My evening last night: breaking up a dog fight

Well, I broke up my first dog fight last night.

I had gone to feed a new rescue (mastiff/pit mix) a friend had taken to rehab and I had left Nell in the car since he seemed to have some DA issues. I fed him and then put him on leash to walk him outside.

I must not have shut the car door tightly enough because next thing I know Nell is behind me (she had been coming with me to execise with the previous rescue so she probably thought she would get to run around a bit). In a split second the mastiff mix (~75 lbs) turned, lunged and grabbed Nell (~50 lbs) by the neck. Nell immediately latched onto his neck.

So here I am, alone in the dark and holding 2 dogs by their collasr and trying to quickly assess what my options are (I am 4'11" and almost 50 yrs old). Nell is screaming like she does when she is on the springpole and shaking, while the other dog has her firmly in his grip.

Takes me about 5-10 minutes to drag the dogs into the garage where there is something I can securely tie the mastiff mix to and grab a break stick.

During the seeming eternity dragging these dogs into the garage, I start having an asthma attack from the exertion and breathing the cold air. I was thinking 'I am going to pass out before these dogs get separated'. However, I do manage to grab the stick and tie off the mastiff mix. Fortunately, Nell had her leash on too, so I pulled back on her as hard as I could, broke off the mastiff mix and then broke her off.

At this point I'm sitting on the floor, gasping for air, and trying with what strength I have left to keep Nell from going back into it. I manage to drag her to a crate and shove her in.

It took me about half an hour to get my breathing under control enough to look at the damages and call my friend to come and confirm my assessment. Everyone will survive; Nell got the most damage . She is already healing up nicely but I have made a vet appointment to have her checked out (and document the accident).

Afterward, I reviewed what I did and didn't do and what I could have done better.

1. Lock the f***ing car doors.:o
2. Don't even attempt to try to break of the dogs until one is securly teathered and both are extended to the end of their leashes. Otherwise they just regrab (I thought Nell would break off once he was off...nope).
3. Even if you are working with just one dog, have a stick ON YOUR PERSON (a neighbor's dog could have jumped the fence while I was walking him).
4. crying and swearing at the dogs accomplishes nothing; you just suck in more cold air and waste time :o
5. the 2" collars really help protect their necks and make it easier to control the dogs. You don't get your fingers twisted up in them. Both were wearing them.
6. As you get older, more stuff hurts the next day (stuff that never hurt before too).:rolleyes:
7. prevention beats that sinking feeling that you could have actually gotten a dog killed by just being momentarily distracted.

Fortunately, both dogs were so focused on each other that I wasn't in danger, I just made sure not to get any body parts between them. I was damn lucky the mastiff mix didn't turn on me afterward.

It was the first serious dog fight I've ever seen and I wouldn't have understood what was going on or had the knowlege to stay calm enough (mostly) to do what needed to be done if I wasn't a member of this site.

Hopefully, I won't have to use the knowledge again, but if I do, I will be better prepared.

 

Happens. I'm glad that you're OK.

 

Sorry to hear that and yes you were lucky you didnt end up in the middle of them ive noticed most people get all hystical during a fight and try anything they can to seperate em and end up gettin bit themselves. lol you really thought that once the fight was on your dog would just calm down once seperated sorry its really not a funny situation huh. Well at least your all right and the dogs are both fine gotta be a little more careful.

 

Good job. Especially being a petite female dealing with relatively large dogs. I'm 6' and 235lbs and have caught hell trying to seperate two 40 pounders by myself during a yard accident. Very good job in a bad situation Nell Bell.

 

I guess deep down I really didn't expect her to just calm down, I was just hoping she would. :o

 

Ive had to break two dogs on my own before, as im sure many have on here, and you did good it aint easy!! When it happened to me i didnt have no break sticks to hand, it took me about 20 mins to get them apart. It was a bloody mess to be honest. In the end i managed to wrestle one into the pen and half shut the door with the other dog outside the pen between my legs. Dont ask me how the hell i did got them apart but somehow i did, and i slammed that pen door shut quicker than you can even say bulldog!! LOL. Disaster averted given you nearly had an asthma attack! Well done you kept a cool enough head to resolve the situation!

 

Thanks c-murda. I had visualized what I would do if the situation arose, but it still stunned me. I now realize, if you've never seen it, you really don't know what it is really like. :eek:

 

Nothing could be more spot on than that.

Sounds like you did a pretty good job with your first ever scrap. 5 or 10 min is an eternity too when you're by yourself trying to stop it. It didn't just seem like it

 

Funny thing is, Nell acts like nothing happened. I, on the other had, have been chugging antacids all day. It was a bloody mess too and I left the mess for my friend to clean up.

I've only had one other asthma attack. Mine are caused by breathing cold air under exertion..I guess i was over exerting in the cold, but I knew I only had one chance to get them apart and Nell is my constant companion so I had to make it work.

 

Thanks guys. I was really down on myself that I didn't break it up faster.

 

The only advice ill give you on how she is acting like nothin happened is you might wanna keep a close eye on her around other dogs now once they get some teeth in em it never gets better always gets worse though.

 

last night Nell told me she expected to get a bashing on this one.... weve all been there and you kept your cool thinking it thru.... and with an asthma attack too. thumbs up Nell, you got my respect.

 

Figured it was better to own up to my mistakes. Might help someone else, I hope.

 

Thanks for the heads up Erie. Since getting her, I have never let myself forget what she is, for her sake as well as mine.

 

I'm glad you are ok

 

Sounds like you handled it. Just remember, next time ( yes there can always be a next time, some people will argue this point but you can't be on them 24/7, some people will say it's neglagence but in reality them people can fuck off, they probally only own one dog) so shit happens...
Just remember to stay calm and focused on what your tring to accomplish (breaking them off) I find that when this situation happens and someone goes hysterical, mistakes are made, they over react and more damage is being done due to not thinking clearly and possibly hesitating with getting them apart, these dogs are tough as nails and while at the time may look like a mess, once they're cleaned up, a less than 10 minute scuffle rarely does severe damage (unless you happen to have a dog with an iron jaw...lol). But it sounds like you did pretty good concidering this was your first time having to break your dog off......I'm sure some people will talk shit on you for this but just blow it off and chalk it up as a lesson learned.

I just had an incident about a month ago where my 1 year old male nailed my female whom decided to turn on at age 4 and I had an all out war in my kitchen (in front of guest of course) anyways, he ripped my bitches ear in half and put some punctures in her chest and face but staying calm most likely helped to lessen the damage my male was inflicting on her. he is around 50lbs and she is 38 lbs. so she was getting her ass handed to her by a pup, but a little surgical glue and some TLC and you can barely tell it even happened. The only thing I wish I would have done differently is to take her to the Vet afterwards because now I got some explaining to do next time we go....
Anyways all in all, you did good for your first time.....

 

ATTA GIRL NELLY!!!!. You did a good job breaking them up and understand the mistake you made. None of us are perfict.

 

Nell this shit happens from time to time and takes you buy suprise, and sometimes you need thing like this to happen to learn the errors, and adjust you ways, its easy to get a bit slack every now and then. not fun and i would say you did a top job for the size of you, and two keen dogs.
and yes your dog woulda been chuffed with herself and while you were hurting the next day, she woulda been going over it all in her head thinking "last night was awesome!"

well done, now just wait and see how over zealous youl be now!

 

Great job Nell. At 4'11 and 50 I would say you're the game one!

 

Good job on getting them apart. I know it took a while but you did the right and only thing you could do by yourself. You have more smarts than most ppl by knowing what you have to do to get them apart.
I know it was scary but you did good!