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[ledgekindred]

So this is a new fort in 31.21 and I got my first goblin snatcher.  A random dog attacked him as he stumbled away from my stonefall traps.  He then proceeded to grab the goblin by the head and shake him around before dropping him and grabbing him again...

...for 36 pages of combat report.

The goblin kept passing out from exhaustion, so the dog was free to gnaw on his head and shake him around for about 10 minutes of real-time before I actually felt bad for the goblin, drafted a makeshift military and sent it out to put it out of its misery.  By having my completely untrained peasant rip its arm off and letting it bleed to death. 

While the dog continued to shake it around by its head.

I love this dog but I do have one lingering question.  Why the heck didn't the head just pop off after the first fifteen or twenty times the dog picked it up and shook it viciously around?  That goblin had one tough head I guess.

[Light forger]

A: Was it a war dog?
B: Animals don't gain skills but, if this was a dwarf he would have been a grand master biter and ripped his head off. But no go for the dog.

[Sphalerite]

In Dwarf Fortress, multiple small injuries never add up to one large one.  You can fracture or bruise a body part forever, but it will never add up to severing or destroying it.  You have to be able to do enough damage to destroy or sever a part in a single blow, and the dog wasn't able to do that.

[ledgekindred]

Nope not a war dog.  Just a random dog who happened to be by the entrance at the same time the goblin was discovered.

Too bad he couldn't have gained Legendary "Shaking things by the head" skill.  He'd be one tough mother and I'd draft him.  He'd single-handedly crazy-shake a whole siege apart, head-by-head.

Even so, I can only imagine how much fun that dog was having.

"Arf!  Goblin snatcher!  Me big dog, grab goblin by head!  Tasty head.  I chew on head.  Grrrr, shake shake shake.  Grrrrr, shake shake shake.  This fun!  Happy dog."

[Torgan]

Too bad he couldn't have gained Legendary "Shaking things by the head" skill.  He'd be one tough mother and I'd draft him.  He'd single-handedly crazy-shake a whole siege apart, head-by-head.

The perfect hydra defence!

[EveryZig]

That's why I gave all animals the [CAN_LEARN] tag. That and seeing the merchants arrive with mule carpenters is funny. (You still can't assign animals labor though.)

[malroth]

that and teeth are currently about as hard and sharp as leather.   Soft leather not the hardend stuff.

[Sphalerite]

that and teeth are currently about as hard and sharp as leather.   Soft leather not the hardend stuff.

Actually, that was fixed some versions back.  Tooth in the current version is comparable to bone in strength and sharpness.  It's still not going to bite through metal however.

[ledgekindred]

The goblin was only wearing a leather cap, and the dog was able to injure the goblin's head, repeatedly.  He managed to hold onto and shake him around long enough that his scalp partially healed a few times.  Although the goblin kept passing out from exhaustion.

If he hadn't been so close to the entrance that it kept my dwarves from going in or out, I probably would have left him there as a chew toy.

[greycat]

In Dwarf Fortress, multiple small injuries never add up to one large one.  You can fracture or bruise a body part forever, but it will never add up to severing or destroying it.  You have to be able to do enough damage to destroy or sever a part in a single blow, and the dog wasn't able to do that.

I thought that was changed about 10 releases ago, to allow dwarves to gradually hack off the head of a bronze colossus with repeated axe blows.  Or was that change only made for colossi/megabeasts, or only for beasts made of inorganic materials?

[Marshall Burns]

There's a [SEVER_ON_BREAKS] tags on inorganic beasties. I haven't tested it, but i suspect that's what makes the difference.

[Jeoshua]

In Dwarf Fortress, multiple small injuries never add up to one large one.  You can fracture or bruise a body part forever, but it will never add up to severing or destroying it.  You have to be able to do enough damage to destroy or sever a part in a single blow, and the dog wasn't able to do that.

... this is a design error, if you ask me.  No, I don't want to be killed from having my toe stepped on 100,000 times... but maybe I should lose the toe.  Locally accumulating damage would seem to be a good option.