Dog bite injuries

[red_fox_writer]

Setting: medieval England (1193 to be precise

Comments

[lied_ohne_worte]

I think that a dog that size will not necessarily only injure her leg, depending on its aggressiveness. It could easily jump and latch onto other parts of her that aren't well-protected or even throw her to the ground, at which point it could go for pretty much all her body. I guess this whole scenario really depends on why and how it's attacking her, and on her ability to fend it off.

[sollersuk]

Agreed. A dog that size would go for unprotected areas and would probably be able to knock her off her feet.

The biggest worry would be rabies. This would be seen as particularly likely if it was an unprovoked attack - that is, she had not gone into an area that it was guarding. A dog that size would be unlikely to be wandering around unsupervised as the forest laws were still in effect and this is clearly a dog that could be used for hunting, and if it was wandering around loose might well be rabid.

[naamah_darling]

Yeah, it's actually going to depend a lot on the dog and what it wants to do to her, if it's trained to kill, to immobilize, or is just acting instinctively. Or if it's sick/crazy. Also, whether it's alone, with friends, or even just used to being with friends. Has it ever hunted? Has it fought with other dogs? Is it just a really pissed off pet? Dogs can be really clever and know a lot of nasty tricks if they are used to hunting or fighting, but untrained dogs acting on instinct alone can be pretty incompetent.

Wild dogs will try to get you on the ground one way or another, and then they will go for vulnerable spots. Face, throat, flailing arms that get in the way. In groups, they immobilize the limbs and tend to tear in two different directions.

In writing any animal attack scenario, the animal is actually its own character, and should be treated as such. It's actually really fun to approach it that way.

[lied_ohne_worte]

Addition: If you want her to have only slight injuries, you might be better off with a smaller dog. As a child of about five, I was attacked by a dachshund, a really small thing actually. I hadn't provoked it, it even knew me, but it was deaf and blind and suddently thought I was a danger to the old lady who owned it. It went for both my legs and gave me several wounds, most of them like punctures, but one rather larger (it left a scar two centimeters long and one wide). Anyway, I was able to not only walk, but run home afterward. I had to run because the dog was being restrained by its owner, but managed to pull its head out of the collar, bite the owner, and run after me. (Of course, I had a phobia for years after. And the owner claimed that I had provoked the dog, but we soon found out that it had already attacked several other innocent people in our village.)

[gargoylekitty]

The damage would depend on the thickness of the boot/amount of time it has attacking her. Maybe watching some videos on attack dogs might help get a feel for what a dog can do?

[naamah_darling]

A dog that size could rip the crap out of a person's leg even through boots if it was really set on kicking her ass. I'd expect the boot to just be bloody as all get-out and probably torn up pretty well, depending on how long it had to go at her. In my experience, people drastically underestimate the ability of animals to inflict horrifying damage on the human body. They also dramatically underestimate the time it takes to heal from a serious injury, especially before things like painkillers, antibiotics, and modern medicine

[red_fox_writer]

The dog is actually trying to kill her - it's a trained guard dog. There's also another dog which has knocked her over and is trying to bite her throat - the only thing stopping it is the fact that she has forced her bow between its jaws and is sort of pushing it away. (I think the dogs are probably smaller than an alsation) Now i think about it, i don't think this is very realistic either.
As for injuries, she needs to be out of action for quite a while so i suppose she could be injured anywhere on her body, though preferably not her arms.
Her boots are made of very tough leather (like cowboy boots) so I was hoping for them to provide some sort of protection for her.
Suggestions as to a believable scenario are very welcome - I've been trying to work this section out for quite a while now and it still doesn't make sense!
Thanks for all your comments so far - they're very helpful. :)

[denkichan]

I don't know anything about dog attacks, but reading through the comments, it sounds like your character is likely to get overwhelmed by two trained dogs. Maybe you could control the damage by using the environment, like she jumped a fence but one dog catches her leg and it holds her enough to do damage but doesn't do more because it can't maul her and get through the fence at the same time (and if it's working with another dog, maybe it's thinking it'll just hold her in place while the dog she's fending off with her bow will do the finishing off). Or maybe she was climbing up something and the boot-dog drags her down, but she loses her balance too completely and goes tumbling down an embankment (or maybe purposely or accidentally puts it out of commission on her way down), so there's only the one dog to fight off with the bow.

[red_fox_writer]

I like the idea of the dog pulling her down - maybe from a tree or something. Perhaps if she kills the first dog and then tries to climb a tree but the other dog pulls her down. That sounds more plausible i think - thanks for the suggestion :)

[denkichan]

No problem - good luck with the scene =)

[y2jdingo]

Not versed in anything resembling your time frame, so I'll just go on the dog bite

[red_fox_writer]

This is really helpful - thanks.
I think I'll go for the pulling off her boot thing and then the dog biting her bare leg - though I'll have it killed off before it can do any really terrible/ permanent damage.