Toys and aggression

We got a new squeaky tug o war toy so I thought I would try it out with Eddie and Rosie.

As soon as Eddie realised it made noise he seemed to become poseesed by it. Rosie tried to grab it a few times and he kept running away with it then she jumped at it him then it was on. He dropped the toy and grabbed her on the front of the neck or the mouth I couldn't see, Rosie was yelping wildly.

I ran over and grabbed his top jaw with one hand and his bottom with my other and tried to pull them apart. I managed to get him to let go so I took my hands off him and he went for her again and the same thing happened again except he had his front teeth holding the skin on the side of her neck with more wild yelping from Rosie.

Again I tried opening his jaw by using my hands/fingers to pry his mouth open. There is no broken skin on Rosie and there was no growling from Eddie or head shaking which I think is some good news however his intent was obvious.

I realise that I could get bitten doing this however is there a better way to make a dog let go in that situation?

First things first, now you know what might happen, avoid over-exciting toys. It sounds like squeaky toys are out.

You're absolutely right, you don't want to try and separate dogs like that. Dogs can redirect very quickly (i.e. bite something else if what they want to bite is not the closes thing) and you could end up seriously injured.

I don't normally like keeping collars on dogs as they can get caught but in this case I'd suggest keeping a collar on Eddie. If you have this sort of thing again, one last resort thing you can do is take his collar from behind him, so you are well out of the way, and twist. It's not nice, you end up cutting off the air supply until they let go, but it's one of the ways that more effective. I've not done it myself but know someone who has. You can also try pet correctors, which is basically a sort of air horn, but they're not always effective.

You may well find this was a one off, dogs are amazing in that they bounce back and all seems forgotten. You might also find that Rosie is now less likely to want to push a game that far, which would be helpful. One dog giving in quickly does avoid confrontation. I would, though, try and keep things quiet for the next few days and make sure they have settled before reintroducing anything high value.

Squeaky toys really get a reaction as our furbabies have terrier blood in them!!! Katy's eyes change from brown to huge black pupils when she hears squeaky toys. She looks like a different dog, all she wants to do is destroy the squeaky thing Safer for you & Rosie to not have squeaky toys around.