How To Break Up A Dog Fight Without Injuring Yourself?

Very recently, a well-known Alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn had to undergo hospitalization after being bitten when she attempted to separate her two dogs from fighting. The bite to her thumb was ghastly. She needed stitches on the same.

However, it may have been worse as well. Her two dogs – Bear and Leo – started fighting over a toy, and Vonn tried to break the fight up. As said already, she had a gash on her right thumb. It is bad luck. Also, it is a warning sign of what might happen in these circumstances.

It is natural that when you see your babies hurting each other, you naturally try stepping in to stop the same. It is commendable as well. After all, it is madness, and you want to stop it as soon as you can. It is especially true when both the dogs are yours.

There is no way that is 100% guaranteed to break up a fight between a couple of dogs. There is also no guarantee that you would do it with safety. There are always some risks or others. However, some techniques would be better bets than others.

Depending on how serious; the fight is, you may be willing to take that risk. If you are ever unlucky enough to see your dogs fighting, you should first weigh up your options and select the one you consider to be the best option.

Using distraction to break up the fight 

These are low-risk options that we are talking about over here. They might not prove to be so effective in these cases. However, it is unlikely that they would cause many problems as well. The first of these options is using loud noises all of a sudden.

For this, you can blow the loud horn or bang together a couple of plates. Quite often, dogs would ignore these attempts. However, this would work for dogs not so invested in the fight. Hence, these dogs would look to back out of it but cannot find a way.

You can try spraying them all of a sudden with a hose pipe. However, the thing is that dogs do not always fight within the range of one. There are cases where fighting dogs were pushed into a pool and stopped the fight.

However, the thing is that this would work when you have a swimming pool. It is not as if every dog parent has a swimming pool at their home. So, if you can spray, you can at least try dousing them with water.

Using separation to break up the fight

The best way to prevent two dogs from fighting is through direct physical contact. However, there is a significant amount of risk of being harmed physically. You can use barriers to break up a dog fight. As we have said earlier, this is riskier than the suggestions we have made above.

However, we have said that they have a higher likelihood of working. You can insert a cookie sheet, a thick poster, or a piece of plywood between two dogs and break up their fight. As we have said already, there is always a risk you get bitten in such a situation.

However, the bigger the barrier, the better it is. In a barrier, your hands would be further away from the faces of the dogs. It is wise to bring down the probability of being bitten in any way that you can.

Having said that, if you could pull it off, it would be a significant feat of coordination. It is true when the altercation is an active one. For instance, taking place in a public space like walking the dogs or in parks.

Taking the last resort in these cases 

The worst way to stop such a fight would be to put your hand closer to their front ends. It is the riskiest way as well. It means you have to get their collar and try to grab the object that has caused the dispute to begin with.

If you try to break up the fight with your hand – or any other body part, for that matter – it can often lead to the dogs turning at you and biting the intervening part. This way Lindsey Vonn ended up getting hurt and admitted to the hospital with an injury.

However, it would only be fair to point out in this case that most people instinctively use their hands or legs to get in the middle of a dog fight and try to break up the same. Even though such an act is risky, if your dog’s life is in danger, you might as well do this. You can be sure that it would be completely worth it.     

What to do when the fight stops?

Once the fight has stopped, you have to observe their body language. You would ideally want to understand why the fight happened to begin with. Never assume it was a fluke. Also, do not hope that such a situation never arises again.

In most cases where the dogs became aggressive and bit their owners, it started with low-level spats that became more severe and dangerous fights with time. In several instances, you can notice the body language of the dog. See if they are tense around another dog – and stop the fight even before it happens.

All you have to do is call them apart and reward your dog for how well they behaved. If you have to use your hand to stop a fight, it is better to use your non-dominant hand. At least that way, your good hand would not get injured trying to stop the fighting. It is a fine piece of advice for sure, but let us hope that people do not have to take it.