Dog Fight!

We were at Jesse’s sister’s house getting it ready for her new tenants and thought it would be a good idea to bring the dogs with us so they could play in her big fenced yard. They had a blast in the beginning, thinking they were at some kind of new, fun dog park where they were the only attendees. But then the neighbor’s dog, Thunder, decided it was time for some fence fighting.

To her credit, Pickles ran up to say to Thunder through the chain link, took one look at his snarling face, and ran away. Ty and Murphy, however, were not so well behaved and engaged in some serious barking, snarling, and charging until I discouraged them (read: dragged them away from the fence and hollered at them).

Then, Murphy and Ty started playing. I had turned my back to do something, and then I heard the fight start. It seems that when two dogs who ordinarily get along are feeling charged up and can’t get at the dog they actually want to kill, they’ll try to kill one another. That was what I dove into as I tried to get Murphy to let go of Ty’s face.

I had never seen the two of them go after one another like that — and I think Murphy started it. It was terrifying. I was hitting them and screaming and they completely ignored me. I couldn’t just rip Murphy away because he had a solid grip on Ty’s face and would have caused serious damage. Pickles also had jumped into the middle of the fracas and I was afraid she’d be Murphy’s next target when he released Ty if I didn’t keep her out of the way.

Fortunately, Jesse, who was inside installing a ceiling fan, heard the ruckus and came racing out in his socks to help me. We managed to pull them apart without too much damage to Ty’s previously perfect face and made all three of them submit for about 10 minutes before we let them up. I was shaking and thought I was going to throw up. Both Jesse and I were totally freaked out.

We kept a close eye on them the rest of the afternoon, especially since Murphy seemed entirely too interested in the scent of the antibacterial soap I used to clean up Ty’s face, and they seemed fine afterward. But we still haven’t stopped feeling on edge…

Note that the photo is on the way home from J’s sister’s house, less than 3 hours after the fight. If you look closely to the right of Ty’s face, you can see two streaks where Murphy ripped his fur off, and another cut above his left eye (still on your right).  Oy.