heat. Dogs that are normally docile and tame can become aggressive and dangerous when in an altered mental state.

Tip #10 If you see a dog that is acting peculiar and /or foaming at the mouth, do not attempt to approach as it may be rabid or sick and extremely dangerous. Call animal control and have a beer as you watch these brave people do what they are paid to do.

Lots of good advice, but a little bit of bad advice.

#1 bad tip, running! Do not run from an attacking dog. You can't outrun it, and it makes you seem like prey, and gives the dog confidence and the advantage of attacking you. Instead, follow some of the other advice such as yelling, striking back, etc. Become dominant and aggressive, because the dog will respect that. Just in case you have infringed on the dog's territory, you should back away confidently. Do not turn your back or run. Try not to show fear. Maintain dominance as you slowly back away.

If the dog attacks: Protect your face, neck, guts, nuts, etc. Dogs always have a favorite attack spot. Most dogs go for an appendage, like an arm. This is a good thing for you, because you won't suffer severe injury, you can still fight or reach a weapon or mace with the other arm. Unfortunately some dogs go for groins, heals, necks, or abdomens. This is more rare, but you should be prepared for it. The dog will most likely continue going after that same area over and over, so you can prepare your defense and counter-attack once you know where the dog is going to bite.

As someone said earlier, be the Alpha. I'm sure many of us have seen little dogs run giant dogs out of their yards. Dogs are respectful of one another's territory. In neutral territory, they are respectful of dominance. Be dominant, confident, aggressive if you have to. The dog won't attack for very long, unless it is well-trained to do so or rabid. In either one of those cases you are at the wrong place at the wrong time, and you just need to fight and pray. Those instances would be very, very rare. So preparing for the other 99% of cases where a territorial, or overly playful dog gets too aggressive should be sufficient to avoid major injuries.

You can get green lasers off of amazon for $20. Shine it in their eyes.

They're better for keeping dogs at a distance by making it intolerable to keep coming closer, but you'll want steady hands or it'll just be a minor distraction...

reply to post by alaskan


If it's dark out an incredibly bright light works even better.

I had two cops on bikes roll up on me while I was running once.. And I was just completely dazed because I could see nothing but the light..

On a bike, a water bottle can come in handy for this if there's nothing better. I usually keep and re-use a few sports drink bottles for water since they fit in a bicycle water bottle cage quite nicely.

Some lady had her dogs out in the yard. And they decided to give chase. Usually most dogs are territorial, so they'll give up after some distance. One of her dogs did give up after two houses. But the german shepard / husky type dog was the exception and kept at it. I didn't step up the pace on the bicycle as in flight, but I wasn't going to stop either. Since I was already moving, stopping would only have made me more vulnerable to an animal weighing over 70lbs. (The dog was doing its best to keep up as it was. The bike does a good 15 - 20 MPH on pavement.)

So while this dog was snapping at me it got punched and yelled at a few times. Then bonked in the nose with a half full sports drink bottle. (An empty bottle would be pretty useless, but with enough water inside it provides some degree of clubbing force.) Still the dog didn't get the point. Since the water bottle was cheap and disposable anyways - it was eventually thrown at the dog and bonked 'im good on the head. Seemed to work though, by then the dog was more fixated on the bottle and at that point it ran after that instead. Effectively it gave up chase. Maybe that's all the dog wanted as some sort of trophy? Who knows? I was too far down the block and gone by then.

Looking back, pepper spray would have been better and ended the situation a lot more quickly. (With the bonus of the dog learning that chasing bicyclists is a bad idea.) The lesson here is that sometimes improvising with anything on hand is better than nothing. Even a distraction can keep you from getting bit and let you get away.

reply to post by SLaPPiE


I saw this once, police forgot to tell us that they were doing training in the park one day. I saw a guy jet across a field in a funny grey big ol suit and then a german shepard come streaking after him and tackle him, and I using a leaf blower watching this going...wtf?

