Reasons for Dog Fights
While two dogs playing together sometimes look like they're fighting, when the real thing happens, you usually know. The snarling is a lot more vicious and the fracas is much more intense than the good-natured growling and yipping of playtime rough-housing.
Dogs fight for several reasons, including to assert dominance over another dog, as a way of handling a threatening or scary situation ("fight or flight"), or even because of a psychological or behavioral problem in a dog. Most of the time, however, asserting dominance is the reason for the fight.
How to Handle Dog Fights
If your pooch is outside, and you see another dog confront him, try to avert any problems immediately by calling your dog back into the house. Or better yet, don't let him out unattended in the first place. But once the circling and snarling begins, it's a little too late to try to break something up at that point.
Never get in between two fighting dogs.
You could cause the fight to escalate and possibly become injured yourself. Once the fighting instinct takes over your dog, he has a one-track mind and won't easily be distracted. Screaming and yelling doesn't do much, either. Neither dog is capable of listening to you in the middle of a fight, even your well-trained and perfectly behaved pet.
Another important thing to remember is to never panic. The best way to take the fight out of the dog is to take the dog out of the fight. This can be tricky, but can be done with two people holding onto the tails of each dog and pulling them apart. You also may be able to get a leash around the hind legs of one dog, then loop the end through the handle, creating a choke chain effect. Tighten it, then pull the dog away from the other dog.
Depending on the situation, once in a while there won't be anything you can do to break up a fight, and you'll just have to wait until it's over. The best way to keep your dog out of fights, however, is to keep him leashed and attended at all times in public places. Preventing dog fights is the best medicine and the best cure.
