I'm hoping someone can help me with this before my husband makes us take one of them back. Back at the end of May, we rescued two pups who were cell mates at the local shelter. One looks like a black shepherd (Jake), the other (buddy), I can't tell. Maybe some boxer, or even pit, but mutt regardless. They are both big dogs, and around the same age, between 7 and 9 months now. I also have a rottie (Schultz), who's 14. There's no issue with him. Schultz is the dominant dog and Buddy seems to be next, then Jake. The problem I'm having is between Buddy and Jake. They've fought about 3 times, and each time it's been when my family is outside (I have three kids). None of the dogs have shown any kind of aggression towards me or my kids. As a matter of fact, the kids feed the dogs. Based on the book, we feed Schultz first, then Buddy, then Jake. Today's fight went like this: my daughters and I were outside. I have a baby gate surrounding the porch so that my youngest can play without being bothered by the dogs. I was on the inside of that gate petting the dogs. I had been petting Schultz, then was petting Buddy, then Jake. Right after I finished petting Buddy, I started petting Jake. Buddy started biting on Jake's snout, then the fight began. Schultz was doing some barking and seemed to help Buddy, although he never actually bit either dog. This lasted a minute or so, they chased Jake off, then Jake was running over by me and seemed pretty scared. This all happened too close to my girls, and if it happens again I'm afraid Buddy will have to go, which will break my son's heart. HELP!! How do I handle this?
hi jerrodandme, and thanks for your post. Before we look at behavioral solutions I was wondering if all of the dogs are desexed? Also how serious was the fight was it mostly noise, growling and wrestling or were there serious injuries? Finally how did you react to Jake and Buddy afterwards and how did they respond to this? Sorry for all of the questions just looking to get a really clear picture of the situation.
Thanks for responding so quickly. The two pups are desexed, Schultz (the 14yr old) is not. This fight was only about a minute, and there were no serious injuries. Buddy had a small puncture wound on his hind leg. The previous fight lastest longer, and both dogs had a couple of puncture wounds. Jake (black dog), had a couple on his neck and front leg, and Buddy had a scrape on his snout. After this last fight, I felt so bad for Jake because he was being run off and looked so scared, I let him come by me and kept him in the house for a few minutes. I'm guessing that was probably the wrong thing to do. I basically did the same thing after the prior fight. Later in the day, Buddy kept after Jake, and was snapping and growling some, but when my husband came out Buddy stopped (the dogs are afraid of him, and Buddy went right into submission mode when he walked over to them). Buddy doesn't do anything when my husband's around, just when me and the kids are there. Thanks again for responding, and I'm hoping you can help. BTW, we haven't been able to get the dogs trained as well as I'd like, so they don't listen very well yet.
Hi again, It sounds like your dogs do not see you as their leader and therefore when your husband is not around they are fighting over the position themselves. There are several things you can do to help your situation although it may take a little while to resolve
-if you see buddy about to start a fight or be aggressive quickly remove him to a five minute time out. If you think this might be hard to do leave a leash and headcollar on him while he's outside to begin with so you can easily move him -if the dogs begin to fight break up the fight by startling them with a loud noise or with the hose. As soon as they are seperated put buddy (assuming he is the atatcker) into time out -work with each dog individually for short regular sessions doing basic obedience training. This will help reinforce your status as leader and will also be more productive than trying to train all the dogs together. -keep up alpha dog training with your dogs making sure you do as much of it as possible as your husband is already seen as a leader -you have said that you are feeding the dogs and petting them in order etc. It may be that although buddy is more dominant jake would be better in second position as he is less aggressive. If jake will eat before buddy etc and accept the position you may want to change feeding and petting order etc so that buddy is actually last. -at all times when one of the dogs behaves innapropriately use time out to show them that you are the strong calm leader and you will not tolerate this nor is it in their best interest as they will miss out on you attention
it is going to take a bit of time to reshuffle the orders of all these relationships but you should soon see progress. if you have any further questions or see any changes please don't hesitate to contact us for further information.
