Samurai Dog Armor

• Tim
  February 13th, 2008 at 5:04 pm

  Not sure if the author was implying that the sog owner was eccentric because he was protecting his dog, but dogs have been used in combat for thousands of years, and nowadays bomb sniffing dogs wear body armor just like their law enforcement handlers. I have heard that one dog was knighted in Britain for his bravery, but I haven’t bothered to verify that…

• gail
  February 13th, 2008 at 6:46 pm

  I think he probably means it seems a little impractical for actual use in battle (especially the helmet)

• gail
  February 13th, 2008 at 6:47 pm

  The body armor looks very much like the kevlar suits modern war dogs use, though.

• marieissah
  February 14th, 2008 at 2:48 am

  Poor dogs

• Alex
  February 14th, 2008 at 3:20 am

  So that’s where Jeff de Boer got his inspiration from!

• Sam
  February 14th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

  Akita dogs were common on the battle fields of the Fuedal period in Japan.

  They did not actually enter the battle unless the enemy lost face by retreating. The Akita dog has twice the bite pressure of a German Shephard, three times that of a Doberman.

  One prominent Damiyo kept a kennel of 1200 war dogs, each with its own handler.

  But the armor shown above would have probably been cerimonial, the helmet would have made biting impossible and the backpiece would have slowed them down.

• .swinedriver.
  February 14th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

  Ah, and let us not forget Giger’s contribution:

  http://www.hrgiger.com/missing/WorkNo075b.jpg

• katelady
  February 20th, 2008 at 3:14 am

  Not good dogs. Some people on horsematch.com argued this before.

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