Hi this was a great thread! Last weekend, while walking my Cairn Terrier
(Toto look alike) and her 3 month old puppy (the smallest puppy she had),
We were assulted. When we got to the cu-de- sac, which has half of it as an empty wooded lot, my neighbors ugly mean bulldog started to tear out of their yard straight for us. I grabbed the puppy up and realed in the mother close on the retractibil leasch. I told her to be quite. I had her leasch rope in my hand and let the plastic handle hang. I started swinging the handle. I kept yelling NO! NO! NO! as it approached and then SIT! and STAY! and Go Home! I even yelled for the man and his son to come and get his dog. The twenty something son says "It won't hurt you...", I thought "Liar." I was ready to kick the sh## out of it to protect the puppy.
They are retired FBI, so his thinks he can let killer dog roam the neighborhood. It has chased my children on their bikes for long, long, distances. I will shoot at it if I have to, on my property. The neighbor in between us is a Federal Prosecutor for our State, she just moved in and already hates that dog, she has two children under four. I am just waiting to see the legal fur fly... That dog could permanetly damage or kill a small child and I consider it charging me a very aggressive guesture. So it is just a matter of time before it hurts the neighbors child. I have seen this sort of thing happen twice before. I will start carrying mace with me.
Eight years ago my husband's boss had a really mean Black Lab female,
it was near my deck porch with the daughter walking it. She was twelve. My son who was six tried to rush past up the deck to go in the house. This dog grabbed him by his jacket arm sleeve. I was positively frightened. The Labrador let him go. I thought that as agressive as she was, and the fact that it was mean and aggressive to all the other neighbors dogs, an event would happen of even more serious nature. Two years later the Lab flipped out in the back yard of those people. The woman went into the back yard to feed the two dogs, one was a smaller German Shepard mix, and there was a lot of blood everywhere in the backyard and all over the privacy fence. The Lab had killed the smaller dog. They had to put it to sleep. I was so thankful it didn't happen to one of the four little daughters, or one of their friends. I knew it was comming, and so did the owners, they should have acted more responsibly earlier. A large dog like that needs more than a third of an acre to live on.
The other incident was we moved into the Shannadoah Valley many, many years ago. The neighbor's took in their son's pit bull just after we moved in. We had two children aged two and newborn. I was frightened everytime the kids were outdoors, or we went out to get in our car.
We offered to buy the dog so we could relocate it else where. My husband went and bought a gun. Two years later the pit bull breaks off the chain and kills their very large German Shepard. Then it mangles the lady's leg putting her in the hospital. I knew that was coming.... They put that dog to sleep too. Dogs can be very, very dangerous. People who work all day and don't have the time to put into these large breed animals. I knew a horseman who said buy a hundred horses and keep three and shoot the rest. He was speaking figuratively. A dog is nice or not. You can't really teach it to be nice, it's in the genetics. I saw this in my dogs litter, some puppies were more aggressive.

If you can, just grab the dog by his lower jaw, and push it towards its chest. Try this with your animal (carefully) and you will see that he or she can't bite.

reply to post by CX


Hey CX, I have also baited for dogs in the Brit Army and the advice you have given is spot on. Also the pulling apart of the front legs can be used on some breeds of dogs but is FA use when they are clamped around one of your arms.

Years ago I was baiting for a Handler and his doberman 'Carlos' and he was a BIG bugger. I put the suit on, pegged it through the woods and eventually he found me. He took my arm and clamped on it with a grip I had never experienced before or since. Anyway he lost it and wouldn't let go and I felt his teeth coming through and he was not listening to his handler.

His handler, quick as you like, grabbed the loose skin on top of his head and severely pull it back, so you could see a lot of the whites of the dogs eyeball.

He let go pretty damn quick.


Anyway, years later, I was on the beach with my Jack Russel and my Heinz 57, when the Jack Russel got into a 'Scrappy Doo' with an American Staffy.

The Staffy had my dog pinned by his neck. All teeth had punctured my dog's
neck. Blood and sand and my dog making a sound like a dying rabbit.

The owner was your typical Staffordshire owner. All mouth no trouser. I covered the 50m or so to my dog like a 1000 gazelles, grabbed the Pit by the loose skin on its head and he let go of my dog quick, I punched the thing a few times, scooped up me dog and dunked him in the sea so I could see how bad the wounds were.

Meanwhile, my other the dog, the big heinz 57 was having a go at the owner of the Staffy. She listens well and came by when called.

So I'm stood there, up to me bollox in the north sea, covered in blood, seriously injured dog, blood all over the beach and kids screaming n crying.
Owner of said badly trained pit (there's a surprise) is making like a swastika. What a cake and arse party.

I have used that technique in two other dog fights since (same type dog, they love 'em here in Holland but can't be arsed training 'em) and it's
worked both times, but I took a bad bite on the one before last.

