Have you ever wondered how to break up a dog fight? There must be a safe way you can intervene between two fighting dogs. Apprehensive in Alberta had the same question,

At the other end of the spectrum are attacks like Bedlam’s, where there is a clear aggressor, and a victim who is being seriously injured. Sometimes the victim will try to fight back, and at wo-way fight will ensue. You are right—without intervention, attacks like his can end up being fatal.

Somewhere between these two extremes are fights between dogs that might do each other harm, and warrant some level of intervention. It can be tough to determine if and when they do, but here are some rules of thumb:

(1) Dogs who tend to get more and more riled up the longer they scrap, who won’t walk away, or who have done physical harm in the past, definitely warrant a break-up.

(2) Fights between dogs of extreme size difference or two females in heat should raise intervention alarm bells.

(3) Any fight involving a fighting breed should be stopped unless both dogs are known to be safe scrappers. Fights involving these breeds have a much higher risk of serious injury—these dogs have trouble reading social signals, and often have their own “rule book.”

Intervention between a dog fight always carries the risk of injury, but there are safer and riskier methods for meddling. Here are some options which will follow shortly