Being aggressive is quite normal behavior for most pit bulls when mature. But what if your pitbull attacks just another dog? What are the actions you can take as the owner in such an incident?
Here we will discuss how we can act wisely to avoid such dog fights if our pitbull is also involved.
If your Pitbull attacked another dog, first, don’t panic or scream. Take responsibility for reimbursing for veterinary bills, dog medications, & kennel or animal hospital fees. Then discuss the negligence of stopping the fight by both parties, and If true, prove that the other dog is responsible.
So, let’s see what to do when our pitbull attacks another dog, how to make him calm, and other related facts.
What to do when your pit bull attacks another dog?
We’ve all witnessed a dog fight at some point in our lives. But what if one of those aggressive fighting dogs is your pitbull? It’s too dangerous as dogs can do serious harm to each other.
As a dog owner, it’s your responsibility to know how to control the situation. Although our pit bull is not the initial aggressor, it’s never okay to remain with doing nothing or blaming the other owner.
We must try to handle the situation safely. If not, it could land you in the hospital because you were trying to break up the fight in an inappropriate way. So, let’s see what the do’s and don’ts are if our pitbull attacks another dog.
1. Don’t panic or scream.
If we panic and scream while our pitbull is attacking or fighting with another dog, both of the dogs can be triggered due to that sound, and the fight will be prolonged.
Our screaming sound will cause dogs to feel fear and intensify the fight. So it is not appropriate to panic or scream during a dog fight.
2. Never try to separate fighting dogs.
It is our pitbull who is aggressive in the situation, and we try to separate him from the fight with the thought that we can handle the situation by putting our hands or grabbing the leash.
But, Never try to separate fighting dogs by grabbing the leash or putting your hands between them.
It is completely dangerous. The dog will bite whatever he can reach during a fight. No sense of ownership or anything.
His attention is entirely on the opposition. So this won’t be suitable to do during a dog fight.
By the way, read this to understand whether Pit bulls are good with small dogs.
3. Use an external barrier.
Instead of putting ourselves in the middle of the dog fight where our pitbull is involved, we can use a chair, a piece of cardboard, a sponge rod, or whatever to resist both dogs’ attacks.
We can douse them using buckets of water too. This would not do any harm to the dogs but would separate them from their fight. This will be a good idea to separate our pitbull from a dog fight.
4. Do not run and hide.
We have to act wisely during a dog fight to bate the conflict between our pitbull and the other one as the pit bull owner. If we run and hide somewhere else, it causes severe damage to both dogs.
5. No use of scolding and shouting at other owners.
Never focus on the other owner and start scolding them; focus on the fight and try to resolve it.
If the other dog has an owner, both of you must try to find alternative ways to break up the fight without causing trouble for him.
6. Use your voice to control dogs.
It will be more appropriate to use our voice and body language to regain the attention of our pitbull during a dog fight.
If we can control the aggressiveness of our dog before a fight, when he is showing signs of aggressiveness in front of any other dog, that will reduce the chance of having a fight.
However, using a harsh tone of voice, similar to giving an order, will reduce the dogs’ aggression to some extent.
7. Do not kick or punch the dog.
This is not to be done in any case. If we kick or punch our pitbull while he is attacking another dog, it will escalate his arousal.
Sometimes he would try to attack us back as he got pain from that kick or the punch, and punching him, in this case, looks just like encouraging the other one.
So, the situation can be difficult if we kick or punch our pit to avoid attacking another dog.
8. Grab the aggressor by his tail
When the condition is somewhat pathetic, and our pitbull is getting more aggressive, we can grab him backward using his tail or even the upper part of his back paws.
Sometimes our pitbull would release his victim too. We can pull him so that he can not turn around and bite you. Hold on until he calms down.
Then we can take our dog under our control.
9. Get help if needed.
If the case is too serious, we can seek help from people around us and even neighbors. Different people know different methods of breaking down dog fights.
So as the ultimate solution during your dog’s involvement in a dog fight, you can call others for help.
Although pit bulls are selectively bred for the purpose of fighting, they are not totally aggressive. Through proper training and practice, we can make our pitbull a friendly animal.
