"J. Clarke" wrote in message ...


I am curious as to why a Marine should not instead of putting his hand down
the dog's throat instead use the muzzle of his M-16 for that purpose.

Probably depends on availability.

If the dog is an unneutered male, grasping his testicles firmly and
lifting his hindquarters off the ground would probably be effective,
though that particular manouver is easier when the dog is biting
someone else.

Keep in mind that muscles which open an animals mouth are quite weak
compared to those that close it. It is easy to snap a dog's mouth
shut by striking it with an upward blow on the chin. With luck, the
dog will bite its own tongue. It is not hard to grasp a dog by the
muzzle and hold his mouth shut--until he starts shaking his head.
But that can buy you a moment or two to gouge his eyes or kick him
in the throat or the underbelly below the ribcage.

If you can't stop the dog from biting then personally, I'd rather
give the dog my forearm than my hand because even if he breaks my
arm that's probably easier to fix than a mangled hand. Whichever
he has hold of, I'd then try to use it to raise his head so that
I could kick his throat or the underbelly below the ribcage. If
I couldn't raise him enough to get to his throat I'd gouge his
eyes with my other hand. Unless I just happened to have a Stanley
#8 in my other hand, but that is someone else's story.

As others have pointed out, the best strategy to stave off any
attack by facing the dog down with attitude.

--

FF