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Dog Fights Q&A

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Breaking Up a Dog Fight without Getting Hurt Podcast

Dog fights are violent, loud and dangerous events. I get emails every day on dog fights. As I wrote this description I got 2 emails. In email the family had two dogs. Their female GSD had just killed their dachshund. In the second email this family's dog had just been in a fight with a neighbors dog and done $1,400 damage.

In the mid 1990's I wrote an article on How to Break Up A Dog Fight - that article is still on my web site. This 52 Minute podcast is an update of that article. The information in the podcast has more details on making the decision of even trying to step in to break up a fight, it discusses many methods used to break up fights and it tells how to break up a fight when you are alone. There is an also extensive section on preventing dogs fights.

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My Dobe was attacked by a 13 year old Boxer

Dear Ed,

Today I was walking my 10 Month old Dobe off the leash in the park when we came across an 11 year old boxer which was on a short lead being held by an elderly woman who was at least 80, now my dobe is not aggressive or vicious but is very outgoing and loves to investigate everything so he ran up to the Boxer which then leapt up onto my dobe and started attacking him, growling at him biting him, of course I ran to stop it I even kicked the boxer in an attempt to move him off my dobe, but alas to no avail If found myself stranded with nothing to do I mean I had a combat knife on me and was contemplating stabbing the boxer (but then decide against it for obvious reasons) I mean the old woman done nothing what so ever to help the situation whilst I could see my dobe cowering below this boxer I made numerous other attempts to brake them up but every time I pulled them apart the boxer would act more aggressively towards my dobe anyway we ended up waiting ten minutes until we got the old ladies daughter from across the street to remove the boxer. Now I feel so bad that I as "pack leader" let my dog down, I'm scared that he is going to be scared for life. Even though he was fine as soon as we separated them, he even attempted to go back at the boxer to "play." Anyway I would like to know how can I prevent this from occurring in the future and if an incident like this was to ever occur again how could I separate the two dogs. Thank you and I look forward to your reply.

Ed's Answer to this dog fight between Dobe and Boxer:

The way I read this is - you screwed up. YOU ALLOWED your dog to go to this dog. Why would you allow this?

Sorry but this is an owner problem not a dog problem.

Read the article I wrote on dog parks.

I never saw an 80 year old women that could help break up a dog fight.

Regards,
Ed Frawley

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hi,

I just registered. I was hoping to get some immediate info about a problem I'm having w/ my male german shepherd. I have 4 dogs male shepherd, 3 yrs old (sire is K-9 Police dog, from Netherlands) female shepherd, 6yrs old and the dame/mother to male shepherd labrador, 4 yrs old, shepherd/golden retriever mix. 7 yrs old. The male shepherd has always shown a high prey drive.. frequently stalking the male (neutered) lab. It has been just play.

The female shepherd has on occasion, attacked the mixed dog. It is weird, when someone is crying or moaning with pain, she will attack the mixed dog. Now, for the last 6 - 7 months. The male shepherd has on occasion, growled and had a quick fight w/ the mixed dog. 2 nights ago, for no apparent reason at 11:30 pm, 3 dogs were in my bedroom, I called to the mixed dog to come back there with me. He stopped and did not want to go into the room. I coaxed him to come on. After entering the room, the male shepherd attacked the mixed dog with SUCH VIOLENCE, would not let go, seemed he would kill the mixed dog. Then the female shepherd attacked him also (neutered).. so now 2 on 1. I had just brushed and combed the shepherds so they were not wearing their choke/pinch collars. Husband got the female off, I was pulling and yelling. Reached down to pull the head, he let go but was in a frenzy and bit thru 2 of my fingers. I do not believe he knew he was biting me.
We put a shock collar on the male shepherd and I also have pepper gas available. Is this going to modify his behavior?

Should I do something else? If he attacks again and we cannot get him to stop ... I've been told to 'get rid of him. I love this dog... raised him since he was born. He is with me a lot I take him to my business, tie him up in my office... He is my dog. He follows me everywhere, even wakes up to follow me. He is very animal aggressive. He also barks and growls at people. I am the only person who has ever been bitten by him. He is very strong, weighs about 90 lbs.

My husband is afraid of him now. I am not.... but I can guarantee I won't be in that same situation again. I have to watch him closely, keep him close, sometimes I just put him in a room and close the door. I am somewhat desperate for info, because, I do not want to lose this dog. I love all my dogs, but this male shepherd is my heart. I've loved on him.. petted him.. let him sleep in my bedroom... I just don't know if he can go from an affectionate master to a ? different master. He has had lots of love and attention, from me. If I am forced to give him away, I worry about him adapting to a new way of life.

Please, if you have any info or suggestions, I would appreciate a reply.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

ANSWER:

You have a dog pack and you don’t have a clue about pack behavior. Read my web site (YOU HAVE NOT DONE THIS) on dog fights. You got bit because you broke the fight up the wrong way. You had the dog fight because you are not keeping your dogs properly. (I would never allow this many dogs of the same sexes to live unrestricted – this is a handler error). Either get dog crates or keep them separated.

Read my articles on dominance, aggressive dogs – read the Q&A sections.

This GSD bit you in the heat of the battle. Not out of dominance. Your husband has nothing to worry about as long as you change your living arrangements with these dogs.

You also need to obedience train these dogs with a prong collar – they are not trained. If they were trained you would not be using the word “COAXED” – no one COAXES a trained dog.

If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes. I think if you read the testimonials on that tape you will see that my customers feel the same way.

Regards,
Ed Frawley

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Question on Dog Fights:

I’ve read your homepage and the last story there was from a lady asking you if you ever did try using the stun gun for sound effect. I would like to know the answer to that Question on Dog Fights because I have a medium size male (supposedly chow and Akita mix not sure) that has started beating the heck out of my male St Bernard. They both were puppies growing up together and all was well until the last month. The medium dog keeps attacking the St Bernard every time I go out side to change the water or water the grass. As soon as I go back inside he stops. Sometimes I’ll hear him start to growl at the St. Bernard when I’m inside but I’ll say his name sharply and a “no” and that so far has done the trick. But not when I go outside. I feel like I’m locked out of my own backyard for the sake of protecting the St Bernard. The St Bernard has fought back with him but he’s so big he can’t match the speed of the smaller dog and tires easily. It’s so pathetic at this point because the St Bernard hides behind me when I do outside knowing I will protect him. The only thing I can think of is something like the stun gun because there are no men around to help me all day long. Right now, I take a broom and look the medium dog in the eyes making contact (he is very smart) and tell him to be nice (he knows what that means) and I keep the broom out in front of him blocking him from the St Bernard, so he can’t attack. Neither dog is neutered, do you think if I neuter the medium sized one that would help? The vet just said maybe. Please tell me if you tired the stun gun for the sound effect. I’m desperate. I don’t want to get rid of this dog, he is wonderful except for this one think. HELP!

Sharon

ANSWER:

This is drop dead stupid. I feel bad for the St. Bernard.

A stun gun is not the solution. This is not going to change – not EVER. Put yourself in the place of this poor dog – how would you feel if you got the shit kicked out of you every time someone came into the back yard?

Here are the options:

1- Find a home for one of these dogs.

2- Put up two dog kennels in your back yard and keep them separated forever.

3- Get two dog crates for inside the home and keep them separated through the use of dog crates.

Right now you are an irresponsible dog owner to allow this to happen.

Regards,
Ed Frawley

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hi! I have a very serious situation. I have 2 female pit bulls, They are sisters from different litters 2 & 3 yrs. old. I had my 3 yr old spayed when she was 10 months old and in heat. It seems like since she was spayed, she's gotten aggressive toward her sister and it's getting worse. She constantly attacks my younger dog for absolutely no reason.

I am at the point that I'm going to have her put down.

