My friend’s hand was bandaged to cover up the surgical stitches in her hand and arm. Her dog had bitten her, but she said it was “totally her fault.”
She had tried to break up a dog fight by putting her hand into the mosh pit of fur flying around when her dog and another, got into it on a trail. Her dog is not one to back away from a fight. She was bitten while trying to grab her dog’s collar.
She was the victim of a redirected bite. In the frenzy of arousal, dogs get pretty darned focused on one thing, the fight. Anything that interrupts it, can and often does, result in a bite being redirected onto something or someone else. In this case, it was my friend’s hand and arm. Dogs often have no idea what or whom they are biting at that point.
One of my dogs does this. Ideally, I would have been more proactive in noticing my neighbor’s dog charging our fence. Before I could run to the fence, we had a full-on fence fight, with all the snarling and gnashing of teeth. Yes, it would have been great if my neighbor would have gotten his dog away, but it was totally up to me to end it. Getting between the fence and the dog only works so well, especially if you are looking at a fight moving down a 100-yard stretch of fence.
I ended up having to grab my dog’s back legs and elevating them slightly and moving backward and circling. I kept moving, because once she realized she was being pulled, arousal took over and there was an attempt to snap backward. No such luck. Once I managed to create enough space for the dogs to chill for a moment, my neighbor finally leashed up his dog and moved on and I could keep my dog inside.
After an intense fight like that, I knew I had to keep on top of my hyped-up dog. Edginess from a fight can stick around for 24 hours or so. In other words, it was not going to take much for this dog to go off again, with little build up.
In my friend’s incident, she knows that she did not respond appropriately to end the fight. She shook her head and said, “I can’t believe I was so dumb. I just reacted.” This is a very dog savvy person.
The best way to deal with a dog fight is to prevent them, of course. I am always aware of my neighbor’s tendency to let his dog wander off leash. If the dog is near the fence, I can usually prevent my dogs from going near the fence. Keeping them backed away and me taking ownership of the fence works well. In open space, I make every effort to keep unknown, stranger dogs away from mine.
What works best on one group of dogs, may not work on all. But some have had success with placing a barrier between the dogs like a piece of plywood or a lawn chair in a pinch. The backward leg pulling/circling works well if you have the strength. It works really well if there is another person pulling the other dog away too. Dogs locked on each other can sometimes be interrupted with a strong spray of water to the eyes and muzzle.
If there is a fight, choose carefully about whether it’s really all that important to risk getting hurt. Breaking up fights is not for the amateur and even the pros mess it up.