All three times I was screaming like a man possessed and I think that helped. But you've got to be quick and brutal.


Nice thread mate. Good drills. I think presence of mind helps in these situations. Don't detach, keep calm and fight like an animal.

Got tonnes of funny/sad/scary/(shaggy) dog stories.

S+F.

get down level with the dog and bite it back. Then stick your thumb in its bum. Key being commit to the fight. Instead of the dog chasing you, you must chase the dog. Show no mercy and dont stop causing the dog pain until its either in full retreat or dead(unconcious) Pain for you will be unavoidable and you must realize this at the onset of the engagement. Remember its just a dog. You could also stick your thumbs in both the ocular sockets while chewing on the top and end of the dogs nose. Forget striking the animal. Penetration of some sort is paramount. Reach into the throat , grab something in there(such as the windpipe) and yank it out. If youve ever butchered a large animal, just apply your anatomical knowledge in dismembering your attacker.

Originally posted by psyko45
get down level with the dog and bite it back. Then stick your thumb in its bum.

Did i read that right? That's either going to send him packing, or turn him on and you'll never get rid of him!

Thanks for all the great advice everyone, it is much appreciated. I will pass them all onto my girlfriends daughter.

CX.

I was attacked by a dog and its jaw locked, I hate violence towards animals but when needs must. In that circumstance I hit the dogs temple off of a wall the dog yelped and let go of my arm.

I have two dogs of my own, a german shepherd and a collie, the best way to break up a dog fight is to straddle the dog and grab the skin at the side of its neck, this is dominating the dog and they will stop whatever they are doing giving you time to pull the dogs apart without having to hurt them. Obviously if you yourself are being attacked by a dog this won't be much good.

I wouldn't recomend running as a dogs natural instinct is to chase wether it means harm or not, and most of the time a dog will out run a person. I think the main thing is to appear dominant and if you are feeling any hide your fear.

Prevent a possible attack by communicating intent. The communication does not need to be verbal, the visualisation thought will register with the dog's self-preservation instincts that you have the power to kill it.

If you have the opportunity to observe a bitch with her litter, note how she controls unruly pups. Use the same technique if your intentions have not registered with the animal (the grabbing flesh and fur in the head/neck/throat regions technique mentioned previously). Imagine your hand is the jaws of a bigger, stronger animal and clamp it down hard, digging nails in as hard as you can.

Keep your mind focused on intent.

The ripping forelegs apart technique is more appropriate where the animal has already clamped on another person. You can stop the attack by approaching the dog from behind, grab the forelegs as close to the shoulder as possible and pull them toward you.


A staffi-pit once 'went' for the face of my three year old. Her reactions were quicker than mine; she punched it on the tip of the nose, shouted 'no'. It squealed like a porker, ran away and hid behind it's owner, who was dumb-founded. My daugher laughed and said 'stupid dog'. There were a couple of further occasions when I observed my daughter with this same dog; it was utterly docile with her and only wanted her approval.

reply to post by teapot


LOL! Your daughter is a natural!

We recently got a dog from the pound, he is about 7 months old, 1/2 pit and 1/2 german shephard (they think). He is replacing the pit that I had for over 15 years. The kids grew up with the bigger, older dog, so they are not afraid, and they know how to deal with dogs.

When we first got the pound dog, he was over eager and jumping all over the place and mauling my wife with claws and kisses and she didn't know what to do. My 4 year old grabbed the dog by his cheek and took his face down to the ground and yelled, "DOWN!" "Stop Jumping!" The dog laid there still until my son let go, and then he sat up and behaved. LOL! Sometimes the simple direct approach works the best if it is done with no fear and all the confidence in the world.

I think what's very important is responding to the attack with an immediate, very violent/aggressive counter attack. Dogs can inflict pain and wounds bad enough that you won't be able to fight after a very short time. Dogs when pushed have very good pain tolerance and have physiological attributes which let them fight harder for longer. You'll need to hurt them badly enough to convince them very quickly "this thing isn't worth the effort, I'm not gonna risk a serious wound here". Dogs fight for keeps and they know it, unless they're rabid they will act in self preservation, serious wounds=death sentence in the wild.

I messsed up a half rotty half lab a couple of years ago...

It attacked my little dog whose only 10 pounds....while it was mauling her i grabbed it's collar and literally whipped it back and slammed it down on its back...

let's just say it couldn't walk again....

but the worse part was it turned out the owner lived only one street over :S