Yesterday she attacked my youngest dog,It was so HORRIBLE and VICIOUS. My mistake was trying to break them up,in the commotion my youngest dog accidentally bit my leg. So I ended up at the E.R.my husband said I have to make a choice. It will break my heart to have her put down but I've tried everything from separation, water, vinegar, muzzles, even a stun gun and nothing phases her. My Question on Dog Fights to you is are there hormone pills for dogs? At this time I cannot afford to take her to a behavior specialist. Please I will listen to any suggestions anyone might have.

Thank you,
Tammy

ANSWER:

Why does your first choice have to be to kill this dog rather than look for another home?

This is a rank and pack issue. Either find a new home or buy 2 dog crates and keep these dog separated. I have a number of dogs that can never be together. I just keep them separated. I don't kill them because they happen to hate one another.

Regards,
Ed Frawley

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Question on Dog Fights:

Dear Sir,

At the risk of being told I'm an idiot, here's the Question.

I have had a "pack" of 3 GSD's (1 male, 2 females)for 3 years. Two years ago we added in a small terrier found on the road with a broken leg. After being in the pack and "accepted" for about 11 months, we came home to find the terrier dead. The neighbor reported witnessing the entire pack running the fence line barking at strangers on the ditch. When they turned at the end of the fence one of the GSD's stepped on the terrier, she yelped and the GSD's attacked her.

I assumed I had made the horrible mistake of adding a smaller/weaker animal to a pack which eventually got excited and targeted the "weak" in their frenzy to get at the strangers. (I have encouraged/promoted aggressive behavior at strangers on the fence line. The pack is my security system)

Bad me. I swore this mistake would never happen again and have never added another dog to the pack, let alone a small one.

Well, now 2 years later, I just got a call from the wife. My youngest, smallest female "had enough" of the dominant female last night and the fight was on. She got the two broke up and injuries were minor. She says the two females are bracing and maintaining eye
contact when around each other now, the young one NOT demonstrating the passive behavior she has in the past. I'm afraid the challenge for pack queen has begun and there will be no stopping them.

Assuming I'm right, I also assume there is no solution but to permanently separate the two or let them fight until one is dead?

Any suggestions?

Will

ANSWER:

Well you are right on almost every account:

1- You have a dog pack and no knowledge of pack behavior.
2- Allowing these dogs to run together is crazy.
3- You cannot fix the problem by letting them settle it. That is never going to work.

Either make up your mind to find a new home for one of the females or build a kennel or buy a dog crate.THEY CAN NEVER AGAIN BE ALLOWED TO RUN together. Not even when you are there.

Anyone who tells you anything differently is drop dead wrong.

Read my article on how to break up a dog fight.

Regards,
Ed Frawley

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hello

I have just found your web-site and am very thankful. My day began with a fight between two of our three dogs and foolishly and incorrectly I tried to separate them (not knowing anything about it until ten minutes ago) and I now have two nasty punctures in my hand for my stupidity. I am very upset and would be so grateful for your help as we are planning to put one of our dogs to sleep tomorrow and maybe you would feel it is not necessary.

The dog we are most concerned about is our eldest. He is almost five and has been a doting, adorable pet. He is a mongrel, terrier cross perhaps beagle or collie. Eighteen months ago we took in a small terrier from a rescue sanctuary as company for the first dog. We think the terrier is about three years old. Both of these dogs are neutered males and have not fought, although tug-o-war games would turn nasty and the dogs have never really played together. The first dog seemed to tolerate the second.

Seven months ago we took in an eighteen month old Doberman, a neutered female. She had been a loving family pet and the family could not take her with them to the states. (I am writing from Ireland). She annoyed the other two dogs mostly because of her size and playfulness and they would warn her off although she didn't seem to get the hint. This led to a few fights which lasted only a matter of seconds. The Doberman came off worse with bleeding ears and cuts on her face. The first dog would also growl if I was petting him and the other dogs came near. He has also growled a few times lately when the other dogs have not been around. After seven months of hoping that things would get better as the Doberman got older we have decided it is only fair to her to find another home and we are starting to make enquiries.

This morning I gave the Doberman her breakfast, gave the oldest dog his and then the second dog went over to the first dogs bowl. I don't know what happened from there but the two males were fighting. We managed to put the Doberman outside before she got involved. They fought for about five minutes and we could do nothing to separate them (although maybe I would have a better idea now). The oldest dog has the worst injuries, cuts on his head and muzzle and a half-closed, weepy eye. The second dog has some neck cuts and was extremely traumatized. We kept them apart for several hours and then when they met again the body language was very bad and the older dog was growling. We have kept them apart for the rest of today and will do so tonight.

I am very confused. My gut feeling is that the older dog has the problem. He seems somewhat eccentric, difficult and unsociable with other dogs - I am also very worried about his occasionally growling at me. The second dog seemed to inflict the worst wounds though! The Doberman is no doubt annoying everyone but hopefully she will be gone soon. My husband and I are planning to start a family soon and the thought of a baby with a biscuit being in the middle of the two dogs is a very scary one. What do you advise? Should we wait and see if things settle down once the Doberman has gone or should we take more drastic measures. Do you think the oldest dog has a "nasty streak" and should be put down. We love all three of the dogs. Please advise us if you can.

Thank you for reading this, I hope to hear from you soon.

Paula

ANSWER:

This is 100% a handler problem related to pet owners not understanding what they have allow to happen. It would be too bad if a dog had to loose its life because of owner mistakes. There are simple solutions to this problem that do not have to involve putting a dog to sleep.

1- You have created a dog pack but allowing three animals to live together – unconfined. A big mistake considering the personalities of these dogs. Dogs are allowed to have their own personalities. It's your job as the owner to recognize this and work around it. You have not done this. If you had you would not have holes in your hand right now.

2- Feeding these dogs like you do it total foolishness. It makes zero sense. You have finally found this out.

3- If you like these dogs and want to keep them then you should have three dog crates and use them. The two dogs that fought should not be allowed to be out of the crate at the same time. This is not rocket science. They cannot fight if they are crated.

4- The dogs should ALWAYS be fed in their crates. Fighting over food is going to happen if you try and do what you are doing with dogs that do not like one another – and that is the case with your pets. THEY DON”T LIKE ONE ANOTHER.

5- Maybe I look at things differently but I think the little dog deserved to get his butt kicked. If you come over to my plate when I am really hungry and try and take my steak – I am going to kick your butt. That’s what happened. Not sure what part of that you can’t figure out.

6- No dog trainer worth his salt would try and do what you are doing – let these dogs run loose in the house and then free feed them.

7- These dogs are not happy the way things are now. They probably feel like they are in a war zone – they never know when they are going to be attacked. How can this be a happy environment? The answer is that it is not!!!!!

8- And finally – your dogs are not trained. If they had been trained you would have been able tot tell the little dog “NO!” go lay down on his rug. You didn’t do this so I assume you can’t do this. No matter what dog you keep you should learn how to properly train a dog. After this ear full you are probably not interested but I have a very good Basic Dog Obedience video. Get that tape and a prong collar.

9- Keep reading my web site on the dominance and dog fight Q&A.

So the bottom line is that these are human problems not dog problems. If you decide that you do not want to invest in three dog crates then try and find a home for one or two of these dogs. They should be homes where there are not other dogs.

Regards,
Ed Frawley

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Question on Dog Fights:

I have a lovely female Dobie, heavy german Schutzhund breeding, who became very defensive at age 6 months. Before this she was socialized heavily and worked in puppy agility. It seemed that at 6 months her protective nature kicked in and she barked at everything and nothing so I started re-socializing her. The trips to children's homes, malls, and obedience and agility classes where she was touched, hugged, kissed and fed at every possible moment truly paid off because she is an extremely affectionate 10 month old who can be trusted with any human situation.

