Based on the following comment on In The Third Year Of The Postmodern Glaciation
There's something weird about peoples' attitude toward packs of wild dogs.
Where I live is a hunting area. People hunt deer, turkeys, groundhogs, squirrels, rabbits, birds, anything. Most people have a safe full of guns and have one or two in the truck.
But, strangely, they remain frightened of the idea of packs of dogs running amok. It's rumored that a guy about a mile through the woods from me has two big stock-killing-size dogs that often get loose; yet the local hunters seem "scared" of them (or maybe they're scared of HIM, I don't know). When I suggest that if ever see one of those dogs near my place, and he's still there when I level the sights on him, that I'll put a hollow point into him, they act like I'm not right in the head, even if they have 15 dead groundhogs in the back of their truck.
I was confronted by three dogs on a walk on my place recently, who advanced toward me, barking. I had a heavy walking stick on me, and began backing up with it at the ready (although I'm not exactly sure what "ready" is when facing multiple dogs, but I was going to give it a damn good try). They followed me at about 10 yards distance for a while, then backed off. I hustled back to the house, grabbed the Remington 870 with five rounds of "Hevi-Shot Dead Coyote", and went back looking for them but they were gone.
I usually have a pistol on my belt when in the woods, but not always. I always have a stick, though - maybe a few words of advice about stick work against dogs might be helpful? I like the idea of the spear and shield!
-LaMano
Sticking it to Wiley E. Coyote & Company
First, your retreat was sensible. We all know not to run from our inferiors. You don’t run from dog any more than you would argue with a woman or talk trash with a hoodrat.
I have been attacked by dogs on, I think four occasions:
2 pit bulls set on me by a man
A Rican dog set on my by two kids
1 loose pitbull
1 loose pitbull
I have also been followed by two pit bulls and by a scout for a pack of feral dogs who tracked me around the perimeter of his pack’s territory in Pig Town on one early winter morning.
I probably sinned when I turned on the two pits following me for blocks and kicked one into traffic. In retrospect I think they wanted me to be their master.
Wolves were a nightmare for early man, as they had superior speed, equal stamina—no other animal can keep up with men over a long distance—and comparable cohesion. When our ancestors ran into wolves it must have been a shock to be dealing with four-legs who had two-legged levels of organization and didn’t lay around all day like lions. Also, in times of war and famine wolves turn to scavenging human corpse and develop a taste for long pork. As a side note the failed America war in Indochina did have one positive ecological result. The tiger population boomed on human carrion.
To see a good example of what early man might have faced in wolves check out the third scene in Quest for Fire. Today many people use dogs as substitute children and even get eaten for their trouble in extreme cases. But in the darkest corners of our collective mind we remember the snap of jaws and the pad of many tireless paws.
What Works with Dogs
1. Draw a weapon. Canines hesitate against a man with a weapon unless they are trained for police or military work.
2. Retreating in good order, facing the dogs and holding weapon is a sound method but works best while armed, as you demonstrated.
3. Against pit bulls you have to watch your back. Even a lone pit bull will try and get behind you. Placing your back to a car, tree, wall or fence is important.
4. Stay on your feet. Never go to the ground with a dog or you will get chewed up.
5. Aggression works on dogs. Most dog packs will break when you attack—unless they are attack dogs, experienced pits or an actual wild, organized pack of canines. Most feral dogs will scatter when you go after them.
Stick versus Dog
For fighting a dog or dogs I recommend pass slashing, which is a saber method, which you will see Charles do a lot, where he strokes through the target while moving laterally to the side he has stroked to, putting body movement into power and moving his target zones away at the same time.
Do not present the arm or hand as a stiff-arm but brush off dogs diving for chest, face and throat with a winged forearm. I practiced this a lot with Chico, my friend Duz’s pitbull.
Keep the stick moving–whether a two handed stick or one handed—in a pendulum swing with a diagonal tilt of the stick to catch the legs. Dogs have skinny legs. A friend of mine who lives in Vegas has a friend who snapped a pit bull’s legs in his hands when it dragged him down. The legs are vulnerable.
With a two-handed weapon cave in the side of the had. I know a guy who killed 4 German Shepherds with a bat like this.
With a one-handed stick slash the leg at the joint and brush the leaping dog off with the empty hand.
Continual whacking with the same stroke can be read and timed by dogs, but synchronized slashes while moving should beguile them.
If a dog jumps for your face step back and hit a homerun with its head. This we call a fade slash, like a cut-off hook in boxing, using a pulling away motion to put power into a lateral stroke.
Knife versus Dog
Let it bite your forearm and carve its guts out if he is alone.
If it is a pack do the hand-in-and-down forearm wing black with the empty hand mentioned above and then a step away and slashes with the right hand.
Once you are off your heels in a dog against knife situation press the attack punching with the empty hand and stabbing the snout and throat and chest with the knife hand.
Once you get thirsty for blood with a knife in your hand, the dog will prove much wiser than a man and sense this, running away in most cases and if he stays, getting carved to pieces.
Rip slashes to long, tall dogs, by stabbing them in the throat or belly and then ripping them open will be every effective as they require their core and neck muscles for action.
If a pit bull gets your forearm in its jaws, stab it below the ear and then cut all around his lower jaw and remove that fucking thing from his face. You must not let a pit pull you down. Stay up, sell the arm to save your throat and face, and cut him off the arm.
I did attack a pair of dogs when I was a teen and once again when an adult and my experience was they are animals with poor defensive moral—they are all attack.
Unarmed?
Your ass is getting bitten up.
If a dog leaps up at you from a pace away then do a soccer kick across his hind legs and send him twirling to ground. As soon as he starts to spin jump up like Frankenstein throwing a tantrum and try to land with both heels on his fallen body or head.
