An Auckland plumber had to fight for his life yesterday when a client's pitbull attacked him.

Jeff Donighi approached the open front door of a Papatoetoe property, calling out to the occupant he'd finished a job under the house, when the woman's pitbull leapt out at him.

Recovering in Middlemore Hospital with severe lacerations to his hands and arms, he says his military training enabled him to fight off the dog.

But he says a child would've had no chance.