My problem with her is that she is still nervous about being introduced to a new group of dogs and reverts back to barking and attempts to lunge for the first 5 or 10 minutes in a new place. I purposely bring her to new training centers so she can see all the dogs in the world and get used to the world of agility and obedience trials. I have to take her into a new place with a halti on which controls her but she is usually trembling for a few minutes. She's being very good about not lunging and biting butts as long as I start her out with the halti and we get the rules of order straight right off the bat. I think this transfer the alpha status to me and relieves her of the responsibility to clear the area for our safety.

Do you think my strategy of just continuing the drill of new places with dogs and reassurance will help her to get over the fear? Of course I don't ever expect her to allow the golden retrievers to jump on her and kiss her (which they always try to do) but would like to know I am giving her the confidence she will need to be a good obedient competitor in the ring.

Thanks for your input,
Arlene

ANSWER:

This problem can be dealt with but it takes a commitment from the handler.

A Halty for this problem is USLESS - but then you are figuring this out. A Halty is only effective on a very soft dog and it is not going to prove effective on a dog that requires a hard correction to fix behavioral problems - like dog aggression. If you watch Animal Planet or listen to the nice lady on NPR they will tell you to divert a dogs attention when it sees another dog and wants to get aggressive. THIS DOES NOT WORK on most dogs and
it is bad advice.

So get rid of the Halty and get a PRONG COLLAR on this dog. Then when the dog acts like it wants to go after a dog - give it a correction that it will remember. This dog needs a level 10 correction on a scale of 1 to 10. Some handlers cannot do this and to that I say - Good Luck with your dog because you are going to need it.

This is not rocket science. If the dog respects you as a leader and it knows that you are fair and consistent with your corrections, that you do not allow dog fighting or showing signs of aggression - and it knows that the correction it will receive for acting aggressive is not worth the effort to be aggressive - then you have solved your problem. A VERY SIMPLE CONCEPT THAT WORKS.

If you cannot correct a dog to accomplish this, then you need to find a home for your dog or keep it confined in an area where it never comes in contact with other animals.

You should praise a dog when there is another dog around and you can see that your dog wants to have a go at it but restrains itself.

Regards,
Ed Frawley

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Question on Dog Fights:

I just read your article about breaking up a dog fight. I loved it and thought the information was wonderful. I wish I had read it 6 mo. ago. We had 2 sister females, had 2 terrible, terrible fights and finally had to put them both down for being too aggressive. The fight wouldn't have lasted nor been as traumatic to the family had we had your information. Aside from this, I'm hoping that although this has nothing to do with your web page, praying that maybe you can help. I cant find any information any where and unsure what to do except put our current dog down, who is a male Rottweiler, about 2-4 yrs old, (this was a stray that came and stayed) he was very, very sweet... obedient and loving for about the 5-6 months that we've had him. Last week he began growling under his breath whenever we pet him, and a few days ago has also started baring his teeth. He is an outside pet and as was my normal routine, I would go out several times a day to spend time with him, playing, rubbing his tummy which he loved, etc. He continues to approach me for his tummy rub, but when I do, he begins the growling, etc. What is happening to him. He has also started chasing cars which he never did before. Do we have any choice but to put him down? And why has he started acting like this out of the blue? I'm so sorry to impose on you like this, but you seem to be more informed than anywhere else I've read. Thanks so much.

ANSWER:

Why not find a Rott rescue group that will take this dog. Find someone who is better qualified to handle and train this dog. You are not that person. I think it is unfair to kill a dog just because you cannot handle it. Give someone with more experience an opportunity to solve this problem.

Regards,
Ed Frawley

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Question on Dog Fights:

I have a major problem with one of my dogs and I am hoping that you can help me or point me in the right direction. I have two dogs Miranda(chow/shepherd mix) and Abby (lab/retriever). I recently got a new puppy Axel(German Shepherd). Miranda does not like Axel and it has taken some time for her to adjust to him, which is understandable. What I did not expect was for Miranda to attack Abby. Miranda and Abby have been together for two years and are buddies. Miranda is definitely the dominant dog out of the two. On Tuesday Miranda viscously attacked Abby for no reason. She did not draw blood, but I was surprised that she didn't because the attack was that viscous. I can not let Miranda anywhere near Abby because every time she goes near her she attacks her. Miranda has shown no signs of aggression towards my boyfriend or myself. I have pulled Miranda off Abby the three times that she attacked her (which was probably a stupid thing to do, but I had to do something) and Miranda showed no signs of aggression towards me. She acts aggressive towards other dogs(hair stands on ends, forward leaning position, growls) but the only dog she has attacked is Abby. Miranda can not be anywhere near Abby because she will attack her. Miranda has been to the vet and there is nothing physically wrong with her. She starts classes next week but the situation is getting worse rather than better. I am very frustrated and don't know what to do. I cant possibly see a way to solve this problem. Will this situation ever get better? Please help.

Alysia

ANSWER:

Here's the short answers:

1- Now that you added a third dog you created a dog pack and pack behavior is way stronger than you obviously understood. Don't feel bad very very few dog trainers even understand it.
2- Your Chow is just reaching maturity - that's when rank issues often come to a head.
3- Your Abby will forever be dog aggressive from this point on. Once attacked a dog is ALWAYS DOG AGGRESSIVE.
4- The odds of you training this out of your chow are non-existent. I could do it but I would say that the severity of the training is simply not worth it ( also I do not train other peoples dogs for them).
5- Your choice is to get dog crates and keep these dog separated - or find a new home for the one or more. Its not that difficult to have crates and keep them separated.
6- Obedience training is good for every dog - but if you are doing it because you think this is going to change the behavior in these dogs - you are kidding yourself.

If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Dear Ed,

Thank you for your very informative web site. I started looking for information due to a situation here yesterday. I need some advice.

I live alone in rural Oregon. I am 58, female. I am caring for a small nine-year-old Boston Bull Terrier for a friend of mine who is currently unable to take care of him. Next door to me are some people who rent a mobile home, and they have two red dogs chained in the back yard. Last summer, shortly after they moved in, I got very familiar with the man's voice that lives there because when the dogs would bark he would come to the back door and scream, "Shut up!" and later if they didn't stop, he would add various comments, such as "Shut up before I blow your f***ing head off!" Last fall they came over and asked if I was using the baby gate that I had out on the side of the house, and I gave it to them because they were raising puppies. I didn't pay any attention to what kind of dogs they were.

There is an older lady up the road, who walks her German Shepherd down here every day. She carries a cane with a pointed head, and I always thought, how quaint but sensible. Yesterday, I was headed out with Roddy on the leash, and my little newspaper and plastic bag, when I heard dogs barking and a woman's voice yelling, "Stop that! Get away!" and such, and I walked out from behind my big hedge to see the lady and shepherd coming my way down the street, on the other side of the street, and one of the red dogs from next door heading back to his own place.

I said, "What happened?" and she said he had jumped the fence and attacked her and her dog. I asked her did the dog bite her or her dog, and she said no. We had a short conversation and she went on. I had already decided to go the other way. I stepped into my neighbor's yard about 20 feet to say hello to a friend who was just leaving, and we were chatting, and here comes this red dog, now two doors down from his own house, and runs right up to Roddy, snarling, showing teeth, the whole dominant stance. I was dragging Roddy back to me, he was ready to fight. I was screaming and the red dog, which now I
see is a pit bull, is advancing and paying no attention to me with his eyes fixed on Roddy. Finally I made to pick up some gravel and he retreated.

I was frightened and told my friend I needed to get Roddy in the house and call the sheriff. I went back into my own yard, behind my hedge, and here comes that red dog again, only this time he's on MY land, attacking my dog again. I picked up a handful of gravel and threw it and he went away.

I called the sheriff, and when they came out they asked me what I wanted to have happen. I told them I wanted the neighbor to control their dog, and that if it happens again I will file a complaint. He was surprised and said, "Is that all you want?" and I said I didn't have a problem with them having a dog as long as they can control it. He went next door to talk to the man, who in the meantime had taken the dog in the house or yard. Now I wonder if I went far enough.

