I only ever had to break up one dog fight. Two of the neighbor's stock dogs had our JRT on his back. One had him by the throat, the other was chewing the hell out of his exposed chest. I was out in the yard working when I heard the commotion.
I had to go about forty yards to intervene. I figured the jack russel would not survive the amount of time it would have taken me to go in the house, open the safe. and load a gun. So I picked up a fallen tree limb on the way. About 2 1/2 inches in diameter and seven feet long.
I brought that stick off the ground behind me and cracked one dog over the head in my best Paul Bunyon axe swing imitation. I hit him so hard, it broke the limb over his head. But that is all it took. They both, along with a third dog standing 30 yds back watching took off for home as hard as they could run.
That damned JRT jumped to his feet and took off in high pursuit. He came back about five minutes later with his head in the air and tail wagging, proud as hell for running those big bullies away.
But by night fall the little schitt was so stiff he could hardly walk outside to do his business. It was a Sunday morning. Monday, I was there when they opened the doors of the Vet Clinic. They put in about thirty stitches and gave him some analgesics. IIRC, the bill was a bit less than $150. Pretty reasonable!
If the attacking dogs had been pits, I would have made the detour into the house and grabbed one of the 41s. Our JRT would have probably been dead by the time I intervened, but I would have gotten at least one of the attacking dogs.
I usually end dog issues with the 264 and a 100 gr ballistic tip, but a couple have fallen to the 22-250, and one to the Marlin 1894 in 41 mag. The only times I have used a handgun on a dog have been end of days mercy shots. Even a 17 HMR works there as well as the 327. Actually a 22 lr shot shell to the base of the skull puts a dog down instantly. I have done so with 3 or 4 over the years.
