What party size are you playing? I remember my first playthrough of DOS1 I kept it to two without taking the Lone Wolf and it was proper hard. Second one I took the Lone Wold and it was really easy.
But maybe if the dogs deal that much damage it just means you need to level up more? Of course if that's the last available are for you then yeah, it's definitely an issue.
Personally I always knock down / blind / slow dogs since they usually don't have armour or anything like that, so they're easier to neutralise.
