“... not advisable to fight around a Bull Mastiff”.
Sounds very similar to mine... dog got confused over protection when two of the people he was suppose to protect appeared to be fighting. I think it totally confuses the dog to the point that you aren’t 100% sure how he will react. I can imagine your brother’s surprise when he had a giant mouth put around his arm!!
My dog has this attitude towards violence “I am the professional - leave it ALL to me, no violence is allowed in my presence. Violent behavior WILL be met with a tackle and subduing mouth around your throat.”
We were out for a walk and she got all antsy because a guy in his truck was fighting with his girlfriend. When he punctuated his argument by slamming his fist against her seat with three loud bangs - my dog went nuts. She did a leap that would have landed her in the front seat of his truck!
Luckily she was on leash and I pulled her back - but she was going in like Wonder Woman - to settle the matter.... conclusively!!!!
Odin is now the lone male in a house of 5 dogs.
Gypsy, the smallest of them all, is a shameless instigator when she wants to play, resorting to nipping hocks, if need be, just to get someone to chase her.
Occasionally, the other 3 bitches get fed up with her provocations and “turn on her as a pack”.
They never harm her, they just surround her and show dominant posturing and growling.
She doesn’t take it to heart and play-bows to show her submissive good will.
Odin, however, does not like seeing her thusly intimidated and simply shoulders his huge self into the midst of it all, sending the ersatz ‘hit squad’ scattering.
He’s not growling.
He’s not threatening.
He’s just *there*...’defusing’ the pack tension.
It’s extremely common behavior in dog packs.
When I was a little kid, my 7 pound Poodle would “jump into it” if my dad went to swat me for something.
It infuriated him no end because he thought she was ‘attacking’ him but she was not; she was simply attempting to move between us and defuse the pack stress.
As Odin is a support dog and when we’re in very crowded situations, he presses himself to me tightly and serves to “buffer” me from other people who might otherwise bump into me.
I did *not* teach him to do that.
He apparently senses that I have balance issues and compensates for them.
He is simply displaying a type of normal pack behavior that he’s “modified” to fit our dog/human pack situation.
He loves his “daddy” like crazy but hubby understands that if he starts yelling or acting too angry about something with Odin around it would be an extremely unwise thing to do.
He is “our” dog in name but *my* dog in heart.
We would no more have a fight in front of the dogs than we would if we had children.
It is not right to put either of them into such an emotionally conflicted position.