Thankfully I have not as yet been placed in a position were I have needed to break up a dog fight.  However, it pays to know I guess.  I realise that it is not an "exact science", but I am just wondering what you would consider to be the best or most effective method that has worked for you, keeping in mind that you want to negate any injury to yourself..?

Oddly enough my dogs have never had a fight between themselves & there's only ever been one fight between two bitches many years ago, well it was actually one bitch attacking another who did not fight back & as the attacker was frightened of a hosepipe that had water running out & the attack was outdoors & simply turned the hosepipe & she legged it !

If you mean a dog fight involving someone elses dog I take steps to avoid confrontations & if the worse has happened my dogs in the past my dogs thank goodness have not fought back so it has been a case of getting the other dog(& it has always been another male dog)off. If the dog has testicles I grab that bit & the collar if possible & of course if the other dog is wearing one. Greyhound trainers use Jif lemon sprayed into the face & mouth &/or smelling salts & yes Greyhounds do fight at times

There will other methods I'm sure but I always think prevention is better than cure

Oh for sure, prevention is aways best, but you cannot account for strange dogs off the lead. Some interesting tips there.  The Jiff Lemon I could do, not sure that I would grab a dogs testicles though!

:)

Hi Cain,

My current two dogs are like Jack and Vera Duckworth (Coronation Street) - much domestic bickering but no blood shed.  However on the two occasions when I did have to break up a fight many years ago, they were actually one-sided attacks by a neighbour's GSD bitch on our small mongrel dog.  Despite all the good advice given on this topic, I just instincitvely grabbed her collar, twisted and held on until she let go and then just held on until my dog could set away. I had  no doubt that this could be a fatal assault on my dog who was not defending himself.  He needed over two hundred stitches to patch him up.  (This happened twice and neither the police nor the bitch's owners did anything about it because my dog was 'not restrained'; that is he was sitting with me on our front lawn on both occasions while the other dog roamed the district.)  

I would hesitate to use lemon juice or any caustic substance on a dog's face but I think water sprays would be just as good. As for grabbing its testicles...with my eyesight and co-ordination I'd probably miss and anyway how would that work for bitches?  I think we all - and probably wrongly - act on instinct when this situation arises. 

One tip - NEVER grab a dog by the collar as they can whip round and bite you very easily. And don't hit the dogs either as it just makes them even more aggressive.

The only way I've ever broke a fight up is by grabbing each dog at the same time by the scruf of the neck and physically throwing one in a cage or different room and slamming the door as fast as possible. Wouldn't recommend it although I've never got bitten as it requires quick reactions and dogs with plenty of scruff and under about 40 pounds.

Other methods you hear a lot are chucking water over them or throwing a blanket/coat over their heads. I've never tried either. I have however tried this and it does work. If you see an aggressive dog running towards you and you have an automatic umbrella, just press the button and let it open facing the oncoming dog. Any umbrella will work, but you can use an automatic one handed.

If the dogs wont let go of each other (such as when two terriers have a go) then hanging them either side of a fence, wall, bannister will stop them but make sure you remove one quickly before the other manages to get round again.
Dapple

Just to say, I second the collar tip - don't do it!  the bite I received on Sunday I got after I'd got the dog by the collar - at the time, the only way I could stop him was to effectively pin him by his collar so he couldn't get his mouth round to bite me.  However, this also left it unavoidable as there was no way I would've had movement quick enough to get my hands away in time to avoid his teeth, so he got my hand.

When I was learning to groom we had a few tips given - one is to get a stick in the dog's collar (assuming you have one handy, of course!) and twist, effectively cutting off the dog's air supply for a second so they have to stop fighting to breathe.

I've heard of carrying a package of loose pepper with you, or pepper spray, and dousing the dogs with it.  May prevent injury from bites but may cause respiratory distress and eye injury to both dogs and yourself.

