Dogs Fighting

[m575]

Ok, basically, yes, we DO have 2 x JRT sisters.. anyway,

I just witnessed something horrific.. they started fighting (one just got out of heat, one is getting into it..) they grabbed eachother and wouldn't let go... throwing eachother in the air and crashing into everything, knocking things over.. buckets of water and a broom couldn't seperate them.. no slapping no anything.. we ended up grabbing them by the legs / tails / collars to seperate them.. at close inspection there was bleeping near the eye, edge of the mouth, under mouth and on legs... oh, and ears.. it was really really depressing, and the last thing I need at the moment... What does everyone reccomend I do? They will be seperated for the night.... but that can't be on going.. this has happened once before mroe recently but there was only one person home.. in that instance, how do people reccomend we seperate them? I mean, they WERE NOT letting go.. we eventually kicked them out and left them for a few minutes, came back, adn the pots where knocked over but they where still at eachother..

[Daisy]

So sorry to hear I haven't experieced this myself, but from my reading here on DOL it appears that once two bitches start fighting there is often nothing can be done to stop them and they need to be permanently seperated. Not what you want to hear I know.

Hope someone more knowledgeable comes along soon with some positive suggestions for you.

[m575]

yer, I've heard that before.. the first time the started fighting and guess what, they stopped for months on end.. I have a feeling it is the whole heat thing.. but until dessexxing, I need a way for ONE person to seperate them.... it's really really sad.. we were crying Don't know what the neighbours would have thought either.. outside at 9:30 yelling at my dogs like crazy.. "GET THE HELL OFF HER!" "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!" "YOU Q!@$!#" lol..

[Erny]

... until dessexxing, I need a way for ONE person to seperate them....

Assuming that you're right about the "heat" being the problem ....... rather than worrying about how to separate them, I'd be inclined to plan for prevention of the fights.

As to what to do if an 'accident' occurs - there are so many ways and much depends on what you're capable of doing and when. One thing to be mindful of though - if you pull one dog away from the other when their teeth are latched on, you are likely to cause a worse injury through tearing of the skin.

Naturally, you need to look after yourself too. It is not infrequent for a human to cop a serious bite when they involve themselves in dogs fighting.

There have been many threads on "what can I do" when dogs are fighting ..... using the DOL search engine for key words such as "separating fights" or other variations should find countless results.