I plan to go up and see the other lady and encourage her to call the sheriff also and report what happened.

I find myself fearful now. I realize I had seen that red dog early yesterday morning, in my front yard and I wonder if these people let him out for " exercise". I didn't think anything about it because there are a few dogs that make their rounds and do what my late mother used to call, "reading their newspaper". But this dog scares me. I have never seen anything like that before. Most dogs who approach me and Roddy can be scared off if I say something, but in Red Dog's pack order I must be placed somewhere lower than snake sh*t.

I am writing a letter to the people next door and I will send a copy to the sheriff and to the owner of the property, detailing exactly what happened and asking them to be sure that they NEVER let their dog out, and that if I even see the dog outside their fence I will ask for it to be removed. I am afraid to go to their house so I will mail it.

My Question is, did I do the right thing? I already know that these dogs have not had any socialization other than being yelled at by their owner. This to me means that the owner is irresponsible to begin with, although the dogs are beautiful and have obviously been well fed. I am pretty sure they will not pay any more attention to me than their dog did. I am afraid a child is next. Should I do something more?

Thank you,
Nancy

ANSWER:

You made a serious mistake. A Very serious mistake. It is only because you are a nice person with no experience with dangerous dogs and you do not want to cause problems with neighbors.

Here is what needs to happen:

1 - You need to call the sheriff's department back and ask to have a deputy stop by. You need to file a complaint against these dogs.
2 - The lady up the street needs to file a complaint.
3 - These are very dangerous dogs. This first time the dog did not attack - it gained experience this time, next time it is very likely that it has gained experience and it will attack. When it does it will easily kill you dog. There is a very good chance you will be bit if you try and break up the fight.
4 - You need to start to build a case file against these pits. This means every time you see one loose - even loose in its own yard - you need to call the sheriff's department and filing a complaint.
5 - If this neighbor wishes to keep dogs like this he needs to build a safe secure dog kennel. If he does not want to do this he has to either find new homes for the dogs or move away.
6 - This is a serious issue. Dogs like this kill other dogs and they can kill people - especially 80 year old women who cannot defend themselves.

Regards,
Ed Frawley

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Question on Dog Fights:

Please help.

You have a great web site and I would really appreciate your advise on my problem.

I am 6 months pregnant and my black Lab (male dog of 1.5 Years old has been aggressive to other male dogs that come near me).

He very nearly tore a German Shepherd's ear off the other day - we had to call the Ambulance as my husband was also badly bitten.

Our dog (Sampson) is very calm and quiet all the time, but seems to have got very protective over me since the pregnancy. Please could you give me some advise as I am so worried about this now.

Many thanks,
Kaye

ANSWER:

This has nothing to do with your pregnancy. I will guarantee that. It has to do with the age of your dog. Dogs start mature at 18 to 24 months old. That’s when issues like this start.

Read the article I wrote on how to break up a dog fight without getting bit. You can read about this on my web site in the list of training articles.

You also need to read the article I wrote on dog parks (this dog should never come in contact with other male dogs – not ever). It needs to be obedience trained with a prong collar. If the dog was trained he would be under control in the presence of another dog – which he is not.

If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes. I think if you read the testimonials on that tape you will see that my customers feel the same way.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hi Ed,

I read your page on dog fighting and it was pretty helpful, thanks. I still don't feel like I completely understand what to do if attacked by a dog, so if you could consider my specific situation I would greatly appreciate it, as I am somewhat at a loss.

Two nights ago I was walking down the main street of my small town with my very docile, friendly, sweet, yellow lab. He's a classic lab, wouldn't hurt a fly. We paused outside of a bar to look at the calendar of events, when all of a sudden two dogs, one pit bull, one shepard/rottie mix, came tearing out of the bar and attacked my dog. They came out of nowhere, it felt like. Apparently, the owner of the dogs is a bartender at the bar, and had them tied to a stool while he was in the back fixing something. Ass hole. Anyway, both dogs attacked my dog and I didn't know what to do. I tried kicking them off but I don't think I was ever even able to make contact with them. It happened so fast and I was so scared, it's all sort of a blur to me now, frankly. Finally, after hearing my cries for help, people in the bar came running out and 2 men helped get the dogs off my dog. Luckily, my dog survived - he escaped with a deep puncture wound in his neck and some scratches on his face, but he will be fine. Please note that my lab didn't fight back - I don't know if that information is important, but it wasn't a dog fight in the sense of equal fighting - it was a true attack.

Now I am scared to walk around my town... I feel like there are dogs everywhere waiting to "get" me and my dog. What can I do to feel safe? Someone suggested carrying dog pepper spray. I have heard conflicting things about this. Some people say it works to separate, even though you may spray your own dog in the process. I can do that, as long as I know the damage to him is temporary. Others, however, say being sprayed can piss the attacking dog off even more and make things worse.

I liked your method about making a harness for the dog with a leash, but if I am out walking with my dog, I figure it is unfeasible to get the leash off of him so I can use it to tie up the other dog. Also, I am not very strong and in a panic situation might botch that method. So dog pepper spray seems to be the most viable option for protecting my dog from being attacked. What do you think? Is there anything else you can recommend for a girl in my position?

Thanks for your advice, and I will continue to visit your page.

Lauri

ANSWER:

Lauri,

I would get a very stout walking stick and keep it with me every time you take your dog out. If a strange dog comes near you - warn him off with your voice (this is very important in respect to your dog looking at you as a pack leader - your dog expects you to protect him). If the dog comes through your warning then crack him over the head as hard as you can with the stick. We are not talking about love taps here. You will not kill a dog by doing this. They have very thick skulls.

Once had a very, very dog aggressive GSD male at my kennel. A mistake happened and it attacked my 13 year old female black lab, retired drug dog, Gabby. He had her down by the neck and I could not get him off her. I was not about to allow him to kill her in front of me. I hit him over the head with a flat bladed kennel shovel (with the flat of the blade). I hit him as hard as I could hit him. It took somewhere between 5 and 10 hard, hard hits for him to break-off the attack and stagger away. My point here is that it did not kill him (although I was prepared to kill him rather than allow Gabby to be killed). I am sure he had a headache for a couple of days but this extreme action on my part saved my old dogs life. So hitting a dog with a walking stick one time may not be enough. Hit the dog as hard as you can hit him - right between the ears.

With that said - a walking stick would not have worked on these two dogs that attacked your dog. I would recommend carrying pepper gas (the 10% concentrate stuff) and I would have put the nozzle within inches of the attacking dogs nose. Try and squirt it right up the nose and right into their eyes. Dogs don't have tear ducts, I think the nose works better. When the attacking dog backs off - continue to spray it. I would spray it until the can is empty.

When dogs like this attack they are focused on the dog they are biting. 99.99% of the time they are not going to stop or be concerned just because you are close to them with a can in your hand. They do not see that as a threat until it's too late.

As far as listening to these people with their comments on pepper gas or whatever - I can say that you should learn one thing from this - "Everyone has an opinion on dog training (just ask). The problem is very, very few people have the experience to back up their opinions." This results in a ton of bad information being passed around.

This bartender should have got a citation for what happened. I hope you called the police and insisted on a report. If the police will not do anything call the DA and the Mayor and tell them if they don't follow up, you are going to write a letter to the editor of your local paper and complain that they (the MAYOR and DA - both elected officials) refused to listen and help. That usually gets results.

Sincerely,
Ed Frawley

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hi,

I have read your article on how to break up dog fights and the Q/A and comment section and it all looks good.

I just have one Question. I just adopted a Siberian husky (77 pounds) and he is three years old. He does not seem like an aggressive dog. I also have a 10 year old Shepard/Lab mix (61 pounds). He has a hip problem and is a little slow, but still aggressive. He has never really liked other dogs.

We took them to the dog park before we let the husky loose in the back with our Shepard/lab mix. They both did very well at the dog park. When we got home we let them in our back yard together and they just stayed a small distance from each other. Everything
seemed fine.

