Would you know what to do if a dog attacked you? It’s not a far-fetched question. The National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly 5 million Americans are bitten by a dog each year!

Dogs! they’ve long been considered man’s best friend. But at some point you may encounter a dog that’s anything but friendly. In an instant, you could come face to face with a potential killer. Every day a thousand Americans end up in hospital emergency rooms suffering from dog bite injuries.

Luciano Aguilar began working with dogs in the military as part of the k-9 unit assigned to protecting Air Force One.

Today he works with the U.S. Postal Service teaching mail carriers … the group of Americans most often attacked by dogs … how to defend themselves .

Luciano’s tips to mail carriers: Stay calm. Never run. It creates prey. All dogs are hunters, right? They come from wolves. So that’s just going to cause them to come after you. The other thing you don’t want to do is you never want to stare a dog in its eyes. It will create a challenge. Rather, keep the dog in your peripheral and move away very slowly from the dog.

If you’re not able to get away and an aggressive dog advances toward you, Luciano says you should grab an object that you can use to fend off the dog. You want to try to create a barrier between you and the dog. So, a notebook, a briefcase, anything in your immediate surroundings can be used to create a barrier.

But what if the worst happens? You’re not able to ward off an attack and a dog starts biting you. Luciano says don’t give up.

If you ever find yourself being bitten by a dog, you’ll have so much adrenalin pumping that you’re probably not going to feel it anyway. Never go for the dog’s snout or head. Rather, grab the dog’s front paw. This is the most sensitive part of their body. What you want to do is hold and twist, hurting the dog. Now, this may sound cruel, but let’s be honest, the dog’s biting you, so that’s cruel.

Hopefully you never find yourself in front of a dog that wants to take a bite out of you. But if you do, remember these simple do’s and don’ts.

There are three levels of canine protection:

Level 1 – Dogs with no specialized training. They are family pets which can be any breed or any size. These pets react to any sudden changes around your home. Your pooch will alert you when someone is walking up to your house or he’ll react to noises you may not even hear.

Level 2 – Dogs with the ability to bark, growl or bare his teeth on command. If you feel threatened by someone home or on the street you can fire a canine ‘warning shot’ by getting your dog to act aggressively. Most people quickly back down.

Level 3 – Dogs which will not only alert you, bare their teeth or bark on command, they’re also trained to bite and hold an intruder until commanded to release him. Training never stops when you own this type of protection dog. If you don’t have the time or the inclination to train and maintain your dog’s skills, then this level of dog is probably not for you.