Protecting your dog from a dog attack

[praia]

No one is going to like what I say......BUT, we were told that the best thing to do is to carry a cigarette lighter always.  The breeds that lock jaws will not let go or relent even if kicked repeatedly in an attempt to get them to release their hold.

After Luis was attacked twice by a local mastiff...but luckily escaped......someone told us that a lighter held beneath the nose, makes them open their jaw immediately.

Has anyone else heard of this?

PLEASE KNOW that I am not advocating this method.  The subject came up, and I wondered whether anyone else had heard of this last resort method.

It took two hefty owners to sit on their dog last time we encountered it.  It really worries me.

This sounds like a potentially dangerous way of trying to get a dog to break its hold.  

Many dogs that have been bred to be very gamey seem to "lock" their jaws, but it's just sheer tenacity from their genetic drives.  If a gamey dog like a staffy or a terrier has bitten and refuses to let go, the best way to open its jaws is to use a break stick, or anything that is a solid rod that you can insert in the dog's jaws behind the molars and twist it around so that they are forced readjust their grip.  Never try to pull two dogs apart as that will only make the bite tear the victim dog even more. Always be aware that once the aggressor has released its grip, it has the potential to redirect their aggression on you.

There are APBTs where I live and although most of their owners are very responsible and fully aware of what their dogs are capable of we always take precautions when going for a walk in the park.  We carry sprays and wooden sticks to fend off attacks or use as break sticks if the worst were to happen. Many dogs will back off if you assert yourself and stand between the aggressor and your dog, but I would not hesitate to hit or kick a dog with all my might to defend my own dogs and I have done so in the past.  

[Jane57]

Thank you for starting this thread.
Darwin was attacked last week ( no blood, thankfully he's got a thick coat at the moment) on our own road on the way to the park, he was on the lead.

It has left us both shaken and now Darwin is nervous of large lab / ridgeback type crosses. It has taken a bit of work but I've got Darwin to walk past the spot where it happened.   But when he was out with OH at the weekend, Darwin saw a similar sized/shaped dog in the distance and reacted if he was being attacked ( squealing /crying/ trying to hide )

At the moment I feel a complete failure as I was unable to prevent the attack and couldn't have stopped it if the owner hadn't acted quickly.

Poor Darwin, Hope he overcomes his nerves and isnt too traumatised with this attack.

[Ninasmum]

What in everyone's eyes constitutes an 'attack' though?   

That is the hardest question in the world to answer!! Because a growly scuffle can be fine in a 'doggy' world, I know Ben will run at growl or nip another dog if it pesters him too much, and I would not class that as an attack - equally if another dog did that to one of mine I would view it in a similar fashion, just dogs sorting themselves out and its best to leave them to do it I always think human intervention can escalate the situation when it is not necessary.

However - for me it depends on the 'breed' of the other dog. And I know that is not going to be a popular answer - becuase it is making a judgment about a breed without taking individual dogs and owenrs into consideration.  But I have fears about certain big breeds, eg staffies, dobermans, huskey types (huge huge apoloiges to all you people who have lovely kind examples of these breeds  ) but my fear is that with a strong or big dog I wouldn't be able to get it off or pick it up or even do anything much if it was pinning down or drawing blood on one of my boys.  I know someone who had a really bitey terrier, and probably much more likely to bite than a big breed, but I wasn't scared of him becasue in my head I imagined if necessary I could pick him up or shove him out of the way.  Not necessarily logical perhaps, but the way my head works.

So for me an attack would be a certain breed biting or trying to pin down one of my boys - sorry

same here 
Unfortunately i have seen 1st hand how much damage a SBT can do    with a completely unprovoked/out of the blue attack on my 1st cocker, he nearly had his ear ripped off & after we eventually got the dog off him, in a split second he was back on his throat    the owner was nowhere to be seen    even now after 14 yrs or so i still shudder about it & will never trust unknown dogs unless they are what i would describe as well known family type dogs such as cavvies & our breed 
I would avoid any type of dog that can do serious damage that is showing aggressive body language, which would be very difficult for me to quickly get off one of mine, just because i now have this inbuilt desire to protect my current dogs from anything similar happening to them 

[Penelope]