Then our 10 year old Shepard mix went over to where the Husky had hid a bone, we knew the bone was there and that it might be a problem but we could not find it. Once our 10 year old Shepard mix went close to the bone, the Husky ran to him and they got in a 7 second fight. I was able to brake it up myself then help came out a second later.

The Husky is fine and my 10 year old Shepard cut his top gums on both sides, he is not harmed by the matter.

What can I do to get these dogs get along? Is there a way, because I would do just about anything. I read your article on the dog muzzles and I think that will work at least for the biting part of the matter. Also how long do you think we should keep trying to introduce them so that they will get along unsupervised.

Thanks so much for you time, I know this is long but I really love both dogs and I want them to get along. Plus the Husky does need to be with another dog and the Shepard mix is getting a little old and needs someone to keep him active and up to speed.

Christ

ANSWER:

You have not spent enough time reading what I have written and I don't retype answers.

Read my article on dog parks. Read the Q&A's again because you missed the point. You can find the list of Q&A's plus articles I have written on dog training.

Read the article on dominance.

And in closing - I would like to ask you how you would feel about having to fight when you are 60 years old with an arthritic hip?

Get two dog crates and keep these dogs separated. There is no silver bullet - silver muzzle to make dogs get along.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hello,

My 1 1/2 year old GSD bitch went through and accidentally opened gate and attacked and killed my daughters baby goat, I was present during the attack and know that her training is not what is should be. I could not call her off the goat, but did eventually get to the goat to pick it up and put in the barn out of her reach. We have since worked on her training, recall etc.. But I would still not trust her with any livestock. My Question is is this just normal behavior for an untrained dog or should I be more concerned about this. We have two young children and have not had a problem with her but do not intend to either and will do whatever it takes to insure that. I have contemplated having her put down as the attack was extremely vicious, but have trouble with that thought. I would great appreciate any thoughts!

Thank you,
T. C.

ANSWER:

I have a difficult time with emails like this.

This has nothing to do with a dogs propensity to attack humans. It would be a travesty to put this dog down because you thought it was a danger to your children. The odds of dogs that do this becoming aggressive to humans is very very very small.

This is an issue of you making a mistake and not controlling or training your dog. You should not have allowed it to be near the goat. This is not the dogs problem its your mistake. The dog is not trained - that is not the dogs problem its your mistake.

The dog has strong prey drive, it should not be killed for that.

Train this dog. Get a prong collar and train it.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hi. I have 7 Great Danes living in my home. I did rescue for a while and have in the last year quit as it is to hard emotionally and financially on me and my dogs and family. Anyhow, I do have dog fights occasionally and I know that is probably normal since I have so many dogs. All my dogs are altered. I have two females that are both deaf. One of them is mine and the other is a rescue that will be adopted when the time comes. I have to be on watch at all times with all of them as in a moments time I can have a fight on my hands.
I am only about 118 pounds....5'2" tall and most of the time I am alone...so I have to break up the fights alone. Any good suggestions on separating them when I am alone? I have started to do the grabbing both legs of one dog and pulling them off but honestly sometime I am not strong enough physically. One time I had two males start to fight and I broke them
up....then as soon as they were broke up two of my other males started. That was horrible. I was screaming...but will stop doing so if it does not work. It did not work either...ha ha. Just upset me more. My biggest Question on Dog Fights or concern is this. My 2 yr. old Great Dane, Odin, went to my boyfriends house and stayed about 6 weeks with him because he had a fractured tibial crest and he was not healing here with all my dogs. Things went fine until just last week. Kevin, my boyfriend, has three females. A Great Dane, a Dobie, and a Boxer. All but the Dobie are spayed. Odin and his Great Dane got into a fight one early morning with the Dobie....Kevin says it was pretty bad but stopped as soon as he yelled at them...then Odin and the other Dane got off the Dobie. Three days later Kevin's X was over and let all three out together. They were out only for a matter of 3 minutes. He went to check on them and Odin and the other dane again were on the dobie..had her on her back. Kevin said he yelled at them....and Odie picked the dobie up under her front leg (armpit?) totally OFF the ground and shook her. He dropped her when he saw Kevin coming. The dobie was hurt pretty bad and had to be stitched up in several places. I think he would have killed her....if someone would not have stopped it. I am so upset....Odin has been in fights...but normally the other dog starts it. He is usually on the losing end....but never has he done anything like this. He is the dog I would have trusted the most....he is sweet natured and patient....Any thoughts? Of course now Kevin does not want Odin anywhere near his dobie...and I am not sure I trust him. I am wondering too if I should have him crated during the day or in a room by himself as I normally leave him out with a female dog that he gets along with. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I know I need to find homes for some of them but it is not easy. 5 dogs are mine.....the rest are up for adoption but I am picky when it comes to homes.

Thanks,
Steph
(Kentucky Great Dane Rescue)

ANSWER:

You are right - you need to find homes for these dogs. You may be well intentioned but you are making a huge mistake in trying to raise these dogs in the same home where they come in contact with one another. If you want to keep this many dogs you need to build dog kennels or get dog crates. Keep them separated.

Your fights are going to continue and get worse. Bottom line is this is not a dog problem it's a people problem. The fact is it's dog abuse.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Dear Mr. Frawley,

My parents have a four year old Labrador bitch that is aggressive towards other dogs, including my own 18-month old lab bitch. The reason I have concluded is fear or insecurity of other dogs, although I do not know where it stems from. I am told by many that I should not punish her for her aggressive behavior since it is based on fear. The rationale behind this I suppose would be that it is an uncontrollable behavior not a chosen one hence the correction will only suppress the behavior and not cure the underlying problem; fear. After having read your articles and Q&A section, I am assuming that your opinion differs from the aforementioned. Am I correct in my assumption that you find it ok to punish unwanted behavior based on fear/insecurity, and could you explain why you think this is correct, contrary to MANY other theories?

I also have another thought. Although I have little experience of German Shepherds it is my impression, after reading other peoples literature, that these dogs are somewhat special in that they will accept a bashing and still try and try to please their owner. Do you agree with this, and if so is your training advice regarding German Shepherds equally applicable on other breeds?

Best Regards,
Tor

ANSWER:

Let me offer words of advice.

Everyone has an opinion on how to train a dog and how to solve a dog behavioral problem (just ask your mailman or your barber). The problem is that very very few people have the experience to back up their opinions. That’s the category of people you have been getting your advice from.

There are many reasons for dog aggression. Who knows what the reason with your parents dog? Not me and not you.

The solution is obedience training and control of the environment the dog is allowed to be loose in. I have had more dog aggressive dogs than I can remember. They never got into fights because I controlled their environment. I did not allow them to be with other dogs. Hence – PROBLEM SOLVED.

The people who made the stupid comments on German Shepherds were dumb asses who need a lot more experience. Obedience Training is not breed specific it is temperament and drive specific. I have trained police dogs for 28 years the worst dog bite I ever got was from my mothers toy poodle. Go figure !!

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Question on Dog Fights:

Dear Ed:

I have 6 male dogs, all neutered. One GSD/Sharpei mix, two pit rott mixes, a Leonberger mix, a yellow lab mix, and a cocker-doxie mix. For the last 2 1/2 years we have been experiencing dog fights. They are always when I am with them, not my husband, and they are usually about toys or food. How do you recommend that a single person break up a multiple dog fight where they are "packing up?" I have used pepper spray with some success and am now going to get smelling salts, because of something I saw on your website. In all the dog fights we have had, we had only REQUIRED 1 trip to the vet. Keep in mind that I have been rescuing animals for 10 years, have antibiotics, etc., at the house and do not run to the vet for typical dog fight lacerations. My male GSD mix did require stitches last summer but the vet said that on a scale of 1 to ten, his wounds were a 3, so, not so bad.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Anna

ANSWER:

You have a dog pack. I get a number of emails like this from people like you. I don’t consider what you do as rescuing dogs. I consider you a dog collector who abuses dogs by how you house and keep these animals. If you want to stop the fight – keep the dogs separated all the time. Use dog crates or individual kennels. If you cannot do that then find homes for the dogs and only keep what you have crates for. If you were indeed a caring person you would not keep dogs like this.

