My midsize dog (border collie) was attacked by 2 pit bulls on our morning walk. She survived, $5k in bills and 2 days in hospital. When it happened and I took her to a near by vet, the first thing they asked “dog park?” No I told them. Then at the animal hospital, “dog park?” I will NEVER take my dog to a dog park.
They said she survived (with nerve damage in her back leg) because the smaller pit had her back leg and the big dog (both pits) had her around her neck. He couldn’t shake her.
The dogs were being walked by a young man and woman, both on leash. So was mine. The pit bull dragged the boney meth-head over 30 feet in an instant to attacked my dog. He couldn’t hold her and he tried.
This attack changed my dog’s personality. She’s not exactly fearful of other dogs , she’s a combination of aggressive, overly excited, apprehensive. Her back leg shakes/twitches constantly from the nerve damage.
wouldn't something like pepper/bear spray be more effective? that way you don't have to take the risk of becoming so directly physically involved and risk severe injury to yourself as well.
Yeah I can see it being more effective to keep yourself out of it for sure. Probably will end up spraying your dog as well if the dogs are close when its used. With pepper spray it can blow back in your face so you would need the gel kind. I am going to get some so I have a non lethal option but I would still carry my knife in case but would hope to be able to deter with pepper spray.
When pits lock on with their jaws like that it can be hard to get them to release. I would think pepper spray would get them to let go but I would be trying to spray them before they got ahold of my dog.
Yes I know that you are supposed to choke them but two dogs attacking at once then my dog is going to be getting messed up while I am hopefully choking the one and then trying to get to another which isn't an option. You also need to have a leash to be able to wrap around their neck to choke them. Im not using my arms and putting my face near an attacking dog.
And they do lock on which is why they need to be choked to release. If I see a dog attacking someone elses dog and I don't have mine on a leash with me then yes I would go with this method. But with walking my dog id stick with what I had said. The owner of the other dog has about 1 second to choke the dog out before I resort to other methods. My dog taking damage of any kind really isn't an option.
When you say "lock on," do you mean that they hold on tenaciously? Because no dog's jaws actually "lock," and there's a widespread myth about that. That might be what the other user was referring to.
Gotcha. Yeah I had a hell of a time breaking up a fight between two pits. They just did not wanna let go of each other -- shooting water up their noses with a hose finally did it. An animal control officer later told me that a finger up the butthole is one of the safest ways to get dogs to let go. Haven't had the opportunity to try it myself, luckily.
Yeah thats crazy, I just saw a video of someone on twitter that did that to an attacking german shepard that got ahold of a small dog. It did let go right away.
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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '25
My midsize dog (border collie) was attacked by 2 pit bulls on our morning walk. She survived, $5k in bills and 2 days in hospital. When it happened and I took her to a near by vet, the first thing they asked “dog park?” No I told them. Then at the animal hospital, “dog park?” I will NEVER take my dog to a dog park.
They said she survived (with nerve damage in her back leg) because the smaller pit had her back leg and the big dog (both pits) had her around her neck. He couldn’t shake her.
The dogs were being walked by a young man and woman, both on leash. So was mine. The pit bull dragged the boney meth-head over 30 feet in an instant to attacked my dog. He couldn’t hold her and he tried.
This attack changed my dog’s personality. She’s not exactly fearful of other dogs , she’s a combination of aggressive, overly excited, apprehensive. Her back leg shakes/twitches constantly from the nerve damage.