Depending on who you ask, the answer will vary. Here’s an overview of different solutions:

Always remain calm - You’re not going to help the situation if you’re just as frantic as the dogs that are fighting.

It helps the situation tremendously if there are two humans breaking up the fight. Also, you need a breaking stick, which is a piece of wood or plastic shaped as a wedge.

Here is a technique courtesy of another Pit Bull FAQ:

STEP 1) Walk over to the dogs and as simultaneous as possible step over, straddle and then lock your legs around the dog’s hips just in front of the hind quarters. Make sure your legs are locked securely around the dog.

STEP 2) With your free/left hand grab a handful of skin from the back/nap of the neck and pull upward as if you are a mother canine picking up a young puppy. A strong grip on the skin is needed here. We are accomplishing two things, one is to neutralize the mobility of the dog by locking our legs around it’s hips and the other is to neutralize mobility of the front torso by way of a skin hold on the back of the dog’s neck.

Before I continue with STEP 3, let’s review what has now happened. Not wanting to let go, the dogs are still holding on to each other and each handler has his dog in a tight leg squeeze just in front of the stifle/hind quarters while at the same time holding the dogs front section by way of skin on the back of the dog’s neck.

Sidebar: When looking in your dog’s mouth notice a gap where the teeth do not meet. This ‘pre molar’ area is why the breaking stick is so effective.

STEP 3) Each handler inserts his breaking stick in the pre molar area where the gap is found. Sometimes you need to work the stick just a bit if your dog is biting real hard. The stick should be inserted from 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches into the dog’s mouth.

STEP 4) Now, as if you’re twisting the throttle of a motor cycle, so too you must twist the breaking stick. This is the action that spreads the dog’s jaws far enough apart so that you can now pull back with the other hand. Viola, the dog is off! I like to also use my legs for those big dogs when pulling them off.

It is that simple.