I was on the dog beach just north of Huntington Beach in SoCal yesterday and my Aussie Cattle Dog got into it with a bullmastiff bitch. The way I saw it was the mastiff instigated the fight and went after Joey with a vengance. She really looked like she was in it for the kill. A couple owned the dog and we’d been happily chatting until then. She immediately started screaming like a banshee which only wound the dogs up more. I shouted once at Joey to come to me and he tried to break away but the mastiff carried on going for him. Eventually the screaming woman’s husband managed to get the mastiff to break away.

We all stood there in shock for a moment and then walked off without saying a hell of a lot.

This morning I did a bit of research. The following extract is from Ed Fawley’s website. Follow the link for a much more extensive article with bite photos. Ed also gives extensive warnings on the site about the danger of grabbing a dog by the collar while it is in fight drive – please visit his site for full info as this is just a summary:

*snip*

The safest way to break up a dogfight requires 2 people. Each person grabs the back feet of one of the dogs. The dog back feet are then picked up like a wheelbarrow. With the legs up, both dogs are then pulled apart.

Once the dog fight is broken up and the dogs pulled apart it is critical that the people do not release the dogs or the dog fight will begin again. The two people need to start turning in a circle, or slowly swinging the dogs in a circle while they back away from the other dog. This stops the dog from curling and coming back and biting the person holding their legs.

By circling the dog has to sidestep with its front feet or it will fall on its chin. As long as you slowly continue to back and circle, the dog cannot do any damage to you. To insure that the fight will not begin all over again when you release the dogs, one of the dogs needs to be dragged into an enclosure (i.e. a kennel, the garage, another room) before the dog is released. If you do not do this, the dogs will often charge back and start fighting again or if you release the dog to quickly the dog will turn and attack the person who had his feet.

*snip*

I’ve actually done this as a teenager without knowing it’s a well known technique and it works brilliantly.

Yesterday I assumed immediately that Joey was the victim because the other dog started the fight. But after doing some reading I realized that Joey exhibits a lot of dominant behaviour when meeting other dogs. He often stands tall and raises his chin onto the whithers (shoulders) of other dogs showing dominance. I think he may have shown some dominant behavior yesterday and I also think the Mastiff may have just had puppies so she was super defensive.

So we’ve agreed to keep an eye on Joey’s dominant behaviour, especially with breeds that can kill. Please note, I don’t have anything against so called agressive breeds, I simply mean that some dogs have bigger mouths, faster reflexes and stronger bites than others so if something does go wrong, the potential for catastrophe is greater.

Lately I’ve been watching a show with the rather lame name of ‘the dog whisperer’. The name may be lame, but Cesar, the guy who trains the dogs is brilliant. The one thing I think he gets very right is to understand that dogs are not like humans. As he puts it, they need exercise, discipline and love in that order. The one positive thing that came out of that dog fight Joey got into was that even when he’s about to be killed, if I tell him to come to me he will do his best to obey, so we have the discipline right. [Joey also gets plenty of exercise and overdoses on love every day]

In my reading I ran across a book extract that really bugged me because the author is a self proclaimed expert but obviously doesn’t know what they’re talking about. They’re referring to Alpha rolling a dog, which is a great non-violent technique to establish yourself as the pack leader with your dog. I very seldom use alpha rolling, but it’s a valuable tool, especially with problem dogs.

“Forcing the dog onto its back is the equivalent of an abusive parent beating a child to force it to say, ‘I love you.’ Although he or she may have forced the words out of the child’s mouth, they cannot force the statement to be true…. Forcing a dog into a submissive position is the Doggish equivalent of this scenario. Even worse, this technique may actually anger the dog enough to provoke it to attack.

“Forcing a dog into an alpha roll, or shaking the dog, both constitute physical aggression. Physical aggression is not communication. If there is good communication, then such confrontations need not occur.”

– [apparently from] Stanley Coren, “How to Speak Dog”

I don’t advocate shaking dogs, but alpha rolling is a very valuable technique and works brilliantly. Dogs aren’t human children. They require dog social structure which means they need you to identify yourself as the pack leader. You do that by interacting with them the same way an alpha dog does. You can skip the biting and the dog fights, but you need to show dominance. If you don’t establish yourself as the leader a dog can get very confused or fearful which, worst case, can lead to dogfights and human attacks.

Establishing yourself as the leader in a non-violent way is especially important for aussie cattle dogs who are very tough, potentially aggressive and have complex personalities. You need to let them know that you have the situation in hand and that they can trust you.

When a stranger arrives at our house, Joey barks a couple of times and then I tell him that’s enough, I have this under control, I’m the alpha and I’ll handle this. He calms down quickly and he’s always super friendly after the initial “whoTheHellAreYou”.

After all this talk about agro in dogs, I should add that Joey is an incredibly friendly dog. He’s never shown any aggressive behaviour towards humans and he’s brilliant with very small children even when they’re startling him or slapping his face the way kids do.

So I think we’re doing great, but cattledogs are intense and we’ll always be learning more and there’s always something we can improve upon.

Here’s Joey as a pup: