Matchup: Man vs. Dog

[Blarg]

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Hmmm....I figured man 100% and I've spent my life around big dogs.

but after reading, I think man 7 of 10 is pretty close. While modern man may be fearful-wimpy at first, a real death match will provoke even modern man to fight harder than most imagine.

Now, say 2 dogs vs 1 man and it ain't even close. Dog every time.

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You mean modern man as in modern American sendentary desk warrior?

There's too much of a difference between wanting to be tough and actually be able to be tough. Most people aren't in very good shape and would get winded, would freeze in fear or scramble around near randomly in panic, etc. We're all heroes, hypothetically, but I think most of us would be losing a battle against our sphinctres.

Most people could probably not handle the pressure and fear, and pain, mentally, and not have adequate conditioning, reflexes, or balance. You could argue the first part, but I really doubt you could successfully argue the second. You just can't successfully pull reflexes, conditioning, or a sense of balance out of your arse.

Further, I think most people overrate their ability to land powerful blows and also to have them slow down an angry dog. You'll be mobile and likely off balance a good part of the time, so your punches will mostly suck. The dog will be highly mobile and a shifting target, so your punches will mostly suck. And, frankly, most guys punch like girls in the first place even if the target is standing there like an idiot. I know, because I've been that idiot. Most people take a long time to learn how to punch particularly well.

[Blarg]

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I think many of the people picking man don't recognize the effects of severe bloodloss and shock. Humans (in most part of the world) have turned into pretty lazy, wimpy creatures. It's easy to say you'd just allow the dog to rip your arm/leg to shreds while you incapacitate it; but in reality the pain/bloodloss/shock of having your limb torn apart might prevent you from effectively punching or eyegouging the animal. Meanwhile a savage enraged dog will continue to fight until it's unconscious/dead.

Swede

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Yup. People are idealizing themselves too much, and taking their virtues too much in a void. Throw some severe pain, fear, and disorientation in the mix, add some lack of conditioning and poor reflexes and balance, and things start to take on a different hue. Add in some potential partial crippling as even some seemingly minor areas get torn up, and/or some blood loss, ditto -- uh oh.

[Hoya]

No way, Blarg. I fully believe that most posters here could easily gouge out a dog's eyes while it is busy shaking its head wildly and tearing the flesh from their arm.

[Duke]

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I would bet money if my rottweiler were trained it would take out 95% of people

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OK, now consider that your dog is bigger and stronger than 95% of other dogs, too.

[Lazy Meatball]

[i typed my response to another man/animal combat thread, then realized it was more relevant here]

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I should have been more clear. Could a person stick a finger through the eyesocket and possibly hit the brain?

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From looking at this dog's skull, it appears there is bone structure behind the eye socket protecting the brain. It's still possible, but it would take some maneuvering.


If you can get a dog lateral and into a sleeper hold it's game over. Bonus points if you can use your legs to prevent his hind limbs from getting enough leverage to right himself.

To achieve this you are going to have to fend of his inital lunges. If it's a big dog with a running start, your only hope is some sort of last second get out of the way judo move. After that it's going to be up to some kicks at the dogs head, as you can't allow your forearms to be exposed to his jaws. Try to fend him off and at a moment of weakness you are going to try to pounce and get as much weight on the side of the dogs neck as possible, of course you have to get a tight close grip on his neck to make sure he can't reach you with his jaws. Once you disable his neck and head you should be able to grapple him to he ground and into submission. To get to this point you can not confront him head on, you'll have to scramble until you can approach him from the side.

People trying to eye gouge and break limbs are wasting their time. Inflicting pain would be a good strategy to to temporarily stop the dog from biting you, but it won't finish him off. I'm sure a game pitbull will continue lunging at the scent of you once you gouged his eyes out.

ps. keep your fingers tucked whenever they are near a dogs mouth. his jaws will brush off your knuckles most of the time, whereas they will grip and hold onto a finger. If he does get your finger (assuming they are not broken/uselss) you need to push against a fleshy part of the inside of his mouth that will instinctively make him gag to get him to release.



pps. This all assuming the dog is some sort of unthinking machine hellbent on your destruction. In reality the battle would be much more psychological as most dogs will submit physically once you have eliminited their fears and have exhibited dominance over them.

