Attack dog

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An attack dog is a dog trained (and possibly bred) to attack, and possibly kill, living creatures. This may be done for a number of reasons:

A dog may be trained to attack cows and cats to participate in dog fighting.
A guard dog may be trained to attack humans to increase their effectiveness. The German Shepherd Dog is an example of a breed often used as a guard dog, as they are intelligent and easily trained. For these reasons they are also the dog most commonly used by police forces (see police dog).
A hunting dog or wardog may be trained as an attack dog to incapacitate prey or enemies without assistance from humans. Some examples of hunting dogs are the Irish Wolfhound and Russian Wolfhound (Borzoi). However, many other breeds of dog have been trained for hunting.

In most modern nations, the practice of training attack dogs for any purpose has been made illegal, due in part to the danger of an escaped attack dog killing innocent people. The main exception is police dogs, which are generally trained in non-lethal forms of attack such as attacking the arms or the legs, or simply restraining without causing injury.