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Logansmommie
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Dog aggression -Help!
in Pets
I have not been on here in a VERY long time, but I need some advice. We have 2 dogs, both about 2 yrs old, both female. Most of the time they are the best of friends. They sleep together, play together and just really seem comfortable with each other. The problem is that they occasionally fight. They have gotten in three fights in the 9 months we have had them. They are both very strong dogs so the fights are not good. So bad that I worry if I did not step in to break up the fight there would be serious injuries. The first two fights had causes that I could pin point, but we don't know what stated the latest fight, so we don't know how to prevent that situation. They have never shown aggression towards humans (well, one gets a little weird when strange men come to the door) so i am not worried about them attacking one of us. We do have young children though and I would never want them to get in the way during one of these fights. We have a trainer coming to our house this week, but I am not sure that training is going to help the problem. Do dogs just sometimes fight? Do we need to consider re-homing them? We are not irresponsible dog owners. We do not take this lighly and will do what ever is necessary to keep everyone safe and happy (including the dogs). Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Re: Dog aggression -Help!
We also monitored their interactions, and if we saw any cues from either of them that indicated they were uncomfortable, testy, snippy, etc., we stopped play, removed any offending object (treat, toy, etc.), and separated them by putting them both in sit-stays on their own beds and them ignoring them for a few minutes (no attention for undesirable behavior) except to verbally put them back in a stay if they tried to wander off.
Regarding your situation:
Is the person who is coming to your home a trainer or a behaviorist? I would recommend a behaviorist, as they can help you identify the cues the dogs are giving prior to the fights and help you prevent them from occurring or escalating.
What do you think caused the first two fights? Whatever it was, I would work on preventing it in the future. If you aren't already, I would implement NILIF (in addition to working with a behaviorist). You can Google it or look in the Pers Board FAQs for info. There is also a book in dog-on-dog aggression called Fight! By Jean Donaldson. I haven't read it, but it might be helpful. I did read "Feeling Outnumbered?" by London and McConnell about managing a multi-dog household and found it useful, so you may want to pick that up for some general tips.
I personally would not jump to rehoming without trying to work through this issue. You committed to these dogs and owe it to them to try, especially since it's possible there is a relatively simple fix (depending on what is causing the fights). You've also only had them for 9 months, so they may just now be getting truly comfortable in your home and letting their full personalities come out. It took over a year for our older dog's full personality to come through, which included both good things (rolling over fir belly rubs) and not so good things (barking at the doorbell because he felt he was defending his territory).
GL - I hope you can work through this issue!
what did the trainer say when he/she came out? In my experience working with shelter dogs females tend to be the worst to pair together. If you have two dogs it is always recommended to get a male and female, then two males, and to avoid having two females just by their natures (they are not unlike humans in this sense, girls tend to have more drama).
I would also not assume that their aggression will never translate over onto humans. Once they start being aggressive with each other and realizing that it sparks fear in their "family" they might take advantage of that and try to push their bounds...which could result in a bite. Training will definitely help since you are getting this early on, but you have to commit a lot of time (and probably money) to the issue.
Let us know how it goes and what advice the trainer gave you!