Two of my bitches managed to get a hold of one another once the easiest way to get them apart was grabbing them by the back legs so the dogs were placed in sort of a 'wheelbarrow' position (though it did take two people) with the legs up both dogs could then be pulled apart, you then have to circle each dog, so the dog has to sidestep with the front feet as long as you do it slowly the dog should not be able to do any damage to you.  And to ensure the fight does not begin all over again when you release the dogs, one of the dogs needs to placed away from the other.  If you do not do this the dogs will often chage back and start fighting again.

Also its hard to stay cool, but you must ensuring that you can seperate the dogs quickly with a clear head.

All good advise, thank you.

:)

I might try a Lemon Jiff, smelling salts, ball and leg grabbing combo!

;)

I second the grabbing around the back legs :) If the dog is not too big, you can lift the dog up and swing it around to get it out of the way (hopefully while someone else grabs the other dog and if they have released their grip)

Daisy

I'm sure I remember a thread about this a while back and the main advice was to grab the back legs, the b***ocks or a finger up the bum - although how you would get a finger up a dogs bum mid-fight I have no idea.  Fingers xed you never need to do it though.

Doing it with fingers crossed would be even more difficult! :D

My advise is don't get anywhere near the mouths!  My two males started fighting for no reason out in the fields in the morning once.  Mum and Dad at work, brother still in bed.  I don't know why it started or how but they went for eachother and I ended up getting bit on my hand :(  (To make things worse I couldn't get hold of anyone on mobile for what seemed like ages.  I didn't have the option of shutting the dogs away and had to walk home in a state with my hand punctured and two dogs looking at eachother. 

Probably a hard question to answer, but how sore is a dog bite..?  Also, what did anyone else think of the lemon juice in the face idea, as proposed by someone else?

The legs I could probably do that right enough.  Good idea.  What about if the other dog has no apparent owner..?  Maybe hail a taxi :)

Always been my nightmare, a dog fight with no other person around :( Fortunately, we have very few strays here, so chances are pretty small :) I suppose that you just have to do what you can to separate them - probably kick the other dog and just hope that it doesn't start on you :( Would depend on what the other dog was of course. Not sure about the lemon juice - I don't normally carry any about with me :D I can't imagine, in the heat of the moment, being able to hunt in a coat pocket for it :(

Daisy

As someone who is currently sporting one, very :D  Hurts like hell when it happens, then it goes kind of painless for a while (very handy for gettnig it antiseptic-d and bandaged!), then it hurts quite a lot for a cuple days.  I'm four days into the bite I have now, and it still smarts - mostly from bruising though.  The problem I'm having is hwere it is, on my hand - if i stretch my hand too much, like if I reach for something without thinking, it pulls on the bite and yeeouch!!

I've heard (well, read anyway!) a few people thinking about pepper spray or lemon juice - personally I think it depends on the circumstances.  In a dog fight the dogs are moving around quite fast, so if you're trying to get one dog (say, if your dog was being attacked) you could end up getting both dogs unintentionally, or if you're trying to ward off an aggressive dog you might get your dog (or miss altogether if it's windy!!).  I'd use it (assuming I had it on me!) in a full-blown fight though, if there was a chance it'd stop it.

Remembered something I read for use in a class setting - a towel damp with household ammonia, kept in a tub nearby just in case, and thrown over the fighting dogs.  It'd stop me arguing!  No use out on a walk though, unless you're an exceptionally prepared person :D

I've just dipped into a book which gives some advice -bearing in mind, some of it is assuming other people able to act are present :D

It's from Jean Donaldson. She says that she's firstly go for a loud noise aversive such as banging pans and yelling. Once dogs have disengaged, cease and take hold of dogs.
If not, people using animal control gloves (!) should each pull a dog off by - gripping the dog at the base of it's tail where it joins the body and, both dogs are piulled up simultaneously quickly, out and up, raising the rear quarters off the ground. Secure dogs and assess for damage. If the dogs have no tail, grasp the rear legs close to the dog's groin to pull them off, she says that pulling by the rear leg can cause a risk of knee injury.
If not, use citronella or pepper spray.

