Nonabusive Tactics for Breaking up Dog Fights

[beersalt]

Alright folx. I'm here to give y'all some advice in regards to breaking up dog fights. This is something I never had to do, until I started travelling. Since 2016, i've broken up a slew of dog fights. Mainly due to my personal dog, who suffered from dog agression due to trauma, and lack of training. So, I'm gonna lay out some tactics for y'all.

First things first,
DO NOT SHOVE ANYTHING IN A DOGS ANUS, EVER.

I've felt the need to make this one of the first things I talk about, because it's a disgusting misconception that I hear echoed in the travelling community as a solution to break up a dog fight. Never do this. There are so many non abusive ways to get dogs to stop fighting. So! abandon any advice like this that has been given to you from some sick fuck.


I wanna focus mainly on detterence, not fear/violence.
The best way to break up a dog fight, is to keep it from happening. Of course, this isn't always the easiest, because crazy, unplanned shit happens all of the time. But practicing being as aware as possible, of YOUR OWN DOG, is key.
If your dog shows signs of being dog aggressive, try and figure out what their triggers are, and why. Then go about deconstructing it. And avoiding/recognizing the triggers. This takes time, effort, and patience. Using training tools such as appropriate muzzles, and leashes, will also be necessary when in high trafficed areas such as cities. If you want more info/advice on these training practices, please reach out.

If two dogs are engaged in a fight, DO NOT Reach toward either of their faces.
I'm not gonna lie, I've tackled my dog out of a few different quarrels. Which- physically involving yousrself is not reccomended, but since I knew that in most of these fights, my own dog was the aggressor, I was able to not be seriously injured by the other dog when I finally could get my own to the ground.

Trying to pull both dogs apart is not a good idea, and can cause even worse damage if one, or both dogs have jaws locked, or bites compressed on one another.

Loud, abrupt noises. This doesn't mean continuously yelling, but a loud, sharp noise from you vocally can get them to stop.
This is where an air horn comes into play. If your voice isnt enough, use the air horn for 1-2 seconds. This can usually redirect the attention of the dogs, and give you a window to split them up.

If a noise detterence doesnt work, pouring cold watter on the faces of the dogs can get them to break apart. But, act fast, because if you miss your window of separation, they will both get back to fighting.

My friend that worked at an animal shelter was surprisingly the first to tell me about this tactic called "wheelbarrowing". This is when you grab the back legs of the dogs, and you personally walk backwards. It's best to have two people, do this to both dogs at the same time.
If you're alone, I would say do it to the aggressor.

Citronella spray. Citronella spray is less harmful to dogs physically than pepper spray, or mace. Which, if it's your own dog engaged in the fight, you're definitely going to care about. Harmful affects can occur from using citronella with your dog on a regular basis, (such as citronella collars) but using it minimally, like when needing to break up a fight, will be less detrimental to all pups involved than if left to continue fighting.
Spray the aggressor, or both dogs in the face- this will hopefully get dogs to break apart.

Understanding your dog, and communicating with them effectively is the best way to get positive, and responsive behavior from your dog. Beating it when it does something undesirable, creates angry, scared dogs.

You want your dog to respect you, not be scared of you. Always remember that.

Those that abuse animals deserve no mercy.
Lets spread the word about positive tactics in relation to our animals, to keep those from getting fucked up due to ignorance.

Happy Spring*

 

[Jimmy Beans]

I discovered a very effective method of breaking up dog fights inadvertently. My dog and a roommates dog got in a horrible fight that started on my bed. Roommate was bringing his dog through my room as the backyard access door was in my room.

It was a real pain in the ass because those two dogs hated each other. I'd hold my dog and he'd hold the collar of his and lead her out the door. He lost control of her once and she came at my dog, while I was on the bed holding her.

All above tactics weren't working. They were fighting for the kill. I ended up running outside and grabbing the water hose and hosing them down, literally ruining my mattress. They wouldn't break, it was bad. In a panic I grabbed my comforter and threw it over my dog. I had the edge of it clenched tight in both hands.

I had my hands spread wide and I just slammed the edge of the comforter between their muzzles. Slam sounds like a violent word but it's cloth, it isn't gonna hurt them any more than teeth. Basically I made my dog disappear. I balled her up in the blanket and scooped her up in my arms and held her high until my roommate was able to get control of his dog again.