This is a good finishing attack against a man too.
Punch or shove him with a straight shift, sweep him off balance and then, noting where he will fall, jump as high as you can and come down with both feet on him.
Actually, once you start doing this kind of stuff, most men and beasts flee.
Your attitude must be to kill when dealing with dogs.
Determine in your mind that you will kill this animal and must get closer to destroy it and it will understand, where most people would not and would force you to kill them, the dog is smarter than man and will break and run as soon as he senses your determination.
If you are unarmed, tuck your chin so it cannot get your throat and grab it’s fore legs. If you just get one foreleg, snap it between your hands. If you get both than swing around like a top and do a discus throw with this fucker and launch his ass into concrete or traffic.
The spear and shield will have its own article.
Until then, the best dog weapon is a bat, which is excellent for head shoots on leaping dogs and pendulum swings on dancing dogs.
Thank you, LaMano.
PS: Well the best anti-canine weapon is really the sword. So if you are in Texas make like Conan. I couldn’t find a clip of the wolves scene, but you will note that the riders of doom have my favorite breed of dog armored and in action. I highly recommend not letting anyone plant a battle axe in your back before engaging an armored war dog.
Links provided by Mister Bob:
Shorn of Little Sissy Things
A Fighter’s View of Ancient Combat: 2010-2014
Our Captain: A Sickness of the Heart-Part Two: The Expedition Of Juan De Grijalva
A Sickness of the Heart: Part One: The Blood Gods and The Sunrise Serpent: An Adaptation of Bernal Diaz' The Conquest of New Spain - The Expedition Of Francisco Hernandez De Cordoba
Here's a great example of a repelled dog attack.
youtube.com/watch?v=Udlw2xLXqEQ
Here's another one. Pretty humbling stuff. From personal experience, shock is a big factor when those jaws clamp on you.
youtube.com/watch?v=gNvFr4at8MU
I've been surrounded by a trio of three large German Shepherd style guard dogs, who circled me like wolves, before the alpha attached itself to my calf. The other two were set to join the fray, when a nearby soldier threw rocks at them and called them off. I got a bloody leg but nothing too serious. This was a country where I'd seen rabid dogs die in the gutter. Hike with a stick!
Large dogs' bites hurt like hell. Shock is assured!
Some really good advice and videos here ... much of it very similar to how you might treat a feral human aggressor, with the exception that dominating a dog with "Voice" can help, if you can put the snap of "Command" into it for a dog used to dealing with humans. But once you establish Dominance, the battle is half won.
Like I am with people, I'm all for civil, sociable companion or working dogs. It's great to see the so-called "real cops" videos, where some drug-crazed, shirtless maniac with a blade is in the middle of the street, screaming for the cops to come and get him. And then they turn the dog loose, and the guy screams like a little girl and runs to try to get away. Never ends well for the criminal.
And don't nobody let the bleeding-heart animal lovers tell you that a coyote won't attack a human. My wife was walking in a Western city park on a Sunday morning, a big, wild-looking park with a rocky creek running through the middle and no one in view, when a coyote came out of a den and squared off with her.
She normally carries a gun or a stick on such rambles; today she had neither, but she had our 50-pound male collie with her, and he immediately backed the coyote up. As soon as the coyote would turn, the dog would run back to my wife, at which time the coyote would advance and attack again.
After 3 or 4 such cycles, the dog ran the coyote back into the den, and he and my wife backed away out of the threat zone.
Fuzzy-thinking people are all like "But the coyote (or bear, or whatever) was just a mommy protecting her den!" That's a big help when Momma Bear sinks her teeth into you. I honestly don't care much about whether the animal is 'justified' or committing a 'hate crime' when it growls and leaps ....
Note also that guard dogs are trained to attack the arm, disturbing the balance, ideally resulting in a fall and making weapon deployment much harder. In the absence of a weapon, the only possible defense seems to dodge the initial high speed, arm-targeting, destabilizing charge, as in 01:05, and then use kicks when the dog attempts a second, but low-velocity attack.
youtube.com/watch?v=JUJqDfft1U0
For the record, I've also been bitten by a large dog on the buttock, where I didn't even see or sense the attack until it occurred. Again, I didn't save myself, but was saved by the dog's owner. The power of the larger dog's jaws is something you don't appreciate until it's on you. Thankfully, I've never been bitten by a pit bull or mastiff.
FYI, a 19 year-old woman was killed by coyotes in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia in 2009: cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/coyotes-kill-toronto-singer-in-cape-breton-1.779304 Then there was the Kelly Keen case in California in 1981: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Keen_coyote_attack Dig this case from B.C. cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/coyote-shot-dead-after-3-attack-b-c-woman-1.2463889 and this recent story from Edmonton, Alberta as well: ctvnews.ca/canada/edmonton-woman-s-large-dog-killed-by-coyotes-in-city-ravine-1.3804331. Plenty of coyotes in the Chicago suburbs now too: chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/12/27/why-are-coyotes-thriving-chicago-area There have been cougar sightings in the Milwaukee suburbs: jsonline.com/story/news/2018/02/18/dnr-confirms-cougar-seen-brookfield/349883002
Not to mention that dogs attacks in the region are so common as to be unremarkable (especially pit bulls): theepochtimes.com/pit-bull-mauls-elderly-woman-to-death-near-chicago-reports_2385304.html Just like the rest of the country. So between the dindus, dogs and forest predators there is no shortage of things that want to beat you up or eat you up when you go out for a walk. It's like a return to the frontier days, eh? Fill your hand pilgrim!