Things You Need to Know About Fighting Dogs

Fighting dogs are the ones that cause their owners the most worry. It is this vice that many owners hope a psychiatrist will be able to probe and cure, but since this is the process of investigating into the past of the dog's mind, which cannot be probed because the dog cannot answer questions, no progress can be made with psychiatry. We don't know which motive fits each individual case. What we do know is that dogs pretend to fight in play, mauling each other in a rough and tumble which nobody minds.

Puppies have mock fights all the time to strengthen their limbs and develop their jaws and to wear off their abundance of energy, but the subject we are looking at here is serious dog fighting, which is dangerous for dogs and humans and has been known to end in death for the smaller and weaker dog. Even if the dog fight is not so bad as to end in death it can cause the owner of a dog to have a heart attack from fear or people can be bitten. It is most unpleasant and terrifying, to say the least.

Most people don't realize it takes quite a minute for two dogs to get really to grips before that they are playing for a hold. Therefore, when you go to separate a dogfight, there is no need to rush in and get bitten. It is far safer to watch at close range until you can safely get hold of a collar or of the loose skin between the eyes of the dog. Once a dog has got a hold on another dog, it unlikely that he will turn around and bite you for to do so he would have to release the other dog. You are reasonably safe when it has got a hold in slipping a lead on or grabbing the choke chain or scruff.

It is generally useless beating the dogs in a dogfight; they would be mentally unaware of pain at that moment, unless you knocked either dog out you would not separate them once either had a real hold. A mild dogfight, where death is not the object of the aggressor, can sometimes be stopped by beating when a dog has no collar, but the best method if two people are around is for each on the word "now" to grab their collars and hold them off their front legs so they begin to choke. It takes great strength to do this with big dogs, so grab the flesh on the forehead between the eyes and he will let go at once with this. Moreover, they cannot bite you.

What is in the dog's mind when it attacks every dog it meets or just has one enemy around the corner? Most of it is show of strength, very often a cowardly show of strength aimed at other people's small toy dogs who can't answer a bully back. Face that same bully with a big dog likely to answer back and it will disappear into the distance, for the dog knows who will be boss even in its own race, and if it senses superiority physique or brain, it will automatically be subservient. That is why young dogs lie on their backs, all four feet in the air, when they meet and older or stronger dog; they know who is boss and are showing the other dog so by giving the "pax" sign, which is exposing the tummy to an enemy. This trick should be checked at an early age, for it is purely one of a weak animal giving in to one stronger in mind and usually an enemy at that. Few owners would like to think their dogs look upon them as enemies, but that is the case. When a dog no longer looks upon its owner as a potential enemy it stops this lying on its back for protection, although many dogs in later life do it because their owners have scratched their chests, which they like, and they hope for it again. But primarily it belongs to the defense mechanism of the dog tribe.

One can usually read the signs that a dog is about to fight seconds before it attacks; the stiffening of the legs, the raising of the hair along the back, the spring gait as if the dog were on hot bricks, and the slightly curved walk forward which means the dog is ready to turn instantly should his foe attack his hindquarters. A thunderous command "Leave" often brings a dog to its senses and no fight occurs.

Lamar Deane offers free information on how to select a DOG BREED best suited for you. Read other articles on HEALTH CARE FOR DOGS for information and treatment.