I had the pleasure of “playing” with a Guard Dog flashlight before I knew exactly what I was “playing” with. Oh yes! There is a story. It wasn’t mine and the owner wasn’t around to give proper advice or training on it.

So I ran across a nifty looking flashlight. It looked rather powerful. The first thing that caught my eye was the word “Guard Dog” written on it. That’s a cute name for a flashlight right? It’s just a flashlight. It was bright. Since I like to have my battery powered equipment to use the same size batteries, I figured I would unscrew the end and see. After a few attempts to unscrew the ends resulting in failure, maybe the extra little button was the battery release. So having a firm grip on the light end and pushing the “battery release button” I found out why the light is call that Guard Dog. It has a tazer!!! Needless to say, the flashlight promptly hit the ground and left me laughing my head off.

After my little experience with this thing, I had to give it some analysis. It does well as a flashlight. The scalloped edge would make it a good striking instrument. The tazer cannot be used simultaneously with the light.

As for the tazer….. The fact that I shocked myself, although it was in my hand and not a body shot, and I was able to immediately laugh I have to question its ability to incapacitate an attacker. It cannot be used unless in tazer mode with the light off. The button to activate the tazer is probably way too small to use in a panic situation. The user would have to be in arms length of the attacker. That’s way to close but it happens. The tazer may be effective if the person being attacked could hold it to the attacker’s body and drive them to the ground. That would require a level of violence that most people have in them. Most likely it would just make the attacker mad and more determined if they only received a momentary jolt.

Considering my experience with the Guard Dog, It makes a great flashlight. The tazer feature is not something I would want to rely on. In my opinion, it is a great concept but falls short in its ease to deploy. I will save my money for a less expensive light and a good pair of running shoes.