… with you bare hands? Anybody have any ideas? I can only think of letting it munch on one of your arms while you try to poke its eyes out.
A gun should work…
oh… my bad… try going for the throat.
The recommended procedure is to stand like a stone and stare it down, but, as you can imagine, very few people have the presence of mind to do this in the event, and it’s of no use anyway if the dog is rabid. Another tactic is to jam your forarm into its jaws, and put him in a headlock and, as soon as possible, break his jaw. Again, with big-jaw dogs like pits & rots, this is not easy. I hope this isn’t an urgent request, pweet: I typed it as fast as I can. I hope you’ve safely climbed a tree by now.
I would think a well placed kick could do the job (remember to kiai for effect). Plus I would think that if it starts biting your leg, it can’t do as much damage to it, since there’s a lot of bone down there. If the dog manages to knock you over and starts munching on your arm, I would definitely try the poke out the eyes thing.
I read once that if you make a fist and jam it in the dog’s mouth while somehow holding the head, then it can’t bite down. This sounds dubious…one of those things that works in theory, but I hope never to have to disable an attacking dog. Unless its a Manchester terrier or something.
This worked for me once with a Chow that was about to attack. I made myself as big as possible, made eye contact, shouted as loudly as I could, and walked towards it. It backed away & finally ran. I was actually scared witless at the time (I’m not a really big person), and the dog had come into my back yard. I just knew that if I turned & ran, I was toast.
Most dogs heads seem to be at waist level or lower… So I would probably try to land my size 13 boot somewhere upside the head. It might not be disabling in itself, but it might disorient and give you a couple extra seconds to fight or flee
First, stay away from the rabid mouth. Thus, grasp the head from behind if you can get there & then, you know, its going to be you or the canine.
I have often wondered if I would do something like that to one that has bit me on the foundation that it might have rabies & thus, important to keep the canine for testing. How far I would go to make sure that it didn’t get away has always puzzled me…
I remember vividly an incident from when I was delivering papers and a dog used to threaten to charge me every time I went near his yard. My dad had told me the “stare him down” thing. When he eventually did charge me, I was able somehow to do that. He kept coming, though, and when he got close enough to me, I just punched him hard in the snout. It was a totally instinctive reaction and I don’t necessarily recommend it, but on this occasion it worked. He made that hurt doggy “yelp” noise and ran away. He didn’t even really look at me after that.
With a rabid dog all bets are off, because they don’t respond to social pressures like a normal dog.
I made it up the tree Slithy, but now my laptop battery is just about drai
My opinion:
You might as well ask how to disable a person in a fight. Dogs, like people, almost never look for a fight. It’s a lot better idea to just avoid the problem in the first place. Stay off their property, stand your ground and firmly tell them to stay where they are and that you are not a threat. Walk away, don’t run.
I’d definitely try to kick it in the mouth. I don’t have a ton of upper body strength, but I have very strong legs due to years of riding bicycles. I might well be able to break a dog’s jaw with a good, firm kick. If it was already too close for a kick, then I’d try to hit it right between the eyes, attempting to stun it long enough to land that kick.
I remember a discussion on a martial arts forum a while back where many people discussed some supposed weakness in the lower jaw that made it easy to dislocate/break. Personally, I don’t see pulling it off. Other folk suggested it was easy to disable a dog by grabbing the front legs and pulling them apart wishbone style.
I’ve given a bit of thought to this. First, go with the physical and vocal intimidation. Shout at the dog in a loud, low voice. “No” gets some kind of reaction out of most dogs.
If the dog isn’t intimidated, the worst possible situation is if you are wearing shorts and sandals. If you have good shoes/boots on, I would suggest kicking the shit out of the dog. Don’t go for the head. Too small of a target moving too fast. Also, relatively higher off the ground, requires lifting leg unnecessarily high and unbalancing yourself. Do the equivalent of a groin kick into the dog’s chest. If you have decent kicking ability, you should be able to at least knock the wind out of any dog under 100 pounds or so. Keep kicking until the dog stops attacking.
If the dog gets inside your kicking range, if he has a collar, grab the collar with both hands to keep the dog off you, and swing the dog into a tree, post, wall, the ground, with the goal of breaking its back. If the dog has your arm, grab the collar with the other hand, and slam him into something. If it doesn’t have a collar, I’d try to swing it by one or two legs, or a leg and the tail. If the dog has a grip on my leg, I would try to kick it into an obstacle. I certainly would not recommend intentionally sacrificing a limb, tho.
If the dog is huge and wearing no collar, and I was unable to intimmidate or kick it, I would try to get behind it if possible. Grab as much skin/hair on either side of the throat as possible, and keep its jaws away from me. If I could wrap my legs around it from behind to further control it, all the better.
