It is common to see a situation when a dog attacks another dog on various different occasions, and you may be thinking of what to do if a dog attacks your dog?
This is certainly not an unfounded worry as these types of “incidents” typically happen in an environment when your dog is surrounded by many various different breeds of dogs.
Knowing how to manage and handle these situations is essential for YOU and the well-being of your lovely little pet.
In this posting, I will share with you on:
- Breed of dogs that are highly “aggressive” – these are the ones that you need to be wary of!
- Why and what makes a dog wants to attack another dog
- How should you handle the situation
- How to avoid dog aggression
- Dog attack liability – Who Pays When a Dog Bites Another Dog?
- Medical Checkup
Table of Contents
Breed Of Dogs – Highly Aggressive
Knowing which breed of dogs that tends to be aggressive will help you to avoid “meeting” the situation where your dog gets attacked by them. Certainly, prevention is better than remediate.
Get to know them so that when you are strolling your dog along the parks or neighbor, pay special attention to their reaction as your dog is approaching them.
Breed of dogs that are known to have record of attacking other pets: (In order of aggressiveness)
- American Pit Bull Terrier
- Rottweiler
- German Shepherd
- American Bulldog
- Bull mastiff
- Siberian Husky
As can be seen from the listing, Pitbull is taking the lead. This is certainly not a surprise taking into account their natural instinct of being a fighting dog.
Of course, if your dog belongs to the above mentioned breed, you should also ensure that he doesn’t attack other dogs as well.
Why And What Makes A Dog Wants To Attack Another Dog?
Apart from the above mentioned breed of dogs, most dogs by natural are gentle and kind as they are very social animals. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Pit Bull is not socializable, it just takes some training for them to be obedient.
Dogs only get nasty when they get uncomfortable in certain environments, or they feel threatened. Conditions that:
- Make them fearful
- Trigger their territorial behavior
- Trigger their possessive behavior
- Make them wanted to protect their owner
- Feel threatened by dog of bigger size
- Wanted to show their dominance over another dog
- Wanted to get attentions from owner
Can cause them to get aggressive. Knowing these triggering factors can certainly help you to address and avoid having your dog being attacked or your dog attacking other pets.
How Should You Handle Dog Attack?
To effectively manage this situation (if you’re unfortunately meeting them) is to know how to either get your dog or the other pet to back off. Sounds easy right? I will show you how you can do it using a distraction approach in the following point.
Certainly, if you can preempt your dog behavior to avoid this situation will be a much better choice right? Dogs will usually show certain signs of aggressiveness before attacking. You can keep a close watch out on these “indicators” to avoid having a “hard crash” with another pet. Avoiding dog attacks should be your top approach.
Sign to look out for include:
- Baring teeth
- Growling
- Snarling
- Snapping
Prior these much visible sign, they may also show sign of uncomfortable:
- Licking their lips
- Making their ears going backwards
- Stand crouching
- Walk low to the ground
- Show “White” eyes
- Turning their face away
- Exhibiting stiff body posture
- Trembling
By keeping a lookout for these signs, you can quickly pull your dog away from the spot just before the condition gets out of control. Bring him out of the environment that makes him nervous and to a quiet area.
They are FIGHTING now!
What should you do if your dog is now head on with another dog?
TIP#1: Remain calm. Do not yell at your dog as it does more harm than good.
TIP#2: Spray water on the fighting dog, specifically on the more aggressive one. Of course, if you do not have a water hose, a spray bottle filled with water should also do the tricks. Spray Shield dog attack deterrent spray could be another alternative.You can bring it along with you at all times. Dogs don’t like the smell and will back off.
TIP#3: Make use of what you have on hand. An umbrella can do the trick. Open a long umbrella to break the fight from both dogs. Make sure that the umbrella is long enough so that your hand is away from the dog’s mouth.
TIP#4: Dog Whistle to the rescue. Have one of these with you at all times Dogs are able to hear a sound of frequency that is much higher than what we (humans) can perceive. The sound generated from the high-frequency dog whistle will cause the dog to be uncomfortable, and they will back off.
TIP#5: If you have a dog leash on your pet, it would be much easier to manage.Try to pull him back and quickly move off from the spot. In case you have not put on a leash on him, do not do it now as it might endanger you. Your dog might BITE you as well.
TIP#6: Use a Distraction approach.You will need to have something that can “catch” your dog’s eye. His favorite toy will be the ideal “tool”. (So, my recommendation is to always bring along his toy with you when you are taking him for a stroll. Another alternative will be to put him on a dog leash). Be careful not to have direct eye contact with your dog or yell at him.
How To Avoid Dog Aggression?
You can do your part to prevent dog attacking problems. Certainly you cannot avoid your dog getting attacked by another dog but you can do some steps to prevent that from happening by observing both your dog and the other dog’s behavior.
Most important of all is to ensure that your dog doesn’t start the attack on other animals. Ensuring that your dog is properly socialized and being trained to be obedient, he will be in good “shape” for any social activities 🙂 If you want to be on the safe side, put him on a leash whenever you bring him to a new, unfamiliar place and beware of dog attacks breeds.
Dog Attack Liability – Who Pays When a Dog Bites Another Dog?
Law determining the liability for the compensation varies from states to states.
Essentially there are 2 guidelines:
1. “One -Bite” rule : This applies when the dog owner knows about the aggressives of his dog and the likelihood that he would attack anyone. This term (One- Bite) comes about since the owner would not be liable to compensate or gets into any legal trouble and his dog gets a “one free bite“. This is however no longer valid in this modern society. This usually overlap with the liability rule of negligence.
2. “Strict ” Liability – Regardless whether the owner knows that his dog will spring an attack or his dog is a well behaved pet, he is held accountable for compensation and legal sue on any incident that happens on the following assumptions:
Apply on the basis that the injured dog or person:
1. Do not trespassing any controlled or private premise
2. Did not do any things or actions to provoke the dog
Do note that this rule are not necessary the same in every states.
What you should do is:
1. Report the bite. Take down the owner particular and photo of the wounds
2. Inform Police and Local Authority’s Dog Warden
3. Work on the compensation (for the medical treatment cost)
Medical Checkup
Lastly, if your dog really suffered from any injury or harm as a result of the attack, what should you do? Definitely a visit to the vet to have your dog do a checkup and address to his wound is a must.
Sometimes, the wound might not be visible appearing on his skin and could be on the muscles and tissue underneath his skin. This is certainly something that you cannot check and need professional service from the vet.
So seek medical help as soon as possible to avoid any delay in treatment. Do take note that apart from physical pain, your dog might also be suffering from mental stress and anxiety after the violent attack and this might change his view on his surroundings.
You might be to focus on resocialization after your dog has calmed down so that he can “gain” back his happy and wonderful view of this world.