Her opinion is that the last resort is to pull dogs by collars or necks, due to possibility of serious risk of accidental or re-directed bite to the human. Many of the worst bites are sustained by humans putting hands into fights.

She says if an owner is on their own, to try first noise, then citronella or pepper spray (she's American so presume these are more likely to be carried over there); or pull the mor intense fighter off, or, if you can't tell which is the most intense fighter, go for the dog you are less likely to be able to control with your voice. Usually this means, if one of the dogs is your own, pulling the other dog off. She says this is a risk but many ownres would still want to help their dog if the situation looked grave enough.

I used to work at Woodgreen Animal Shelter on the homing section.  There were normally 8-12 dogs in one run.  We had an air horn thingy that always did the trick.

I agree with the 'Dont grab the collar' as I did just that when a fight broke out between a Dobe and  another dog.  The dobe whipped round and tried to savage  my arm.  Luckily I had a Wax Jacket on so no he made no contact with my skin!!

Yep I can confirm that they are very painful, although I guess it does depend a bit where you are bitten :) Hands have very little flesh and a lot of nerves so are going to smart a bit. Also they are very prone to infection so you do need medical attention an up to date tetnus jab and probably antibiotics.

Running away and pretending it's not yer dog is an option, non..?  ;)

Lol @ Cain ...... the fact that your dog runs after you is rather a giveaway !

Last year, we were having a barbeque, with all dogs milling around, including guest Kiri (akita) who, because of the cats was on a nice long lead (she might have fancied putting one of them on the barbeque if left to her own devices ;).  Labrador Norma Nomates Gypsy suddenly decided to get in and start calling Kiri Rude Names !  Now Kiri took exception to this and grabbed Gypsy by the neck/ear and held on!   Absolute mayhem - all other dogs giving tongue etc etc.   Someone shoved all other dogs into the kennels, whilst I grabbed the nearest thing to hand - which happened to be a bottle of wine - and just POURED it over Kirki's face/Gypsy's face.  Kiri let go - fortunately - and Gypsy had her ear pierced!

That came out of absolutely nowhere - waste of a good bottle of wine though - I'd have preferred it to have been something else, but it was closest to hand.   Shutting the other dogs away out of it also stopped it escalating too, I think.

Gypsy does have this tendancy to suddenly "eyeball" another bitch and start a punch-up - and she ALWAYS comes off worst :( , so we do have to be aware of it.

Margot

I know people say no to grabbing the dogs by the collar, but the other day Jerry Lee (GSD) 42Kg and a friends dog Alfie (GSD) about 35Kg allowed what started off as play get into an arguement, I just tend to go straight in under the back of the collars with palms up and twist both collars at the same time left hand one anticlockwise right hand clockwise and lift their front ends and heads high via the collar at the same time, so their heads have to turn away from each other.

It gives the other owner time to lead the dog and once I have released the one back on lead I can put mine on lead before releasing my hold, luckily as they are 20 & 12 months respectively the arguement was soon forgotten and are both now playing as nice as ever, I also find that if you can get hold of the loose skin and fur just behind the front shoulder blades and grip them tight they do not have or I have not found them to have enough head turning ability to get my hands.

I unfortunately went through a period of hard lessons with fighting when I had 3 border collies all 6 months apart from each other, a 3 way fight is not always easy, but luckily I was always able to hoist 2 of them and literally throw them apart, I would then growl at them and it all became peaceful, have to admit I do have a few scars though. 

To agree with an earlier suggestion, but not neccessarily to grab the 2 Veg is to have one hand grab collar and the other arm go under the stomach just in front of the hind legs and lift the hind end quite high off the ground, although I have not had to use it on Staffs as the ones I know get on with my dogs great, will even break a Staffies grip apparently but I have only been told that by a Schulzhund trainer/worker