Breaking up a dog fight

Your safety comes first, and that is not selfishness. A handler with a severed tendon cannot get either dog to a vet. Dogs in a fight are not themselves and will redirect onto whatever touches them.

· NOISE OR WATER FIRST. An air horn, a hose, a bucket of water, a thrown chair — anything startling from a distance. Many fights break at this stage.
· A barrier. Slide something solid between them: a board, a bin lid, a chair, a piece of plywood. This is why trainers keep one by the door.
· The wheelbarrow, if there are two people and you must go hands-on. Each person takes ONE dog by the BACK LEGS at the hock, lifts the rear, and walks backwards in a circle. Never the collar, never the head.
· Keep walking backwards and turning — the circle stops the dog twisting round to bite you.
· Get them behind separate closed doors before anyone lets go. Releasing in the same room restarts it.

Noise and barriers are your tools. Going hands-on alone, on two fighting dogs, is how people lose fingers. If you must, the back-legs method still applies, but understand you are taking a real risk.

· Separate them for hours, not minutes. Both are flooded with adrenaline and will re-engage.
· Check BOTH dogs thoroughly. Puncture wounds close over and abscess; bite wounds almost always need veterinary attention even when they look minor.
· Check yourself. Dog bites to hands infect readily and often need antibiotics — go to a doctor.
· Work out what happened. Fights between dogs who live together nearly always have a trigger: a resource, a doorway, a bed, arousal from something outside.
· Get professional help. A fight between housemates is a behavior consult, not a training class — look for an IAABC consultant or a veterinary behaviorist.

Feed separately. Manage doorways. Do not let arousal build at fences and windows. Never leave a new pairing alone together until you have watched them for weeks. And take a growl seriously the first time — it is the warning that precedes this.

An air horn and a board by the door is the entire kit, and both are a few dollars.

· International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (iaabc.org)
· American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (avsab.org)
· American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (dacvb.org) — for households with an established fight history