Somehow I doubt that this is going to happen. Dog collectors have grandiose visions of that they think they are doing. They are blind to the facts and don’t have a clue about pack behavior. The sad thing is they don’t want to learn and are too pig headed to see the trees for the forest.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Dear Ed,

I am writing to you as one trainer to another. I need some advise on a aggression issue. I will apologize ahead of time for the length of the post but I would like to give you as much info as possible.

I began OB training with two male siblings (Rott, pit, shar mix). Both are about 90 lbs and growing. They were 7 months old when the owners contacted me and dominance issues had already started between the two of them.They both had recent surgery to to a hellaious fight where they tore each other to shreds. At that time, both were intact. I immediately told them to neuter both then we would begin training. Which they did. I had a sit-down with the owners and went over "pack" issues and had them start working on getting the "Alpha" position back. They were instructed to feed on a schedule, in separate parts of the house. They did this. These dogs can not be in the house together, even on a prong and leash without wanting to fight. Both have gone through the learning stages of obedience but when I started to add distractions, they both went downhill. So, back to square one, we went. After several weeks, we have been able to work the two of them on opposite sides of the street without any posturing...and they were doing very with all commands. Here lies the problem. They can not live under the same roof. Owner will NOT re-home the more dom. of the two. I personally would put that one down. He seems like a ticking time bomb! I have given the most severe correction with the prong that I possibly can but I don't think that I am able to do what needs to be done (I am 5' 2" and can't get him but so far off the ground.) He starts the fights and the other won't be submissive to him. Letting them fight it out results in major vet bills. I don't claim to know everything about training so I need some advise. Personally, I would LOVE to put the prong on the owner but....you know how that goes! I just recently found out that the wife was letting the dominate one back on the bed. (Owners now sleep in separate rooms for the dogs). She said she woke up the other night and the dog was just staring at her...She said it was like he was staring THROUGH her. Yeah! Sounds like a dog I'd want in my house! They want me to sign a cert. stating that the dogs have been trained in both OB and behavior Mod (for insurance) and I have refused to put my name behind these two. Is there something that I shouldn't have done? That I could have done differently? That I can do now? I'm not going to say that he is a good dog because I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him!

Thank you.

ANSWER:

It is unrealistic to think you will ever be able to have these dogs around one another. I would never try. Find a home for one of them or make them agree to use 2 dog crates and NEVER have them together. Not ever.

If these people will not do this – walk away from them. They will just bad mouth you and hurt your reputation.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Ed,

I recently became a member of the discussion forum and started visiting your site several days ago looking for as much information as possible on dog on dog aggression. I have ordered your Basic Obedience Video and a prong collar in the hopes that these two might help my situation. If you don't mind, here is a little background:

I have a 2 year old Chow-Shephard Mix. I own my home and recently had a roommate move in with a male Chocolate Lab 1 1/2 years old that is not neutered. Unfortunately I did not socialize them or implement some of the early strategies you suggest throughout your website. I have now read everything on your website that is available concerning aggressive dog behavior. When the two dogs were first introduced, things seemed to be okay. But once they moved in (2 months now) the fighting started. At first it was due to obvious problems such as feeding in the same area, sharing a water bowl, toys in their mutual area. We have eliminated all of these problems. They are no longer fed anywhere near each other. Food and toys are not left out and they have separate water bowls. They sleep in the respective owners rooms.

While the fighting has become less frequent, it still occurs. I even have started giving my dog a medicine called Clomicalm (40 mg) to help with the aggressiveness at the suggestion of my vet. Neither dog has been hurt yet, but the fighting gets to such a point that I have to break it up in order to end it. Luckily after reading your article on breaking up fights I now know how to do it better. Neither dog is submitting during the fighting. At first I thought that it was normal for the two to be fighting given that they are both males and it is my dog's home since birth. But there are some serious jealousy issues. I cannot even touch the other dog without my dog wanting to fight.

Another mistake on my part is that they have been left unattended in the backyard together, which is going to end since you say that that is not a good idea.

I guess I have a pack issue going on. The funny thing is at times they play very well together and seem to enjoy each other's company, but at other times, my dog attacks my roommates dog for no apparent reason. Once they start fighting my dog will not listen to my commands.

I guess my Question on Dog Fights to you is, do you think that with some more training on my part with my dog and possibly the use of a prong collar when the dogs are together to show my dog that fighting is not appropriate nor will be tolerated that this problem will resolve itself? Otherwise I am going to have to ask my roommate (who I like) to find a new place because I cannot handle the fighting much longer.

I know that there is no easy solution, but I would greatly appreciate your insight into this matter.

Sincerely,
Deidre

ANSWER:

There is NO WAY you are going to train your dog not to fight. It is not going to happen.

Why don’t you just get two dog crates and keep these dogs in crates? Only allow one dog out of the crate at one time. This is not rocket science. I would never try what you are trying to do.

Also trying to solve this problem with medication is not a solution. Any Vet that thinks that this is the way to deal with animal aggression if flat stupid.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Sir,

I found your website informative and hope you could provide some guidance for us. (Since you don't know the dogs it would be hard to give a definitive answer.) Yesterday when my wife got home my female dog (April) tried to hump my male dog (Snoopy) and he let her know he didn't like it. Well next thing my wife knows April grabs Snoopy by the neck and was tossing him around like a rag doll. They finally stopped but not before doing $350 worth of damage to each other. She is 4 he is 3 1/2 and they have been together for 3 years without anything like this happening. Because it appeared to happen for no reason we are both puzzled on why April went nutso on Snoopy. I do not want to get rid of April but will if we cant get her under control. The only change in the house is that my wife just found out she is pregnant. Do you think obedience training will help?

Sincerely,
Andrew

ANSWER:

I don’t think your wife being pregnant has anything to do with this.

I would recommend that you get 2 dog crates and keep these dogs separated for awhile – only one out of the crate at a time. Then there can be no fights.

In the mean time, get a prong collar and start some serious obedience training with this female. When dogs fight like this it’s a rank issue. In this case it even trickles down to the female not respecting your wife enough. The PACK LEADERS allow fights and disallow fights. I can tell you that if these two dogs lived with me that female would know 100% for sure that I DO NOT ALLOW FIGHTS!!! So, the point is, she does not respect your wife (no matter what you may think).

Have your wife be the one who trains – with the prong collar.

Good luck.

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FIRST Question on Dog Fights:

Hi! I was just wondering ...I live in Sweden and prongs are forbidden here..what should I do???

Because my dog is VERY dog aggressive and he gets so mad sometimes that he starts barking at me. I don't tolerate that and give him a very hard correction with the choke collar. My neighbors think that is so mean and yells at me that I'm a dog abuser. So I can't do corrections on him when we encounter other dogs. People here in Sweden give me the advice to distract him when a another dog comes...but that doesn't work.. don't even bother to try because he gets crazy when he sees another dog...he is now 2 years and I have only had him for 5 months and his behavior has to stop..in the beginning he was so annoying he did think that I will pet him ALL the time ...I tied him up so that he could only be in one room. then he sat there and whined because he wanted to be with us but now 3 months later he sleeps in just that room and is NOT allowed to walk around in the rest of the house because then he follows me where ever I go...by the way he is a doberman...

I train him several times a week..and something I've noticed that when ever he is near me he gives me his paw. It's SO annoying...and when strangers comes he tries to stand with the front paws against the visitors chest and just stands there..and when they enter he tries to stand in the way..Now when a visitor comes I don't allow him to move from his place ...I don't give him the right to say hi.. they walk past him and he lies there as long as I'm in the room... am I doing right??? Give me some advice ...I'm going to order the electric bark collar when I get money in couple of weeks but those collars are illegal here... but whatever... I'm not gonna kill my dog just cause I don't have the right to train him as I want... please mail back.