They got in another fight a few weeks later and I went right for the blanket. It worked like a charm. I think a sleeping bag would work even better, or a hoodie in a pinch. The thick amount of fabric can also provide a layer that may be harder to bite through. I think the whole event just completely disorients the dogs. They're kinda dumbfounded if anything, like where'd that bitch go?

 

[Jimmy Beans]

Actually I wanna take that back. I didn't try all the above mentioned methods. Some of those may have worked. I didn't have citronella spray on hand. I just went for what was in sight.

 

[roughdraft]

Cheap Tequila.
I moved in with a couple of guys who had these dogs. the dogs weren't that fond of each other and had been in scraps before.

When I moved in I was shown atop the fridge a bottle of the most lowgrade tequila, purposefully so, that nobody wanted to drink. Since none of these guys drank tequila and they always had other booze on hand, they told me that it'd been kept there *specifically* in case of emergency, to break up the dogs fighting.

Well one night I have somebody over and the dogs are competing for their affection, and in a snap they start tearin into each other, there's quickly blood. luckily someone remembered what to do, he just pours the entire bottle all over them.

This was a long time ago, but I wanna say it was at least a fifth of tequila. I remember clearly that the next thing you know they're just sitting there licking themselves. It was all over very shortly and the dogs were 'chill'. so they just tended to their small wounds and la di da.

granted this is controversial because it's hard liquor and impractical in a lot of cases, i hesitate to advocate it, but i'd really be keen on knowing others' takes on this.

 

[Matt Derrick]

interesting tips, im sure folks will find this useful, so i've added a link to this thread in the furry nomads wiki page.

 

[croc]

Cheap Tequila.
I moved in with a couple of guys who had these dogs. the dogs weren't that fond of each other and had been in scraps before.

When I moved in I was shown atop the fridge a bottle of the most lowgrade tequila, purposefully so, that nobody wanted to drink. Since none of these guys drank tequila and they always had other booze on hand, they told me that it'd been kept there *specifically* in case of emergency, to break up the dogs fighting.

Well one night I have somebody over and the dogs are competing for their affection, and in a snap they start tearin into each other, there's quickly blood. luckily someone remembered what to do, he just pours the entire bottle all over them.

This was a long time ago, but I wanna say it was at least a fifth of tequila. I remember clearly that the next thing you know they're just sitting there licking themselves. It was all over very shortly and the dogs were 'chill'. so they just tended to their small wounds and la di da.

granted this is controversial because it's hard liquor and impractical in a lot of cases, i hesitate to advocate it, but i'd really be keen on knowing others' takes on this.

I'm kinda surprised I gotta say this but.... Please don't give alcohol to dogs... Or any animals for that matter. Chill from alcohol = drunk

 

[roughdraft]

I'm kinda surprised I gotta say this but.... Please don't give alcohol to dogs... Or any animals for that matter. Chill from alcohol = drunk

Yes, like I said at the bottom of the post - I am not advocating doing this - just sharing something that I witnessed on the topic.

 

[Anthorhitchhiker77]

Alright folx. I'm here to give y'all some advice in regards to breaking up dog fights. This is something I never had to do, until I started travelling. Since 2016, i've broken up a slew of dog fights. Mainly due to my personal dog, who suffered from dog agression due to trauma, and lack of training. So, I'm gonna lay out some tactics for y'all.

First things first,
DO NOT SHOVE ANYTHING IN A DOGS ANUS, EVER.

I've felt the need to make this one of the first things I talk about, because it's a disgusting misconception that I hear echoed in the travelling community as a solution to break up a dog fight. Never do this. There are so many non abusive ways to get dogs to stop fighting. So! abandon any advice like this that has been given to you from some sick fuck.


I wanna focus mainly on detterence, not fear/violence.
The best way to break up a dog fight, is to keep it from happening. Of course, this isn't always the easiest, because crazy, unplanned shit happens all of the time. But practicing being as aware as possible, of YOUR OWN DOG, is key.
If your dog shows signs of being dog aggressive, try and figure out what their triggers are, and why. Then go about deconstructing it. And avoiding/recognizing the triggers. This takes time, effort, and patience. Using training tools such as appropriate muzzles, and leashes, will also be necessary when in high trafficed areas such as cities. If you want more info/advice on these training practices, please reach out.