A woman near us has many dogs and walks them where I walk my gang.  When we had our cockers, one of her dogs first attacked Buffy and a month or so later attacked Harriet.
When it pinned Buffy the rest of my dogs ran to help her and it was horrendous - I was trying to unlock it's jaws from my precious girl and the rest of my gang were snarling and trying to get it off her too.
Luckily she wasn't too badly hurt.
Then the same dog attacked Harriet in the same way.
This time I saw red and had a real go at the owner.  She assured me it had never done it before - so I reminded her it had done it to Buffy not long before.  I told her in no uncertain terms it must be muzzled as it was dangerous.
I walked them at different times and different places for a while - then I saw her again minus said dog.
I asked where it was and it transpired it had been put to sleep after attacking a child 

Someone once told me if a dog really locks onto your dog, don't ever pull at the collar as if it works the dog will come away with a mouthful of your dog too - twist the collar thereby strangling the attacking dog to make it let go.  She also said as a last resort put your finger up the dog's bum -not nice to think about but let's face it if nothing else was working we would try anything.
Again, I am not advocating that and when my girls were attacked I was too busy trying to get the attacker off without thinking rationally about ways to do it.  As other say, it happens so quickly.

This is one of my biggest fears as I know the rest will rush in to try and help and so it could well end up with all of them getting hurt - even Suki who is the biggest wimp in the world and will hide behind me if a dog so much as glances her way, will go to the aid of the others if they are in trouble.

[angie68]

Connie was attacked by a staffie x who locked on her face and the owner ended up with stitches in his hands from trying to get it off her by prising open her jaw.  He wasn't successful, it went on for about 10 minutes and two men passing by ran over to help and one of them was laying on the floor punching this dog into it's ribs really hard to try to get it off Connie.
I was hysterical and my first reaction was to pull her free but i quickly stopped myself as i would have ripped her face apart if i had continued.  Now if i see a dog i don't like the look of (which is daily as where i live a lot of youngsters strutt about with mean looking dogs) i move away as quickly as possible and watch it like a hawk while i plan a way of avoiding it/escaping it.
For me it was the worst thing that i could ever have imagined happening and i don't think i could of prepared myself for such an unprovoked attack walking along the street by another dog on a lead with it's owner.
Oh i also was screaming like a banshee which helped bring the two men running over to help.
Angie x

[Nicola81]

I think I will carry the mini deodorant with me, as the dog trainer says it wont blind a dog but will be enough to stun if its not for letting go.

I carry a small spray when I am out walking Dexter by myself.  I feel safer when I am out with OH but when by myself I think there would be nothing I could physically do to pull another dog off Dexter if it had him.  I tend to stay to main roads and populated places when out by myself - I know it doesn't mean nothing will happen but I feel happier having other people around.  Its my worse nightmare for anything to happen to Dex!

[Maria]

twist the collar thereby strangling the attacking dog to make it let go. 

I've done this to get a dog off my old bridge boy Boysie. Obviously the dog needs to be wearing a collar ........ Not proud of it but the owner was half a field away and not at all concerned by what his dog was doing  . I twisted the collar and pulled the dog off - it passed out a couple of times so I released my grip then so it could breathe, but it would have gone back to Boysie so I still kept hold. Took the owner ages to come over and then he had a go at me..........

[Cockertime Blues]

I too have heard about the shoving something up the attacking dog's bum which sounds as daft as the cigarette lighter as I've no idea how you'd get a fighting dog to be still enough for it!  On two occasions I've had to try to separate a Jack Russel and later on a Patterdale from fighting other dogs (not mine) in the past and it was impossible as terriers just won't let go and you can't get them apart without pulling lumps out of the dog being attacked.  Luckily there was water to hand to chuck on them, but the Patterdale still redirected and bit my leg.  Twisting the collar sounds like a good idea.

I've been on the other end of this too.  Years ago I had a lovely but large male Dalmatian who ran about 5 miles with me on leash every day.  One morning we were passing someone's garden and a chihuahua came barrelling out from under the hedge and bit me on the ankle.  My dog picked it up and started shaking it like a rat.  I suppose he thought he was defending me.  It took literally all my strength to prise his jaws apart and drop the wee dog.  We went to the house to tell the owner, I asked to use his phone to call my husband to bring our car to take the dog to the vet (owner didn't have a car), pay for the vet etc. but all was refused.  Next thing I knew, I received a court summons.  The owner took me to small claims court (this was in the US) for $1000 in vet bills.  Fortunately the judge found for me because my dog was on a leash and the other dog wasn't, but he still told me off for not being in control of my dog.  Given their difference in size, I know my dog could have killed the other easily if I'd not been able to stop him.  Leave commands don't work in those situations.  What I'm trying to say is that a dog fight is horrible for the attacking dog's owner too.  We caused the little dog pain and injury, and me too actually as my bite festered a bit and I was always vaguely paranoid about rabies over there.  I have a friend whose chihuahua was killed by a labrador.  It's not always staffies.

