Recently, natural disasters have occurred frequently owing to abnormal weather conditions. In particular, debris flows have increased in the small valleys adjacent to residential areas. Therefore, easily constructable structures are required for small valleys because construction is difficult owing to the narrow valleys and steep mountains. The use of an open Sabo dam supported by cables has been proposed for no-flow streams or small planed scale of debris flow. However, the behavior of the proposed dam in capturing debris flows is unclear. In this study, the response of the proposed dam to debris flow loads was investigated using an experimental channel and a sliding-dam model supported by cables. The experimental results showed that the debris flow impact loads acting on the dam supported by a cable were constant regardless of the dam weight and did not significantly differ from those of a steel pipe open Sabo dam. However, the load on the cables decreased with an increase in dam weight. Moreover, the impact load on the cables compensated the lack of friction force of the dam model for the debris flow impact load.