11/03/2025
Last week a devastating dog attack incident occurred on Barry Island in South Wales (UK), resulting in the death of a dog. As the news spread, I had clients messaging me, rightly scared for their own dogs and asking questions about what they should do if something similar happened to them. I held off over the weekend from posting something as I didn’t want to cause more upset for the owners of the dog who died.
This will be going up as a blog on my website with photos and videos for added clarity. The link will be posted in the comments section.
Dog attacks do appear to be on the rise, but ones such as what happened last week are still statistically in the minority. So no, I don’t think you should change your walking spots. If your dog has a great recall, I don’t think you should feel like you have to put them on a lead.
Edited to clarify: this post blew up and is being shared in the US where many people are confused about why I am saying a dog doesn’t have to be on lead if they have a good recall. In the UK (where I am) ‘off leash’ dogs are the norm and dogs are relegated to the lead usually if they have poor recall, reactive, in training etc.
The biggest thing owners can do to protect their dogs is to educate themselves on how to spot potential danger in advance and deescalate situations that start to combust.
The fear is high right now and people are rightly sensitised. Please don’t fall into the trap of tarring all a certain breed with the same brush. It will accomplish nothing. A day after the attack, my own cockapoo was minding his own business and got nailed in the side by a Dachshund. The owner could not give a s**t. Ignorant owners are the most dangerous thing, and the sad reality is you are not going to change those people. Thus, the onerous must be on us to protect our dogs as best we can.
So, what can you do to stop a dog attack?
I want to first break down the types of attack that there are, then add in some general body language to help you avoid the wrong types of encounters and finally get to the nitty gritty of how to break a fight up if it occurs.
Types of dog fights, I tend to lump them into 4 different categories:
👜 Hand-bag fight: These are by far the MOST common form of dog fight you will ever come across. These result in little to no injury to either dog, and injuries are normally an ear that got caught by accident or a graze. These will involve air snapping, growling and scuffling and commonly arise from one dog not listening to another dog’s earlier cues to go away. They are normally over quite quickly, but if you have a prolonged fight beyond a few seconds, then you will need to intervene.
🥊 An Ali fight: I name these sorts of dog fight after Muhammad Ali, known for his quick jabs, dipping in and out of reach. These fights involve dogs going in for a bite and then retreating. They are loud and fast moving. The difference between this and a handbags fight is the intention to make contact and bite and then release to repeat it again.
🐕 Bite and grip fight: These fights involve the dogs biting and holding onto the other dog, sometimes holding still sometimes ‘ragging’ or shaking the other dog. Mistaken by many people as ‘lockjaw’, which is a myth and not something healthy dogs have. These types of fight can be one of the hardest to work with to get the dogs to disengage without causing too much damage.
🐇 Predatory Drift: I class this as different from bite and grip as it normally comes with the picking up and shaking of a dog once in the jaws of another and is very common with dog fights where the one dog is proportionally smaller to the other dog. These types of attack are often triggered by a dog’s chase and over arousal that leads to predation.
Now we always want to prevent a fight from even occurring and to do that, we need to be on the lookout for potential threats. And I know, you’re asking, why Emma? We just want to enjoy being with our dogs! Why do we have to keep looking over our shoulders? I know, it sucks but you’d be surprised how quickly you can create a habit of periodically assessing your surroundings while out with your dogs.
When I am in a space where I will encounter other dogs, I am scanning my surroundings for a few seconds every couple of minutes just to keep track of my surroundings. I am very selective who I let interact with my dogs and very strict on how my dogs greet another dog. If I get a bad vibe from an approaching dog, I focus on what is called ‘defensive handling’ where the sole aim is to get out of the situation before something might happen.
Red flags in other dogs I look out for are:
🚩 If the owner’s reaction to their dog approaching is one of frantic recalling.
🚩 A dog staring fixated at mine.
🚩 A dog ‘stalking’ – crouching, crawling, staring – towards my dogs.
🚩 A dog gunning at us full speed – this is never polite even if the dog doing it is friendly!
🚩 Tail raised high, stiff fast wagging.
🚩 Barking and growling on approach.
🚩 Hackles up and stiff body movement.
🚩 Ears pinned back, snarling expression on muzzle.
If I see a dog with any of these red flags that is fast approaching, I use some methods to get myself out of there without an issue or a fight starting.
❗️ Don’t panic – I know that sounds easier than it is, but it is vital to remain calm and focused and able to think clearly and adjust to the situation as it develops. It is common for people to freeze like a deer caught in headlights, which is why it is vital for you to practice these techniques regularly.
❗️ Get control of your dog - If I don’t trust my dogs to be able to come with me, I get them on the lead ASAP. No point going through all this effort if me dog is going to turn around and get involved where I don’t want them. It also means I have control to move them behind me and keep the ‘hit box’ small.
❗️ U-turn – I want to create distance as soon as possible and do this by doing an emergency u-turn, keeping yourself as a barrier between your dog and the other dog. If the dog I have is reactive, I will at this point also be drip feeding them a constant flow of treats to keep them focused on me.
❗️ Food scatter – this is my normal go-to, especially if I’m out with a client in public training. I get my dog behind me, make a noise to catch the other dog’s attention and throw a load of treats in front of them. Normally the dog will start foraging for the treats and give me a chance to get away.
❗️ Gandalf it – Yep, you read that right. If the food scatter doesn’t work, stop, make yourself big such as flapping your arms and shout at the approaching dog ‘YOU SHALL NOT PASS!’, or ‘NO!’ works or anything loud and abrupt to get the dog to stop like a clap or hitting something. You can also then throw in the food scatter after to cover your retreat.
