Attack Dogs and Self-Defence

Having trained and used attacks dogs, I rate them as one of the best forms of self-defence. An attack dog will take on multiple attackers, armed attackers and other dogs. It can be trained to give chase or to stay close and to defend its master and to fight in a pack or on its own. It can also be trained to take down attackers armed with guns or knives, but a decent attack dog is more than a ferocious weapon that will rip a person apart on command: they can also be trained release the victim on command.

For those who don’t know the difference between an attack dog and a guard dog, an attack dog is specifically trained to attack humans and a guard dog isn’t, although a guard dog on a chain or rope will attack anything within biting distance that it doesn’t think should be within biting distance. There’s a debate as to whether training a guard dog to attack humans makes it more dangerous or not. Some people argue that an attack dog is less dangerous because it can be taught to pin their victims and a guard dog can’t but I don’t really go along with that, you can teach a dog to maim or kill but you can’t teach them not to maim or kill. An attack dog is what it is — a weapon – it can’t be a family pet.

No dog should be left alone with small children because the only dogs that don’t bite are the ones with no teeth. Attack dog should never be given free roam of the house or allowed to eat in the same room that humans do, and most breeds of attack dog need a male handler. Women shouldn’t handle any dog they can’t physically control, let alone an attack dog.

My three favourite breeds of attack dog are the Cane Corso, Mastino Napoletano and Rottweiler. I’ve used all three breeds when I was working as a bodyguard, they all formidable dogs. Until you’ve seen an attack dog in real combat you can’t really appreciate just how effective they are but hopefully the videos on this blog give some idea of  how capable they are.

I currently own two Cani Corso, sometimes called Branchiero Siciliano, and have trained several, who I’ve used in combat. In my opinion they’re the best attack dog breed (see above): they have the perfect balance of muscle, agility, strength, stamina and endurance, and they’re also highly intelligent, fearless, and have a great temperament — they were also bred specifically as a bodyguard dog and are descended from the legendary Roman Canis Pugnax (dog of war).

My second favourite is the Mastino Napoletano, also a direct descendent of the Canis Pugnax. I just bought a Mastino puppy, when he’s fully grown, he’ll be in excess of 70kg of raw power. Although the Mastino is not as agile or as athletic as the cane corso, they’re equally fearless, have incredible pain tolerance, and are natural attack dogs. They also rarely bark — they’re silent assassins.

My third choice of attack dog is the Rottweiler, another awesome but often underrated breed of dog. Rottweiler’s have courage, strength, size and a great temperaments. They’re also another highly trainable dog, who respond well to commands. I’ve owned and trained a couple and used to have one work on the door with me. They great judges of character.

The Dogo Canario has all the physical attributes to be a great attack dog and a lot of people rate them, they big, powerful, fast and agile, and they’re a fearless breed with excellent fighting instinct, but they can be quite hard to control. With an expirenced handler they make a very capable attack dog.

The Fila Brasileiro is banned in the UK for being a member of a proscribed terrorist organisation. But when they’re not starting revolutions or being subversives, they make damn fine attack dogs. Again difficult to control because they very protective and notoriously aggressive to stranger.

The German Shepherd is probably the most famous police attack dog. They’re fast, athletic, pack animal, with good stamina and they pretty easy to train but to be honest they’re not a very good attack dog, of the main attack dog breeds, it’s the one I’d fear least. It’s can knock you down but if you see it coming it can be thrown about like a rag dog. It just doesn’t have the weight or strength. t’s not the power of the bite, it’s the power of the dog that matters. As a breed they’ve got an aggressive temperament. The Malinois, one of the four Belgium Shepherd dog breeds, is favoured by some police forces because it has a better temperament than the German Shepherd and it’s smaller. But the Dutch Shepherd is better in my opinion. It has a great temperament and although it’s smaller than the German Shepherd, it’s more agile and athletic, and makes more of an impact with its jump attack.

In my opinion none of these shepherd dogs have enough size or strength to be truly effective. They can bring a man down but on the fround they can be easily out wrestled and lets face it, the average geezer could beat one to death with his fist.

Some people train Pit Bulls to be attack dogs — I wouldn’t recommend it because it goes against the grain. They were bred to be fighting dogs and not show aggression to humans. If they’re trained to attack humans they can be hard to call off and unpredictable. The breed is responsible for most of the fatal dog attacks on humans in America. The other reason I don’t think they make a particularly good attack dog is although they’re muscular, agile, and have great power to weight ratio, they’re small by attack dog standards. That said, Pit Bulls are still capable of knocking a man to the floor and savaging him while he’s down.

As a personal defence weapon, attack dogs are brillant and they also have the added benefit of being legal to walk around with, unlike most other weapons, which is always a plus.