Diana

FIRST ANSWER:

Sneak a prong in from Germany.

There is no silver bullet here. The dog needs a prong collar or an electric collar.

Read the article I wrote titled Dealing with a Dominant Dog. You can find the articles and Q&A's on my web site.

SECOND Question on Dog Fights:

I have read the article but one Question remains... when we encounter another dogs he barks and almost howls... and I have sometimes given him a hard correction with the choke collar and the moment I do it he wines 1 time...and now if I go out with the prong and give him a correction with that I know how he is going to sound..the other dogs owner may sue me or something for being abusive. Do I dare give him a correction in front of other people? And 1 thing..when I have used the choke collar when we see another dog and he is in rage and I give him the correction he backs off 2 seconds and then starts barking and trying attacking again... now if I get in same situation with the prong that after the correction he continues barking should I give him correction after correction until he stops?? and can the prong spikes go thru the skin?? hoping for reply....

Diana

SECOND ANSWER:

Here is my opinion. The people who passed these laws in your country had their head up their ass. They were IDIOTS. Let them tell you how to train a dog like this. The problem is that they cannot.

Ask the ASS HOLE that wants to sue you to take the leash and fix the problem.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hi,

My son has a staffy cross, not sure what the cross is, but she is mainly staffy to look at. He had two dogs, the dog that was attached by the staffy was a border collie named Jess, she was 17 years old. Molly, the staffy, is 5 years old. They were alone in the house together, when Molly attacked and so severely injured Jess that she had to be put down. Molly must have thrown and shook her around. The injuries that Jess received were horrific, to her throat, her lung was punctured and the rib that would have covered her lung was missing. The vet also suspected her pelvis was fractured, and it was at this point that it was requested of the vet that he put Jess to sleep. She did not deserve to die this way nor for that matter, any dog/child etc.

Jess had always been a quiet, gentle dog, never showed any aggression to anyone.

My son asked me to try and find some information on the internet relating to the above attack, and if you can to please give an opinion at to whether, his son, who will be turning two in June is in any danger from Molly. I know that perhaps you can`t give me a direct answer at to whether Molly should be put down or not, but perhaps with letters that you have received there may have been similar experiences. Could Molly attack again now that she has been "blooded" so to speak? It`s just very hard to know what to do, putting Molly to sleep won`t bring Jess back to life, but by the same token if Molly should attack again, how does one forgive one`s self for giving her a second chance?

And that is why I`m emailing you, as my son , and myself included, just don`t know what is the best way to deal with this situation. I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,
Shirley

ANSWER:

I feel badly for you and this poor dog. Can you imagine what the last minutes of life were like for this very old dog? To end 17 years of life in this way is a terrible thought.

I will guarantee you that it is not a matter of “IF” this dog will fight– it’s only a matter of time and "WHEN" it will happen again.

Dogs like this need to be totally isolated from other dogs. They can never come into contact with animals. This needs to be accomplished by keeping them in secure dog kennels, secure dog crates and through the use of very solid dog training that results in the dog being 100% under control even in the face of the most sever distraction (i.e another dog that is challenging it).

Read the article I have written titled DEALING WITH THE DOMINANT DOG. You can find this article in the list of training articles on my web site. I believe you will find the answers you need in that article or in the Q&A section of my web site. There are simple solutions to these problems. The Question on Dog Fights is if you are willing to do the work necessary to make the changes that will fix the problems.

A dog like this needs to be trained with an electric collar. I use a DOGTRA 1700NCP.

If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had a clear understanding of the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes. I think if you read the testimonials on that tape you will see that my customers feel the same way.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hello Mr. Frawley,

In the past I have asked you several Questions on Dog Fights regarding the training of my now 14 month old DDR, female, German shepherd dog. As it turns out, every one of your answers has proven to be correct. Thanks. I have one more for you:

Quite often I take my shepherd to a German shepherd breeder/trainer of working dogs. I take her there now primarily for the opportunity to expose her to other dogs, people, horses, and chickens in a controlled situation. I am obedience training her myself and I do work her on the training field with about 6 to 10 other dogs/trainers.

At the training facility my dog shows what would seem to be a rather typical response to the other dogs: She will give the other dogs a glance but pays little attention to them. She does, however, (at least in my opinion) seem to display hesitation and uncertainty when I bring her too close to the other dogs. For example, when the other dogs are sitting nicely in a row, my shepherd will sit or lie next to them (about 3 feet away), but when I walk her down the line of dogs, she wants me to be between the dogs and herself, especially when the dogs are facing us. When we walk behind the row of dogs, she appears much more confident and less intimidated. She also seems a bit uncertain as I try to place her about 3 feet from the other dogs when forming a line of sitting dogs.

When I take her for a walk in the neighborhood, she sometimes/usually becomes aggressive (very loud) when she sees another dog. When I walk her inside a large chain pet store, she is interested in the other dogs/animals she sees, but does not display any aggression. She has never been bitten or even attacked by another dogs. A couple weeks ago a dog on the training field (year old male) did break loose and run at her in an aggressive-play manner, but I did step in between them and for the most part kept them apart.

Why is it that when we are on walks in the neighborhood her behavior appears aggressive when she sees another dog?

Also, what do you do when you have a dog out in public and there is a need to give it a stern correction?

Thanks a lot,
Scott

ANSWER:

You forget that dogs are pack animals. This dog looks at you as a pack leader. These strange dogs are not part of her pack and she does not accept them for that reason.

I NEVER allow my dogs near other strange dogs. Not ever. There is no reason to do this.

Your dog expects you to protect her from other dogs. She is telling you this by putting you between the strange dogs and herself.

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Question on Dog Fights:

My husband found your website today and we have a few Question on Dog Fights about the products and techniques you have listed. First of all I want to give you some background on our situation:

· We have 2 recently neutered male doxies;

· The oldest dog (Oscar - 2 ½ years old) is the one who displays aggressive behavior;

· We took an obedience class with Oscar when he was about 6 months old at Pet Smart. While in the classes, he would behave like an angel, but he would not do any of the exercises outside of class. Now, nearly 2 years later, the only thing that we can get him to do in sit and stay;

· Both dogs bark at anything and everything. We have recently bought a bark box that emits an ultrasonic sound when they bark, but it doesn’t bother them at all;

· The baby (Mayer - 1 year old) is extremely jealous when we give Oscar attention. We try to treat them equally, but Mayer doesn’t see it that way;

· Since Mayer’s neutering (about a month ago) he refuses to urinate or defecate outside. We provide him with a puppy pad during the day when we are not home, and he uses that all the time. We realize that we need to go back to crate training, but we don’t know what to do while we are at work;

· Finally, Oscar has become increasingly aggressive. He was mildly aggressive before we got Mayer, but we chalked this behavior up to him trying to protect us. We thought that the problem was possibly due to the fact that he had not yet been neutered, so we had that taken care of. In spite of the recent surgery, he has started attacking Mayer over toys, position with us, and (as was the case last night) completely unprovoked. According to your website, we have done everything wrong in raising the boys. They sleep with us, they are allowed on the furniture, etc. We need to know the best way to change these behaviors and re-establish dominance.

We are at our wits’ end! We love the boys dearly, but we are concerned that Oscar will hurt someone. In reading the articles on your website, I have gotten some ideas on how to change this behavior, but I am concerned that some of the collars and techniques are not suitable for such small dogs. Oscar weighs 15 pounds and Mayer weighs 10 pounds. Before making such a large investment in bark collars, for instance, I want to make sure that the collar will fit! I am also concerned that a pronged collar might be too harsh for such little dogs.

