Well, whenever I run into dogs or anything else that's liable to "tear the hide off" me I just turn myself inside out and then my hide is protected. It's not at all difficult to do: just reach in your mouth all the way down until you can grab the inside of your toes and pull upwards.

It's a trick I learned during my stay in a Lllamasary in the fog-bound mountains of a forbidden Oriental country, to which I was admitted because of my knowledge of arcane and eldritch knowledge.