If two dogs are engaged in a fight, DO NOT Reach toward either of their faces.
I'm not gonna lie, I've tackled my dog out of a few different quarrels. Which- physically involving yousrself is not reccomended, but since I knew that in most of these fights, my own dog was the aggressor, I was able to not be seriously injured by the other dog when I finally could get my own to the ground.

Trying to pull both dogs apart is not a good idea, and can cause even worse damage if one, or both dogs have jaws locked, or bites compressed on one another.

Loud, abrupt noises. This doesn't mean continuously yelling, but a loud, sharp noise from you vocally can get them to stop.
This is where an air horn comes into play. If your voice isnt enough, use the air horn for 1-2 seconds. This can usually redirect the attention of the dogs, and give you a window to split them up.

If a noise detterence doesnt work, pouring cold watter on the faces of the dogs can get them to break apart. But, act fast, because if you miss your window of separation, they will both get back to fighting.

My friend that worked at an animal shelter was surprisingly the first to tell me about this tactic called "wheelbarrowing". This is when you grab the back legs of the dogs, and you personally walk backwards. It's best to have two people, do this to both dogs at the same time.
If you're alone, I would say do it to the aggressor.

Citronella spray. Citronella spray is less harmful to dogs physically than pepper spray, or mace. Which, if it's your own dog engaged in the fight, you're definitely going to care about. Harmful affects can occur from using citronella with your dog on a regular basis, (such as citronella collars) but using it minimally, like when needing to break up a fight, will be less detrimental to all pups involved than if left to continue fighting.
Spray the aggressor, or both dogs in the face- this will hopefully get dogs to break apart.

Understanding your dog, and communicating with them effectively is the best way to get positive, and responsive behavior from your dog. Beating it when it does something undesirable, creates angry, scared dogs.

You want your dog to respect you, not be scared of you. Always remember that.

Those that abuse animals deserve no mercy.
Lets spread the word about positive tactics in relation to our animals, to keep those from getting fucked up due to ignorance.

Happy Spring*

How did you patch the dogs up after the fights?

 

[Jimmy Beans]

How did you patch the dogs up after the fight?

My dog had a laceration on her chest right between her front legs, it swelled up as big as one half of a baseball. The pitbull had a shit ton of small gouges all over her face. I just cleaned my dog with a disinfectant for dogs I had from the pet store and then I just slathered some neosporin on it. There wasn't really a way to bandage her in that area without basically wrapping her entire body. I just let it breathe and kept it clean and kept applying neosporin for days afterwards. Idk if that's what you're supposed to do but that's what I did. She healed fine. My roommates dog honestly I don't think he did anything at all. He was a shithead kind of dog owner.

I used to have two great dane/boxer mix dogs. Father and son. They got in a horrible fight once and the sons entire chest was opened up to the side of his shoulder muscle. I could see tendons and everything. The cut was easily 4 inches long and an inch wide just a massive gaping wound. I was poor AF and had no ability to take him to the vet. I cleaned it, slathered a bunch of neosporin in there and taped that shit together gave him pain meds just hoping for the best. Awful method but at the time I really didn't know what else I could do. He healed up fine. Dogs are super resilient.

 

[beersalt]

@Anthorhitchhiker77 the most successful product I've used to keep wounds clean/disinfected has been Saline Solution. You can purchase this at any grocery store, piercing shop, or make it with warm water, and salt. If it's an open wound, spray/douse it in saline. And wipe the drippings away. Give it air to breath, and wrap with Neosporin if necessary. Not always is wrapping with Neosporin necessary. I've used other off bran antibacterial ointment when wrapping also. If you wrap a wound, be sure that it is not too tight, because you can prevent blood flow, and swelling can occur. It's a fine line, but if you can keep an eye, you can usually see if a wrap is too loose, or too tight. In situation when I was not wrapping a wound, and needed to prevent the dog from scratching it open, dog booties have been a saving grace. Put on a dog bootie for the paw that has access to scratching the wound. This is a nice alternative to a cone.