ratbastid

Agreed. When you've got to assert dominance to avoid injury, there's no room to be nice--you have to be like a dog who's aggressively asserting dominance: fast and nasty.

That said, 90% of what we humans think of as "dog fights" are either aggressive play, or dominance squabbles that the dogs are best left to work out on their own. I only intervene if the muttering hits a certain level, or if it looks like somebody's about to get hurt.

My Cooper hardly ever gets into trouble with other dogs. She's generally very submissive (with one exception--a lab/border collie who she has spent a lot of time around since he was a very young pup, and who she's definitely the "big sister" with). I've had dogs come up to her who were clearly looking to start something, and Cooper will do every trick in the dog book to make them happy. She'll submissively pee for them, then roll over and present her belly... Even the most aggressive dog chills out once they see that.