[minimoo]

What constitutes an attack in my mind is if a dog launches itself at mine , and starts biting it or pinning it to the ground and wont let mine up and is biting it , im lucky in the fact that ive only in my mind had one serious attack on my bridge boy bruno by a ex breeding chocolate lab and she would not back of even after a light kick to the ribs so then im afraid she got a full force couple of kicks and then did back off , she was also jumping up at my friend to get at her little terrier who she was holding aloft in the air it probably only lasted two minutes but seemed like alot longer  the lab had hold of the skinn on brunos side and was shaking her head like she was trying to rip him open so im afraid i got her off , ive had a couple of terriers who have ran in and had a little snappy go at mine but usually the voice of doom sees them off, i would always go in to protect mine if they were in danger

[twiceover2]

It isn't just the fighting breeds that can be a danger.  My neighbours' daughter has a chocolate labrador that they look after.  It seems like a really soft dog and is very obedient generally, but it doesn't like smaller dogs.  My neighbour was telling me on day that they had been to the seaside with it and it had raced along the beach and grabbed a cocker spaniel puppy and shaken it.   

My neighbour looks after it on Wednesdays, so I always give their house a wide berth then and put Pippa back on her lead if we see it out on the fields.

[Spoiler]

I always carry a small can of hairspray. It makes dogs sneeze so if Harvey was locked onto by another dog I would spray it at the offending dog's nose. There was a bad attack a few months ago on the field where we walk (I wasn't there), but an old nervous lab cross was viciously attacked by a staffie. The poor old dog's ear was 3/4 torn off and then the staffie sank its teeth into the lab's shoulder and was locked on for a long time. I know dogs can have squabbles all the time (and Harvey can be guilty of squabbling and nipping at another dog) but I hope I never have to use that spray in a serious situation. (Incidently one of Harvey's best friends is a staffie who has the most beautiful nature, and is adored the all the other dog owners).

[Megan Ffion]

This is my biggest fear .  Our Megan a 7 year old rescue ex-breeding bitch is very timid in any event.  When walking Megan off lead and a dog we do not know approaches we put Megan on lead and talk her through it by our sides until we pass the strange dog.
The other day whilst walking we were all having a lovely time when a Staffie appeared from nowhere and locked on to our little Megan. I panicked immediately and Colin got hold of the Staffie and pulled and shoved him off.   The owner of the Staffie then came ambling along saying dont worry he wont hurt he is docile.   While he may be to his own family he certainly was not towards our Megan and two other dogs that came along after us.  No words of sorry.  I just lost it and told the owner exactly what I thought of him and his dog. Whilst Megan fortunately was not hurt too badly it has affected her confidence. So we are now back to the stage of calming and assuring her and talking her through the situation if a strange dog should appear.    I went straight off to Pets at Home and bought a spray which I now carry with me at all times.

Gwyneth

[Helen]

Please lets not use this thread to bash breeds...can we please get back on topic which is protecting your dog from ANY other dog attacking.

Thanks 

[karendorman13]

My dog Bo is a staffie x was attack when she was a really young dog about 4 months old by another staffie and i have never kicked a dog in my life but that day i had no other option but to kick it as it had Bo around the throat. I was so shaken up after that and i had my son who was 8 and he was hysterical and was rooted to the spot i had to phone my OH home from work to come and collect us. But i would do the same again

[jaybee]

Bingley was once jumped on and pinned down by a poodle, he was snarling and snapping and trying to go for us too. OH did the collar twisting thing in the end. Have to admit I was just so shocked I was pretty useless. The owner then came bounding over, didn't apologise, and began telling me how wonderfully trained his dog was and it wouldn't have happened if my dog went to the same training classes  I do worry sometimes when I walk Bingley alone, I'd never heard of carrying hairspray or similar it is something I will definitely think about.