How strong is a dog compared to a human?

Some dogs are stronger than humans. All dogs are faster. Dogs have faster reflexes-up to 3 times faster. Many dogs can run more than 30 mph (51 kph), whereas the fastest human can only reach about 20 mph in a short burst. Dogs can bite you faster than you can move. But those considerations are not in your question. You want to know about strength.

How strong are dogs compared to humans? Well let us reason together. The largest humans are stronger in terms of sheer muscle power than the largest dogs—-with the possible exception of the mastiff (230 lbs/ 104Kg). But look at someone like Alexander Karelin (photo from Safari browser):

despite his impressive teeth and 286 lbs/ 130kg weight, Karelin is still a biped. The quadruped Mastiff could knock him down. But so could a German Shepherd, a Cane Corso, a Great Dane, an Irish Wolfhound, a Pit Bull, a Dogo Argentino, and possibly others. In a fight with a four-footed animal, a two-footed human is likely to lose his balance, at least at first. And in a dog attack, the last thing you want is to expose your throat to those teeth.

In terms of pulling power and endurance, a Siberian Husky with its greater traction could win a tug of war with a human, given enough time. The human will be totally exhausted long before the husky quits. But in the early stages, the human might counter or even win. After all, the husky is likely to be around a third the body weight of a large human male, or about the weight most men can lift.

Almost every large dog has greater gripping power with its teeth than a human has with a hand. Many dogs grip more strongly than humans with two hands, including the bulldog, the pitbull, the German Shepherd, the Rottweiler, and, oh yes, the Mastiff.

With creatures like this in our environment, it’s no wonder humans evolved the skill to make and use weapons, and the most effective weapon on a dog is a leash. Dogs didn’t invent leashes. Dogs don’t understand the logic of leashes. Put a leash on a dog and it’s likely to wrap itself around a tree. I had an acquaintance whose female Great Dane strangled itself to death on its leash wrapped around a tree in the length of time it took him to go back inside to the kitchen to refill her water bowl. Digs are not smart that way, but never needed to be. And that raises the final point: humans have greater capacity to reason from behavior to consequence than almost all other animals. Dogs included.

Humans are stronger than dogs when they use their brains. Humans are not good in a physical altercation with teeth like daggers and speed like a horse.