Disclaimer, this is all from the perspective of a guy who is 6’3", 200#, with considerable martial arts experience. If you are much smaller, out of shape, unathletic, and intimidation doesn’t work, you’re probably pretty fucked. Further disclaimer, having said all of this, I absolutely love dogs.
I have this mental image of pweetman , franticly typing out a message to the SD on a notebook computer while some vile, mangey, yellow cur tries to remove his foot at the ankle.
“NO DOGGY! BAD DOGGY! SIT DOGGY! FOR GHOD’S SAKE GIDDIM OFFA MMMEEEEEE!”
Sound track is “Who Let The Dogs Out?”
As someone who was attached and bitten by a rabid dog (luckily, they no longer give rabies shots in the stomach, but they still are as uncomfortable as hell) I can tell you what won’t work - running. Of course, you know that. And so did I. However, when you are suddenly presented with a very disturbed, salivating, obviously deranged animal like I was its pretty easy to take flight. I got about 30 feet before he tried to hamstring me (took a nice bite out of my calf going for my achilles tendon). I hit the ground, put my hands behind my neck, and curled into a ball. After about a minute of rolling on the ground, screaming my lungs out, and getting the living hell bit out of my back, a police officer shot the dog and killed it (I was inspecting a derelict piece of property and had asked the police to back me up in case of trouble - they were a few minutes late so I started without them.)
I later spoke to the Animal Control Officers and they told me that you have to be careful of the “staring down” bit - it makes dogs even more uneasy and is seen as a threatening gesture. It can work for you, or against you. Whoever said “make yourself as big and loud as you can” and back away (never, ever, ever, ever, ever turn your back on a threatening dog-that’s what they’re waiting for - a nice shot at the back of your leg) had it right.
Of course, if the thing has rabies all bets are off. Additionally, make sure you have your insurance premiums paid up. Rabies shots are $450 per shot and I had to have 8 shots.
of course, that should read “attacKed.” Maybe a little of the rabies virus survived after all.
A friend who read utility meters for some years tells me that the thing to do is not to try to break their bones and in so doing give them further reason to press on the attack, but rather to try to break their concentration on attacking. Call to the Dog and tell it --well, anything. So long as it doesn’t give the Dog the impression you’re an aggressor.
Dogs are inherently social animals, and it generally takes some conditioning to turn them into four-legged weapons. Should you be unfortunate enough to run into one of these, the thing to do is to: 1. Get away as fast as possible (few such Dogs will pursue you far past their percieved territory), and 2. If caught, do what is possible to minimize injury to both of you —as above, trying to play Herakles and the Nemean Lion will only result in a more protracted struggle and harm to yourself.
Quoth stolichnaya
Actually, if you can pull it off, this is one of the best things you can do. Hitting a dog on the nose is recognized as a “bad dog” signal, athough usually (like with training pets) it’s just a light slap, not a full punch. The problem with this method, of course, is that the nose of an attacking dog is a very difficult target, and uncomfortably close to the mouth.
Another thing that can work if you’re quick enough is getting around behind the dog, getting your arms around his chest, and picking him up off the ground. He’ll squirm, but if you hold tight, neither jaws nor claws will be able to reach you.
I actually had to do this once. A guy sic’ed his attack trained doberman on me. As the dog attacked, I swept my left arm out in front and as the dog went for it, I caught him with a right hook. My blow broke his jaw which pretty much took all of the fight out of him. Funny thing was, later that night, the father of the kid who had tried to get the dog to attack me came to our house and demanded that we pay his vet bill… we didn’t, of course, but some people gotta a lotta noive.
I can’t say that I recommend this course of action under normal circumstances. Ususally when a dog is acting agressive on it’s own volition, you’re better off remaining calm and passive.
If this dog Is and attack dog and not the rabid dog that keeps popping up in here then you are best advised to haul ass out of there. If that is not an option then you have one good chance of taking the dog out with one quick blow.
"X" marks the spot. Draw a mental line from dogs left ear to right eye and from right ear to left eye. Aim a hammer blow to that spot and do not hold back as the blow will break your hand or at least dislocate a knuckle but you have to shatter the ridge to kill the dog. You are better off with a sap or weighted object (even a roll of nickles) but barehanded it is possible. A real attack dog (not just some mean ass mutt from down the way) is not going to stare down or scare off.
As for a rabid dog same tactic but it is even more important to haul ass out of there as rabies affects the brain and the dog will do weird shit when charging you. Most dogs come in head on, rabid dogs do things like come at you then veer off and come again.