How Do You Stop a Dog Fight?

Stopping a dog fight can be dangerous and tricky. The best way to stop a dog fight is to prevent it from happening in the first place. However, if you find yourself in the middle of a dog fight, there are some things you can do to help stop it.

The most important thing to remember if you are caught in the middle of a dog fight is to remain calm. Dogs can sense when humans are feeling panicked or scared, and this can make the situation worse. If you feel like you are going to lose control of your emotions, it is best to remove yourself from the situation entirely.

If you cannot remove yourself from the situation, there are some things you can do to try to stop the fight. One way to do this is to make a loud noise, such as clapping your hands or shouting. This will startle the dogs and may cause them to stop fighting. Another way to stop a dog fight is to throw water on the dogs. This will usually startle them enough to break up the fight.

If worse comes to worst,  you can try to physically separate the dogs. However, this is very dangerous and should only be done as a last resort. If you do decide to physically separate the dogs, following Daniel's technique may help you avoid the situation escalating further:

"I like identifying the one dog that I view as the aggressor. The one that has the upper hand. And, is not dissimilar to how you would choke off a dog off a bite sleeve or law enforcement would choke off a dog off a live bite on somebody's arm or leg. 

Choke off meaning you will grab the collar - hopefully, there's a collar - or the scruff of the neck or the both of them together and you will lift vertically and patiently wait till the dog's grasp of their jaw will release. Inevitably - whether it takes 10 seconds or 30 seconds or two minutes - the dog will release. 

It's the calmest way I've found to stop a dogfight, which is high intensity, very fast, and very erratic in behavior from both dogs. There's panic involved, there's aggression involved, there's a lot of primal crazy behaviors."

Hopefully, however, you will never need to employ this tactic. As the leader of your dog, it is your job to understand the limitations of your dog and anticipate when a fight might occur so that you can prevent it from happening altogether.

You should also be aware of the body language dogs use to communicate with each other. Things like growling, stiffening up, and showing teeth are all signs that a dog is starting to feel uncomfortable and may be about to lash out. If you see these signs in your dog, remove them from the situation immediately.

The best way to prevent a dog fight is to socialize and train your dog from a young age. Socialization means exposing your dog to a variety of different people, places, and experiences so that they learn how to interact with the world around them in a positive way. This includes things like going on walks in different neighborhoods and having visitors over to your house. 

Training your dog means teaching them basic obedience commands such as sit, stay, come, and down. It is also important to work on things like bite inhibition, which is teaching your dog that it is never okay to bite humans or other animals. Please take a moment to follow us on TikTok for more dog training tips. Then, head back over here to sign up for The Beacon Dog Academy's online dog training course.