Tips for safely breaking up fighting dogs

[Seelie Fey]

Just thought I would put this out there for people who are having fighting dog issues, so that people would have some some strategies when they suddenly find themselves in this situation. I'm not an expert at it and haven't had an issue in my own home, but I believe some of the people on this board would have some good ideas to keep people and their dogs as safe as possible.

Of course, the best strategy is to avoid a fight breaking out: watching your dogs, paying attention to staring contests, status contests, resource guarding, and other issues and redirecting it before the fight breaks out. But, sometimes stuff happens unexpectedly. If a fight breaks out and you are trying to break it up, I have been told the ideal strategy is to have a person for each dog grab the dog's hindquarters, right in front of the hips, lift up so that their back legs don't touch the ground and pull the dogs rapidly away from each other, Swinging them out so that they no longer have eye contact. You have to have the back legs off the ground so that the dog cannot reach back and bite you as easily. They still could, but you are more likely to be able to dodge it or keep the dog moving and trying to find traction with his front feet. Has anyone else heard of a better strategy?

If you are by yourself, or the only one acting, then you grab the bigger or more aggressive dog and spin him away the same way. Hopefully, the second dog doesn't pursue.

Grabbing a dragging leash and pulling doesn't seem to work well. The dog braces and looks even more dangerous and aggressive to the other dog, and you have little protection against the dog who's leash your holding coming back at you all teeth and misplaced aggression. When I am walking my dog on leash and another dog approaches aggressively, I have always drug my dog behind me and firmly told the other dog "No, go home" So far, it's worked, but I have been lucky. Sometimes, I have been in the situation of having to stick out a hiking boot covered foot for the other dog to chew on until the owner sucked it up enough to control their dog.

When I worked at a vet's office, we used blankets. Throw as heavy of a blanket as you have over the dogs to distract and confuse them, and pounce on them while they are under the blanket using the blanket to confuse them and muddle their movements so they cannot bite as easily. I have only seen that done with one dog at a time, in a relatively enclosed space. I don't know if it works for two dogs fighting with each other in the open. And, it needs to be a big enough blanket.

Walking between dogs who are starting to give each other the hard stare and escalating, can break the tension.

I have never been in a situation to try squirting them - does that work to distract them?

Remember, whenever you get involved in a dog fight, there is a very good chance you will get bitten. Even if it's your own dog. They are trying to survive and won't even recognize that it's you. It is never safe. However, if it becomes necessary, be as safe as possible.

Anyone have better or safer strategies? It seems better to have the information out there before people need it then not have it there when a fight breaks out. Maybe it's already out there already and I just didn't find it?

[amurray]

1. Blankets or beach towels work. They calm the dogs. But who carries a blanket around with them all day?

2. Squirting works but it better be a garden hose with a nozzle on "jet" setting. Squirt them in the side first. If that fails, squirt them in the face but understand you may cause eye damage from the force of the stream.

3. My method (that I don't recommend) is to grab each dog by the scruff of the neck and pull them apart. Once I get them apart, I lift one up and hold him high above the other and put him/her in a crate, closet, spare room or on the kitchen counter. I'm 6'2" 235 pounds. I can usually get away with this. But one night when I reached in I missed with my left hand and spent the night in the hospital with puncture wounds in both thighs, both knees and both hands. Blood was everywhere! I kept frantically washing off the dogs trying to find their wounds. Over and over I washed them only to have blood cover them again. It finally dawned on me that it was my blood, not the dogs' blood. BTW I learned in the ER that if you are bitten, a tetanus shot is no good because it takes too long to be effective and infection or lockjaw from a dog bite occurs rapidly. There is a new drug now (which name escapes me) that is immediately effective. The problem is few hospitals stock it. It took 5 hours for my hospital to locate it, have it delivered and administered.

4. I have found standing in the middle of a stare down only incites one of the dogs to charge the other dog. I must not be holding my lip right.

5. If the dogs are circling head-to-tail jockeying for position to attack, inserting myself into the circle facing into one of the dogs (i.e. the opposite way he is moving) seems to slow the process. I then "herd" the dog I'm facing out of the circle and make him change course 180 degrees. In other words, if the dogs are circling right -to-left, I'll cut in between them and make one dog cirlce left-to-right and away from the other dog. I don't know why this works but 4 above does not.

6. The right answer is to get out of the way and do nothing until it is over. In 1976 in Philadelphia I saw two 110 pound girls each leash walking a 95 pound lab towards one another. The dogs spotted each other and took off towards each other dragging their helpless owners behind them. The dogs converged right in front of me. A fierce fight ensued. I saw that one girl was going to attempt to intervene by grabbing her own dog. Just as I said "NO! Don't!" she reached in. Her own dog spun and thinking a new attacker was on him, opened up her arm all the way from the wrist to the elbow. All I could do was call 911.

[Seelie Fey]

Gotta agree with you about definitely don't stand in the middle! What I was trying to describe was more the drawing their eyes off of each other as they are distracted by following your movement as you move between them. And, it only works early in the escalation.