❗️ Flappy lead – I normally have a spare lead on my person when I’m out, I don’t do this move unless all the others fail as it can be scary for my own dog. I grab my spare lead by the clip end and twirl it around in front of me like a windmill. If I have my long line with me and coiled, I will shake it at the dog and slap my legs with it to ward off the other dog.
Sometimes, these preventative measures fail, and a fight breaks out. For even one such as myself, who has broken up many a scuffle over the years, it is still a scary thing to witness let alone be involved in.
Unfortunately, incidents are situation dependant and what might work in one place would not work in another. Consider the following pointers as more of a guideline for you to follow and adopt what measure you use depending on the situation that’s in front of you. Some of these techniques are things I would not use in a training and behaviour modification situation, only in the emergency of a dog fight.
IMPORTANT: KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF UNLESS AS A LAST RESORT.
If you go sticking your hands into a dog fight, you will very likely be bitten. Either by mistake, or from a dog redirecting their aggression onto you. One of my biggest bug bears is when people get their hands involved, get bitten and then act all angry and offended about it. WTF did they think would happen?
✅ Risk Assess – What type of fight is it? What tools do you have readily available to use to stop the fight? Is there anyone near-by who can help?
✅ Remember, hands off unless you need to dive straight into the more hands-on methods of breaking the dogs apart.
✅ Use deterrents – things like Pet Corrector (compressed air in a can) and Pooch Protector (citronella type spray) are easy to keep on your dog walking bag and can be used to startle dogs out of a fight. A r**e alarm is easy to keep on your key chain as a sound deterrent. Spray them with water, from a hose, a bottle or even a bucket or bowl.
✅ Barriers – Can you split the dogs with some sort of barrier, like a board, leafy tree branch or chair. Barriers are great for using before a fight begins as well to break their focus. Barriers can also mean placing your dog somewhere high up so the other dog cannot get to yours, like on a car roof or a wall. This is very helpful if you have a little dog. Temptation is to pick them up, but you run a massive risk of the dog jumping up at you and knocking you down and cause more harm.
If none of those are doing it, then it’s time to escalate how hands on you need to be to stop the fight. A word of warning, do not use any of the techniques that involve pulling the dogs apart, if said dogs are gripping onto each other. This is where you can cause more damage than if the dogs let go. You’d be going from a few puncture wounds to tearing ripping gashes.
❇️ Using Leads – You can use a slip lead for this or create a loop in a normal clip lead by putting the clip through the handle. The aim is to loop the lead around the dog’s head, or anything you can get it around and pull the dog away from the fight. If it’s obvious to see, I go for the ‘aggressor’ of the fight first in the hope the other dog will stop once the threat is removed.
If you’re alone, secure the one dog to something or someone holds the dog and then get the other dog on a lead and away from the first dog. If you’re not careful there is a chance of getting bitten, keep the leads taught and away from your body if the dog tries to redirect onto you.
❇️ The wheelbarrow – This option does require 2 people to action and involves a technique where you grab the dog by the back legs and lift, creating the wheelbarrow posture. When grabbing the dog, have your hands holding the dog at the top of their thigh and inside of their groin area. Lift up the back legs and turn dogs away in opposite directions from each other.
You can use this technique alone in conjunction with the leads option if you only have one lead to spare by tethering the first dog and wheelbarrowing the other.
These next options are best if you have a dog gripping onto the other. They involve you adopting a certain position, known as the control position, to be able to have greater control over the dog and minimise thrashing that can inflict more damage. The control position involves you straddling your dog, so they are between your legs facing outwards. Both your hands are holding their scruff and collar and your legs hugging either side of your dog in the place between the end of their ribs and before their hips.
❇️ Use deterrents in close range – once in the control position, use the sprays you have directly at the nose and mouth of the dog who is doing the gripping. Once the dog has let go, immediately turn and remove the dogs away from each other and secure them with a lead.
❇️ Feed the bite – it sounds counter intuitive, and this is best done with 2 people, but the idea is to simultaneously push the dogs into the bite, both the biter and the dog on the receiving end of the bite. This tends to encourage the gag reflex and the dog to release the other dog. As before, turn, remove and secure the dogs once disengaged.
❇️ Use a bite break stick – as the name suggests, this is a stick that you use to break the dog’s bite so you can separate them. They have a flat end that is inserted into the dog’s mouth behind the front canines (the big pointy tooth) as deep as possible and then wiggled back and forth, like revving a motorbike. Once released, turn and remove and secure the dogs.
❇️ Choke the dog – I’m not a fan of this one as there is risk for thrashing and hurting the dog’s trachea. However, if you don’t have any of the kit used in the other methods then this will be the only viable option if feeding the bite fails. You use the dog who is biting’s collar and twist it tight, or use a lead to essentially choke the dog into needing to breath and therefore let go.
Now I hope to God by this point, the fight is over. By now you are amped on adrenaline and trying to slow your racing body down. But there are things to do still even post-fight, and you can have a break down later in the shower or with a large glass of vodka on the sofa.
• Get the dogs secured and away from each other.
• Assess your dog for any injuries and treat onsite or call your vet to let them know you’re coming.
• Assess for injuries to humans, dog bites need to be treated in hospital.
• Get the contact information of the other owner or get photos and descriptions of them and their dog is they will not cooperate.
• Contact the dog warden to report the incident and to 101 for the police.
• Do not punish the dogs. The fight is over, they will not connect the punishment with the fight.
• If you are able, get someone else to drive you home or to the vet or A&E.
There you have it.
I hope to God you don’t ever need to use it, but at least now you know. I will be breaking this down into smaller pieces as reels and infographics for easier digestion. I also highly recommend you have a watch of this webinar from Michael Shikashio and Trish McMillan about defensive handling and dealing with dog fights, link in the comments section.
Dog Behaviorist and Specialist Training in Northumberland. Currently doing Msc in Clinical Animal Behaviour Accredited by various organisations.
