Recently, our alpha Eli, and a foster got into a little scuffle (we thought it was little). The foster dog was moved to a new foster home. A day or so later, we were petting Eli when he pulled back from the petting. We found a 5 inch (12 cm) gash on his side (his furr hid it). He got many stitches at the Emergency Vets, with a follow-up with our vet later.