[bulldawgblue]

I really good question that has not been answered in this thread is:

Can you knock a dog out by punching it in the head?

[Dave G.]

I pick man, though I agree with the point that the man could easily die after the dog is dead from blood loss. Some mention the reflexes of the dog, but I think the speed of the reflexes of humans are being underestimated too.

If the man knows he is fighting for his life, he's going to be every bit as sharp, focused, and dedicated to the fight as the dog. So the arguments about the man going into shock or whatever whilst the dog fights on no matter what I don't really believe. I think the man too fights until his last dying breath, just as every species does when its life is under threat. Remember the guy that sawed off his own arm with a dull pocket knife after it got trapped under the boulder? Humans are also capable of incredible feats when faced with death.

Man is also much more intelligent than the dog. The dog knows how to kill with brute force, and this will be his ultimate goal. However, he does not have the mental capacity to be able to break this final goal down into smaller steps, something the man can do by critically thinking about a dogs inherent weaknesses.

The dog goes for the kill all in one go - the man can formulate a much more sophisticated plan that involves crippling the dog (kicking at its thin legs), disabling the dog with eye gouges, strikes to the throat or rib cage, or even to the dogs balls if the situation presents itself. The dog on the other hand has no such understanding of human weaknesses aside from the fact that they don't like to be eaten.

Finally, the dogs bite is the only thing that can really hurt the man. The man has many more tools available - fingers to the eyes or throat, fists, arms, elbows, knees, headbutts, and most importantly legs. Even an untrained man can kick decently hard by sheer virtue of the fact that a human leg weighs so much - a trained man has a devastating enough kick that it wouldn't really be much of a match. Legs give us range the dog will never have. As a very last resort, the man could even bite the dog.

Man has more weapons, more size, and more intelligence. 20,000 years or whatever ago we owned the dogs without all the tools we have today, we can do it again.

[jman220]

Instead of in a room with nothing around, put this in nature, and the man wins every time. All he needs to do is quickly pick up a rock or a big stick and the advantage switches to him huge. And thats what would happen in nature. Thats why we're at the top of the food chain.

[Lazy Meatball]

It is possible for a man to apply enough force to a dog's head to knock it out, but he will have little chance of getting a clean blow. This is not a good strategy against a moving dog.

Now as for dave G,
he makes some good points abot the underestimations of human willpower, but he also makes a few errors about dog behavior as well.

First off, attacking the dogs legs is not going to do much. A three legged dog still has a good chance to attack you. And the dog is not going to stay still enough for you to go after a leg without biting you. Any hit you get on his leg will just brush off.

And I don't know why you would try to strike the rib cage as opposed to going for the soft abdomen. That's like punching a football player in the shoulder pads.

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The dog on the other hand has no such understanding of human weaknesses aside from the fact that they don't like to be eaten.

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Now this is just flat out wrong as the dog has millions of years of evolution and instinct that teach it where and how to attack in order to bring down prey or defend against rivals. Dog bite wounds agianst children are frequently in the eye area of the face as a frightned dog knows that striking the eyes is likely to wound and disorient it's opponent. Doctors who treat these wounds know this as a fact. Dogs know other weak points to go after as well, mostly hands, face and throat.


DaveG is correct that the dogs only threatening weapon is it's jaws. The rest of it's body strentgh is only useful as a means of applying those jaws, and once those jaws are applied, pulling and thrashing.

[Dave G.]

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First off, attacking the dogs legs is not going to do much. A three legged dog still has a good chance to attack you. And the dog is not going to stay still enough for you to go after a leg without biting you. Any hit you get on his leg will just brush off.

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The dog will not be able to immediately compensate for the loss of a leg if you happen to break one - it would take him several minutes at least to make that adjustment. In the meantime, he will continue to try to use the broken leg out of habit - every time he does, he falters, whinces and slows, allowing you to pounce. Even once he does adjust, he will be slower and more vulnerable. It will end quickly once a leg is broken. Yes you'll probably get bitten in the process, but a bite won't always end the fight - a broken leg always does.

As for the other stuff, yes I may be underestimating a dogs ability to pick out human weaknesses. I do argue however that a human is in a better position to exploit the weaknesses of the dog, given his much more diverse avenues of attack.