Dogs can bite you, body slam you, claw at you, or lick you silly but did you know that a dog can punch you in the nose and give you a nosebleed? I didn’t, until yesterday. I’d already learned about that lovely little dog trick called the Body Slam but the Sucker Punch was a new one on me.
The first time our dog Dakota body slammed me, I went down so hard I was sure that bones had been broken. Thankfully they hadn’t but it hurt like hell just the same. I didn’t know what a body slam was before adopting Dakota, who is half Australian Cattle Dog.
We were outdoors where Dakota could run off all that Australian Cattle Dog energy and she loves to run at full speed around our big fenced yard, doing figure eights around the trees and playing the Chicken Game with me.
The Chicken Game is where your dog runs straight at you, veering off at the last possible second before body slamming into you. That time however, she didn’t veer off and she slammed straight into my knees at full speed. A 65 pound dog slamming into you at top speed can really knock you for a loop. We both went flying and when I hit the ground, I didn’t get up for a long time.
The Body Slam incident taught me to stay close to trees when Dakota started playing the Chicken Game. Dogs usually veer off if a tree is involved. Australian Cattle Dogs are known for the Body Slam, a factoid I learned the hard way.
It had been a long time since Dakota had hurt me like that so I was totally unprepared for the events that unfolded yesterday. We were in the backyard and Dakota was laying down. I was kneeled down leaning over her when suddenly she decided to jump up without warning.
I’m not sure what Dakota’s original intent was but she literally exploded upwards, slamming me square in the nose with the back of her head. I must have let out quite a holler because she stopped dead in her tracks and looked at me, not sure what to do next.
She hit me so hard with the knobby bone on the back of her head that I was absolutely positive she’d broken my nose. I could feel liquid gushing from my nostrils and when I reached up to touch my nose, sure enough my hand came back covered with blood.
I can’t fathom how this dog managed to sucker punch me in the nose with the back of her head, but somehow she did and it hurt like bloody hell. Thankfully my nose was not broken but I was dizzy a bit out of it for the rest of the day. — Originally posted on March 25, 2011
Dakota was a semi-adult shelter dog who was the Queen of Bad Behavior and the Master of Dirty Tricks. Bad Dog to Best Friend takes you from Dakota’s awful beginnings to her amazing transformation.
