As noted, Dog Brothers is a fundamentally a way of training. As originally established by a group of stick fighters – including Tuhon Philip Sled Dog Gelinas – and eventually framed by Marc Crafty Dog Denny:

The spirit of the fights is that of members of the same tribe helping each other to prepare to defend the land, women, and children of the tribe. Both going too hard and going too soft are counterproductive. In this spirit, what might be too much for one man to handle, could be too little for another. It is a sign of respect for your “opponent” to really go after him-you are saying you respect and believe in his skill and spirit to deal with it, yet at the same time even in the adrenaline of the moment you are looking out for his welfare so as to not damage him and thus weaken the tribe. It is in your best interest that he be as good a warrior as possible when you stand together in battle.

And while the words quoted above speak from the male orientation toward warcraft, protector roles, and brotherhood from which Dog Brothers was born, it can be applied to anyone who chooses to test themselves in this way. At maelstrom we strive to make sure the experience is open to all. We may all have limits we wish to exceed, goals we wish to reach, and a new self we wish to meet. The Dog Brothers approach is a proven way to achieve that kind of transformation. Again to quote Marc (who seems to generate most of the really memorable quotes):

Higher consciousness through harder contact.

Or, as we say at maelstrom:

The way out is through

DBMA is a system of weapons fighting with elements from many styles. It has evolved out of the fighting experience of the Dog Brothers, and is founded in Filipino stick fighting, but has come to include significant influence from Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Thai krabi krabong, Indonesian pencak silat, and other fighting systems. Similar in philosophy, it was also influenced by Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do: DBMA absorbs “what works, discarding what does not”.
The Dog Brothers conception and methodology was originally established by a small group of martial artists in 1988, leading figures among them Philip Sled Dog Gelinas, Eric “Top Dog” Knaus, Arlan “Salty Dog” Sanford, and Marc Crafty Dog Denny. For most of these martial artists, guro Dan Inosanto was and is an important influence, if not their direct teacher. The early days of DBMA revolved around training and experimentation at the Inosanto Academy in Los Angeles, CA. Top Dog and Sled Dog were originally informed by Pekiti-Tirsia System of Kali, while Crafty Dog primarily applied Lacoste-Inosanto kali and then later Machado BJJ, and Salty Dog brought the Thai arts to the table.

DBMA still constitutes a wide range of influences. And the shorthand “Dog Brothers” can now refer to several different things: There are two relevant to training at maelstrom:

One is Dog Brothers as a chosen name for a methodology of training that can include almost any martial style or system. There are (male) DB fighters who attain a certain recognition within the DB practices who are referred to as a “Dog Brother”, and receive or choose a name with “Dog” in it or related to it. The other is Dog Brothers Martial Art (DBMA) that is a specific expression of Dog Brothers practices, incorporating a curriculum developed primarily by Crafty Dog, the head of the DBMA initiative.

At maelstrom, involvement in a Dog Brothers approach is voluntary and according to personal goals. We selectively apply the terms and methodologies to achieve our own approach to training – open to everyone, balanced for safety, and rooted in our core values – Respect, Safety, Equality.