WikimediaHopefully you won’t need to know what to do if you’re attacked by a dog, they’re man’s best friend after all.
Unfortunately, every now and again, incidents of dogs attacking people do happen. So – in case that should ever happen to you – a Navy SEAL has offered some words of wisdom for if you find yourself in that position, and what to minimise the chances of serious injury.
The advice comes from former Navy SEAL Clint Emerson, who has written a book called 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative’s Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation, which sounds like it would be handy for anyone really, SEAL or not.
As Clint explains:
Guard yourself. Take your shirt, your jacket, whatever you have, maybe even a messenger bag or a purse – give that dog something to go after so that it’s not going after any other vital areas of your body.
You know what your vital areas of your body are. Cover that stuff up.
He continues:
Take your shirt off, put it around your arm. You want to protect mainly where the ulnar and radius flow, ’cause that’s where your major arteries are.
So if you’re going to give a dog your arm, give it the forearm, not [the inner wrist] ’cause that’s where all your vital arteries are.
Clint continues:
Punch it in the nose, in the muzzle. Reason being is the muzzle and nose is going to be right there front and centre – it’s a big target.
You can go for the eyes and some other areas of the body, but the reality is those are small targets. You want to go for big targets.
When you’re under stress, gross motor skills are about the only things that are going to work. So that means big movements by you to big targets on the dog. Anything else you’ll probably miss and give the dog the advantage.
You can watch Clint explain here:
The former SEAL adds:
Kicking it behind the arms, near the rib cage is also another alternative because it’s very sensitive underneath their armpits, just like it is for us.
If you’re going to fight, fight with vengeance, and try and make that dog understand that you are the alpha.
Useful advice right there – be the alpha, dog.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.