But it won’t say that he won’t attack any other animal or a human either. On any occasion, we can see his fatal nature. We have to be responsible if our pitbull gets involved in a fight with another dog.
If we don’t do anything to distract fighting dogs, the situation may be very critical.
Miss. Thilini
How to prevent the other party from taking legal action?
Dog owners are usually caring for their dog’s security, their injuries, and everything. What if our pitbull attacks such a dog with its owner? So crucial! Because pit bulls are strong fighters.
The other dog can easily be harmed in a fight with our pitbull. When the other dog gets injured by the attack of our pitbull, although the fault is with that dog, the owner can demand legal action against our pitbull.
He may be directing an attorney for a lawsuit. We have to resist the huge compensation received thereafter. So the best thing is to prevent the other party from taking legal action.
So, let’s discuss a few ways of reducing the other party’s chance of taking legal action.
1. Take responsibility for reimbursing for bills.
If the other party takes legal action, we have to pay considerable compensation as well as our pitbull could be imprisoned.
So it is very much okay to take the responsibility of paying the veterinary and medical bills for the other dog while apologizing for the incident.
Take responsibility for reimbursing veterinary bills, dog medications, and kennel or animal hospital fees.
Miss. Thilini
2. Prove that the other dog is liable.
However, it’s not always appropriate to hold the pitbull owner liable if the victim was to blame for the injury.
So we have to declare for the other party that the injured one is liable for this, and no need to direct legal actions against our pitbull.
3. Discuss the negligence of stopping the fight by both parties.
Although the other dog got more injured in the dog fight, we have to discuss the reason for this dog fight, why the other dog got more injured (pit bulls are strong fighters by nature), and how both parties failed to stop the fight.
Negligence in stopping the fight is the leading cause of the continuation of a fight between two dogs that have no need to take legal action on this matter.
4. The things done by other parties provoked the dog.
Although the other party tries to go for legal actions against our pitbull, we can explain that the two dogs are aroused due to the things done by the other party, and those things provoked the other dog to make our pitbull aggressive.
So, we can explain to them not to take legal action.
How to keep your pit bull from attacking other dogs in the future?
As pit bulls quickly get into dog fights, we can train them from the beginning, from their puppy age, to avoid them attacking other dogs in the future.
Here is a list of things we can do to keep our pitbull from attacking other dogs.
- We can train them to be obedient to our words every time.
- Must be socialized well when young.
- Provide them with regular exercise.
- Do not make him dominant in the house.
- Should be well fed and kept healthy.
- Train him to wear a leash or harness while on a public walk.
- If the dog is walking off-leash, we can attach the leash as soon as another dog approaches.
We can redirect his attention away from a nearby dog by giving him treats.
Things to be aware of.
Although we can act wisely to prevent any dog fights when our pitbull is involved and prevent legal actions by the other dog owner, there are some things to be aware of.
Let’s see what they are.
- If both dogs are pitbulls or any strong breed, the fight between them can cause severe damage. When trying to break up such a fight, the owners have to be more careful.
- If one dog is attacking while the other is protecting and attempting to flee, the person should intervene to stop the aggressive dog.
- In most dog fights, after a several seconds, one of the dogs will realize he is the weaker dog and attempt to flee. One canine will mosty become the aggressor while the other one other will become the victim at this stage. If the attacker does not stop and pursues the other dog, we should take the necessary steps to stop him.
- If you act alone and physically immobilize only one dog, the other dog will take advantage of the circumstance and may injure his opponent far more than if they were left alone to resolve their differences.
- If we cannot train our pitbull to be socialized as he easily gets into fights, veterinary surgeons dispense mood altering drugs for our dog. It is okay to use these drugs prescribed by a vet in an instance like this.
Conclusion
Not only are our Pitbulls involved in fights with their kind, but almost all canines. That is nature. Here we have discussed what to do when our dog gets into a fight with another and how to make people aware of this to prevent them from taking legal action. I think you can get a clear-cut idea of the things to be done during a dog fight and to avoid them in the future too. I hope this will be more informative on your dog’s matters and am willing to meet you with other important dog-related facts.
