Dog Brothers Martial Arts came together as an idea around 1987. At least that is when I became involved in it's creation.

Three people had got together to train in a more realistic way than what was available to them previously. The state of full contact stick fighting in those days was limited to looking like the "Michelin Man" with excessive padding and extremely light sticks that seemed to favor a single style of combat due to the restrictive rules in place at that time. Those people were Eric "Top Dog" Knaus, Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny, and Arlen "Salty Dog" Sanford.

When I visited California in 1987 and called Eric Knaus (who I had met in 1981 in New York at Tom Bisio's school) and he invited me down to the Inosanto Academy for some late night sparring. His reputation had already grown to the point that Kajukenbo friends of mine in California were discussing his sparring method. I went down to see what he was doing and met a few of the group that became the Dog Brothers. I sparred with him and a few others that night. It was like I had come home. We wore a slightly heavier head gear in those days and that is about all in the way of protection.

The next year in 1988 the Video Series "Real Contact Stick Fighting" was filmed. I was asked to participate and we all had to come up with "Dog" names. I chose "Sled Dog". By that time the head gear had evolved to fencing head gear that had been decommissioned by fencing clubs.

Since that point Dog Brothers Martial Arts has grown both in size and reputation. There are two "Gatherings" per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Anyone who wants to test themselves on the field of combat is welcome as long as they follow this simple credo, be friends at the end of the day.

The head instructor of the Dog Brothers is Marc "Craft Dog" Denny. He has developed close ties with some highly regarded teachers such as Guro Dan Inosanto, Tuhon Leo Gaje, Dr. Maung Gy, and Rigan Machado and continues to evolve his knowledge with these teachers to improve Dog Brothers Martial Arts.

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