How To Stop A Dog Fight

[lovemesideways]

I find myself in this situation fairly often.

I'll be at a dog park(with friends or with my own dogs), and I'll see 2 dogs going towards each other. Reading their body language I can tell there will be some kind of tension or a fight.

I don't really know exactly how to act in these situations.

What are ways to disrupt the tension between 2 dogs Before they fight?

[Just Midol]

I've always just gone for distraction, it's all you really can do other than physically moving both dogs.

[Teebs]

Yep, Distraction here as well

We see it often at work. We only run family dogs together unless they book a play time in, but some of the family dogs do not like being kenneled together! You would be over the other side of the runs and see it, unable to physically do anything fromthat distance, so we will yell out their names or clap or something to get their attention (then separate them!!)

My dogs are the worst for it, they HATE each other at work

[lovemesideways]

Do you think that, by yelling, calling their names, or clapping your hands, the loud noise could cause them to fight?

The sudden loud noise scaring a fearful dog and creating further aggression.

[Teebs]

I wouldnt do it with a fearful dog, but i wouldnt have a fearful aggressive dog in with another dog at work, we find if they are family dogs, and one is scared, the other backs it up causing more problems (just our personal experience), I got into some deep trouble when we had two labs in together, one was friendly as, but the other was scared, had a go at me, and the friendly dog turned around and cornered me. Bloody scary

[Kelpie-i]

Do you think that, by yelling, calling their names, or clapping your hands, the loud noise could cause them to fight?

The sudden loud noise scaring a fearful dog and creating further aggression.

.

In Brenda's "Aggression in Dogs" book, it explains how to recognise the micro-behaviours seconds before the explosion of a fight. You never want to get the dog to the final point, which is why recognising the various micro-behaviours before the 'final siren' is extremely important. You can only effectively interrupt if they are still in the early stages of interaction.

Having said that, the interruption should be a noise/sound that has been thoroughly conditioned to the dog to mean something good. With DA dogs we do loads of Name Recognition exercises because the aim is to condition the dog to turn it's head towards the owner as soon as it hears its name (Pavlovian). Using other things that are not familair to the dog ie. whistle or even a word like "ball" or "frisbee" may work but I believe they too should be conditioned to achieve the desired result.

[lovemesideways]

Do you think that, by yelling, calling their names, or clapping your hands, the loud noise could cause them to fight?

The sudden loud noise scaring a fearful dog and creating further aggression.

.

In Brenda's "Aggression in Dogs" book, it explains how to recognise the micro-behaviours seconds before the explosion of a fight. You never want to get the dog to the final point, which is why recognising the various micro-behaviours before the 'final siren' is extremely important. You can only effectively interrupt if they are still in the early stages of interaction.

Having said that, the interruption should be a noise/sound that has been thoroughly conditioned to the dog to mean something good. With DA dogs we do loads of Name Recognition exercises because the aim is to condition the dog to turn it's head towards the owner as soon as it hears its name (Pavlovian). Using other things that are not familair to the dog ie. whistle or even a word like "ball" or "frisbee" may work but I believe they too should be conditioned to achieve the desired result.

Yeah that book is on my list!

So stepping in and distracting before the tension mounts to that final point.

What if its already there, is there then nothing you can do?

If the dogs are at the final point, would stepping in between them mean I'm likely to get bitten.

The problem is these dogs are often strangers or friends dog, so either I don't know them, or I only see them a few times a week. I don't have the ability to spend time conditioning a strangers dog that a certain sound is good. So thats really interesting if I was able to train these dogs, but thats not the case.