The most effective way to stop an attacking dog is counterintuitive to everything you would consider.
You have to stay calm as it approaches you and then ram your straight-armed, closed fist into its mouth, all the way back to its throat when it opens its mouth to bite you.
Odds are you’ll hurt it very badly or possibly kill it.
[windpipe damage]
Most folks don’t have that kind of nerve, though.
The collar twist works if the collar isn’t too loose or too wide and flat to twist.
[one of the reasons guard/fighting dogs wear the wide spiked collars]
The hind leg grab only works if one dog *wants* the fight to end.
If two dogs are fighting each other and you’re alone, grab a rope or leash and loop it around one dog’s waist and tie off the rope to something like a fence or tree and then rear-lift the other dog.
I know the fist in the throat thing sounds horrible but with Dobermanns, they way they attack, you don’t really get a chance to get hold of them very easily.
They ‘bite and bob’, meaning they’ll rush in and bite, jump away and come in again, repeatedly, until their target falls down.
[They have to “recondition” Dobes to ‘grab and hold’ in Schutzhund because it’s not their ‘natural style’]
If you’re going to train them for defense, you have to know how to save your own bacon if something goes wrong.
Thankfully, it never has for me.
She's a friendly sort and doesn't even growl. Problem is that's she's got a friendly disposition and hasn't had any bad encounters except one (more later) and so she thinks every dog likes to say hello
3 months ago my wife was walking her (off the leash) in a park and a lady was walking an amstaff on a leash. Normally I don't let my dog go to strange dogs without asking the owner first, but my wife believed in "free hellos" :) -- and our dog went up to the other one, wagging her tail. The amstaff grabbed her by the nose and my wife was screaming.
Luckily the amstaff then let go, but my dog was bleeding and ran to the wife, "crying" (she doesn't seem to know how to attack -- my dog I mean :)
My wife berated the owner, but it seems that the lady wasn't the owner, just walking her boyfriend's mother's dog. And quite frankly my wife (and I later) saw it as our fault as our dog went up to say hello
We told the owner later that luckily there wasn't permnanet damage, just some minor scars (luckily) and my dog's disposition is still friendly, but we emphasised that the owner should muzzle the dog -- I mean, what if a kid goes up to pet the dog, a toddler?
The dog wasn't vicious, but it's better to muzzle a dog on a city walk if you know the dog has a tendency...
The fist-arm would only work for a sufficiently large dog. Smaller ones, it would not fit. A broom stick instead?
I've never tried the tie off one dog technique.
Not saying it isn't a good tool to keep in mind
but I'd think unless you can be quick about it
there'd be a possibility of the dogs doing some pretty serious damage to each other
while you were tracking down a rope.
Being alone and having to deal with a serious dog fight is not something I would wish on anyone.
For someone with no experience it can be quite horrific.
One technique I've used with some success is to first get one of the dogs hind legs off the ground,
it lessens the dog's ability to get the leverage to fight.
With the back legs off the ground I pull the dogs toward a door/gate.
I get one dog on each side of the door and begin closing the door to minimize their possibility of contact.
At some point you will be down to only one dog having a hold through a small crack in the door
and eventually the dog will let go and you can close the door completely, separating the dogs.
The technique also works well if you have someone with you,
they raise the hind legs of the second dog off the ground
and work with you from the other side of the door.
The technique might not be as effective with dogs that don't bite and hold.
Here's a link that may be of some help...