Knife Defense for Your Life!

Moving on to other interesting topics, I’d like to take a few minutes and wind up the fighting knives segments with an incident that interrupted my musings on a picnic table at a sunny park last week.

As usual, the warm sunshine drove everyone inside on a 70 degree afternoon, to eat a grand feast celebrating some birthdays in the family. We live on the Great Lakes and 70 degrees in the spring is not warm near the water yet. The chilly breezes rolling in from the lake make you feel cold in a very short time. I was of course, prepared by throwing an insulated sweat jacket over my shirt before I arrived. Apparently no one else thought about it? So, I sat in the warm sunshine to smoke, indulging my remaining vice. Fine with me. I get a lot of my best thinking done with a smoke, staring into the cosmos while the wheels upstairs spin methodically along.

It wasn’t long before a nephew’s “little puppy” had to be brought outside for pissing all over the inside of the house. He was just a young, but full sized Boxer, rippling with muscle and barking like heck. Naturally they chained him to a 30 foot logging chain which did wonders for him, as he immediately began behaving aggressively. Chains do that to dogs, not a great idea for a young dog eh?? He spotted me quietly smoking & looking at the lawn, and raised a royal fuss about it. Again and again he came shooting toward me, only to be cut short by the chain.

After watching this scenario play out over and over again, I began to think; “what the heck would I do if this was an older and dangerous model, and he was bent on chewing me up”, then what would I do? This young male had the ability but probably not the “heart” to follow through with a full blown attack. My mind drifted back in time to a “Canine Command School” I managed for a year, while laid off from my normal job. These were very tough dogs! All big Shepherds, Dobies and a few big old Rott’s. They were in various stages of “police training”, as well as similar education for “personal” guard dogs. We kenneled about 15 – 20 dogs daily and the trainers worked them on obedience and attack in both English and Schutzen (German) commands.

I recalled a pattern in these dogs behavior that could be exploited for one’s safety. Unfortunately such dogs, and other very aggressive dogs will not back down and the stakes become life or death. No joking! I’ve held the mitt and took a bite from a 110 lb. German Shepard, you’d have to be there I guess? I noticed that the chief problem with most trained dogs is that they will “hit the pads” 99.9% of the time. I have thrown the mitt on the ground before making contact and the vicious police dogs would abandon me without pause, and break off to nail the pad EVERY time. I also noted that most UN-trained dogs will lunge at, or bite whatever is offered to them first. That could only be the arm.

That’s when the light went on! While wondering how to defend against this young boxer that wanted to jump on me, I thought of weapons. A nice 500K volt stun baton would have been wonderful, but at a picnic, nah! But as always, I felt the light polymer handle of my large, “Cold Steel” tactical folder against my leg. The Voyager model, with tanto blade was definitely up to the job as a last resort weapon.

Timing, and of course a high quality folder like I was carrying, or my razor sharp butterfly knife with a partially serrated blade would be the right medicine for vicious dogs. (we’re talking “tough dogs” now…the kind that will kill you or make you wish they had) The trick would be to wait for the last moment before the final leap, and softly slide into a fighting stance, then offer the lead arm to the attacking pooch. A trained dog will take the arm like a “bee to honey”, and most other dogs will take it just because it’s the first thing to bite. As the dog locks down on your arm/hand (this really hurts BTW!), simply yield your stance back if they are coming to hard, (this will buy you a second) or step up with your back leg and arm (holding the knife), and open his throat from ear to ear with your knife.

This scenario assumes a left foot forward stance, and the knife hand to the rear in the right hand. The forward foot (left) stance leaves the lead hand empty to act as what we call our “check hand” or “sacrifice hand”. Feed him the check hand and either slide in or step around, (if you had to yield a step) and open them up. Roll those sentences through your mind a few times and you’ll see it quite clearly. These are some harsh words to swallow but if you get squeamish reading this, then you have no business carrying a knife or gun for self defense. Guns + Knives + Attacker = possible use of deadly force!