I had a huge German Shepherd I raised from 6 weeks in Mansfield Ohio when I was 24. Over 90 lbs., his nose was at 5’6” with his front paws on my shoulders. A gentle, loving, well-trained & obedient dog that loved children.
One evening walking him in town on a leash, a mutt about 1/3 his size tore out from the porch of his house and tore into my GS and was ripping him to shreds. Or so it looked. My GS tried to defend himself, but just wasn’t as aggressive as the mutt.
Being an ignorant idiot, I tried pulling the mutt off my GS. Huge mistake. If I didn’t have heavy leather gloves on (cold winter day), I would have no right hand.....the mutt saw movement thinking my hand was my dog, and grabbed it. I was stunned at the force of its grip as it was a small dog....I could not get my hand out of its teeth. I had separated the dogs, but now I was the object of the attack. Only by repeatedly kicking the mutt as hard as I could did it eventually release its grip. My hand was bruised and hurt for some time - but no blood drawn.
NEVER try to separate dogs in a fight, regardless of how small.
My GS wasn’t hurt as his fur was incredibly thick with his winter coat.
Good example. I hear people who say they would to this or that to fend off a dog attack. They seem to have no clue how fast, agile, and athletic your average dog is. How fast it can turn on a dime and circle you and come from a different angle. People will say “just grab its tongue and then it can’t bite down on you. Yes, so much easier said than done. Dogs are really good at what they do. We are just prey without a gun or a knife. You can’t effective beat a dog in hand to hand combat without a weapon.
OK, maybe a trained Navy Seal would go straight for an eye gouge and that would end it. I am not so trained.
I’m not going to mess around with any dog no matter the breed, if it attacks one of my dog’s I will deal with it. The end result of my decision will be entirely the fault of the owner. Under no circumstances should your dog ever be out of your control. If your dog gets lose it’s your fault! If your dog gets off a leash it’s your fault. If your dog is to big or strong for you to handle your a fool if you take it out among others. Two section on the south end of the ranch borders a small community on the nth and east side. I’ve personally killed 11 dogs I’ve found on the ranch and my hands have killed just about as many. They don’t care! they just keep letting their dog’s run lose and keep getting them killed. I’ve got 1400 cows on the ranch that mean allot more to me than those dog’s. Hell the coyotes don’t cause as much of a problem as those dogs. One of my hands killed 3 dogs out of a group of 9 he ran into over 2 miles deep into the ranch.