I would love to hear some feedback regarding our doggie problems. Like I said, we love our boys and have probably spoiled them too much. We need to correct this behavior so that we can comfortably raise a family with Oscar as an integral and happy part of it.

Thank you in advance.
Michelle

ANSWER:

If you are prepared to do some work there is a little hope here. If you don’t do the work things are going to get worse and worse over the next year.

1- Read the article I wrote titled DEALING WITH THE DOMINAT DOG You can find this on the article page on my web site.

2- Stop using these pee pads. They are drop dead stupid (they are you are not). They teach a dog to pee and poop in the house. STUPID!!

3- Get 2 dog crates and keep these dogs in crates. Only one should be out at any time.

4- Read the articles and Q&A section on my web site on housebreaking. If you are not willing to work with crates – well, stop reading this because nothing you do is going to work.

5- The only time the dog that is pissing in the house should be out of the crate is when your eyes are on the dog and when you can't watch (even for 20 seconds) he goes into the crate. Your time with these dogs should be outside time (not in the house) unless you have your eyes on it.

6- Pet Smart training is a joke. It’s a joke everywhere so don’t feel bad. It’s the worst training you can get; but then you already found this out. They teach people to use Halties. They don’t show people how to use prong collars. They are clueless on how to deal with dominant dogs, they are into the PETA form of training – coaxing a dog to mind.

7- If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had a clear understanding of the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes. I think if you read the testimonials on that tape you will see that my customers feel the same way. Get a prong collar and this video.

8- TRAIN WITH A PRONG COLLAR – I call it power steering for dogs. Read the article I wrote on how to size them.

9- Read the article I wrote on HOW TO BREAK UP A DOG FIGHT WITHOUT GETTING BIT. If you don’t do the things with this dog you are going to have nasty fights. This young dog is just now starting to come of age.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hi my name is Ricco. I'm sending this e-mail to you because I have a problem. I had 5 dogs, but now I have 4 because of an incident. My dog,Midnight, was about 8 years old. I noticed today when I went to feed them that she was in the corner of the yard. When I opened the shed, she ran in. I tried to get her out and that's when 2 of my dogs attacked her, killing her.

Why do you think they would do something like that? Please send me your info.

ANSWER:

You have a dog pack – that’s why they did it.

This is no way to raise dogs. I call this a handler problem not a dog problem.

Read the article I have written titled DEALING WITH THE DOMINANT DOG You can find this article in the list of training articles on my web site. I believe you will find the answers you need in that article or in the Q&A section of my web site. There are simple solutions to these problems. The Question on Dog Fights is if you are willing to do the work necessary to make the changes that will fix the problems.

Either find homes for some of these dogs or build kennels and keep them separated because this is going to happen again. Can you imagine the last minutes of your dogs life? How terrifying it must have been for her?

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Question on Dog Fights:

Mr. Frawley,

I just read your suggestions on how to break up a dog fight and found it very informative. My problem is that I would like to know what to do when a big dog (German Shepherd) attacks a small dog (Yorkie Terrier)?

My husband was out with our son and our Yorkie, Hoss, when a large German Shepherd jumped over a 7ft wall and attacked our dog. The German Shepherd had just clamped its mouth down on our dogs back and was getting ready to "shake" him, when my husband pried open the German Shepherds jaws and released our dog. The German Shepherd then turned and attacked my husband. We know the German Shepherd and his owners and my husband was yelling the dogs name and telling him to stop, he finally kicked the dog hard twice in the face before another neighbor came out and attempted to pull the German Shepherd off of my husband, the dog then turned on the neighbor until one of the owners children came up and yelled the dogs name. The dog stopped and was then lead away by the collar. The owners have had problems with this dog before but say they can't find anyone who will take him and can't afford to put him to sleep.

What should my husband have done differently to prevent any blood shed? How can we protect our dog in the future?

Any advise would be helpful.

Thank You,
Cindy

ANSWER:

Call the police.
Call your attorney.
Take photos of his injuries.
Then go shoot this dog.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hello,

My mutt and my Rott got into a fight over top of my husband (he was lying on the floor). My Rott attacked my husband's arm and did a lot of damage, so much that he had to stay in the hospital for almost a week. My Question on Dog Fights is that my Rott never has shown any sign of aggression, never. She is 6 and I was wondering if she will attack again on her own. I plan on getting rid of the other dog. I have always trusted my Rott around my children, but now I have to make the choice of putting both of the dogs down. I can't imagine what would have happened if it were one of my children who were attacked. Thanks.

Answer:

I cannot answer this without seeing the dog. You need to see a professional and have them evaluate the dog. Not a BEHAVIORIST CLICKER TRAINER – someone who knows dominance issues in dogs.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Hi,

I'm glad I found your site. I have 3 Collies and 2 Huskies. Gotta keep'em apart because otherwise they'll bite themselves to death. 3 of them got into a fight, but since I was home alone, I had no option but to let them tire out. As I went out to get help, the 4th one came rushing downstairs and attacked and bit me out of the blue and then joined the fight. Any clues as to why he reacted this way? It's not the first he's bitten me unexpectedly.

Thanks for your help,
Gustav

PS: Wish I'd read your cool article on dogfights earlier.

ANSWER:

When you own a dog pack and you allow them to run together you are not different than any other member of the pack. Obviously this dog considers itself a higher rank than you in the pack.

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Question on Dog Fights:

We have had a serious incident where one of our dogs has gotten into a fight and killed the older dog.

We had a 14 year old female mixed breed (Bichon) that at one time was the dominant dog. We also have had a Lab for 7 years. We just (4 months ago) brought a new rescued puppy into our house(Lab/Chow mix). The two older dogs have gotten in small fights before and the Lab has been more dominant over her lately. Yesterday, we had an incident when all three dogs were looking out of our front windows and another dog came onto our yard, a fight broke out between the Lab and the older dog and the Lab killed the older dog. The Lab had the older one by the neck and must have broken it. The Lab has never been aggressive to any human. She usually is extremely friendly. She has never shown anything near this behavior. We don’t know what to do with the Lab. Will the puppy be safe if we bring the Lab back into our home? Has the pack order problem(which I didn’t realize we had until I read some of your website) been solved?

Thank you for any help,
Scott

ANSWER:

This is pretty sad.

There is no Question on Dog Fights that this was your fault – that goes without saying. At least you are looking on the Internet for some answers – I will give you that. It’s too bad it took the death of your old dog for you to decide that its time to learn about dogs. If it makes you mad – well ask yourself what your 14 year old dog felt like just before it died.

Bringing a new dog into a home with 2 dogs is a key element in elevating pack drive in the existing dogs. You found this out the hard way, or I should say your old dog found this out the hard way.

I have written an article on “How to bring a new dog into a home with existing dogs”- if you want to go read it you will see the beginning of your mistakes. You can find this on the article page on my web site.

My advice is to get two dog crates and use them. Then train these dogs, I would bet you my business that you own untrained dogs – an untrained dog is one that will not mind under distraction.

If you want to learn how to live with a dog – go read the article I wrote on The Ground Work to Becoming a Pack Leader.

If you want to learn about pack and rank drive – go read the article I wrote titled Dealing with the Dominant Dog.

So the answer to your Question on Dog Fights is another Question on Dog Fights. Can you change the way you live with your dogs and are you capable of properly training a dog?

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Question on Dog Fights:

Ed,

I read your article on dog on dog aggression and I must say I agree with you 100%.

I have owned and bred Kerry Blue terriers for the past 20 years.

I find dogs I raise myself have very little dog aggression but when they do they are usually on leash and seam to be trying to protect me. I usually just use the leave it command and they fall back into heel position. I am VERY protective of my dogs because of the once bitten twice shy affect. Plus the fact the although my dogs won't start a fight they will most certainly finish it (and my dog will be blamed, he is a Kerry after all)

My concern is obedience trials. I am always worried that another dog will go after one of my dogs and we will end up with a life long problem. I always enter B so the dogs are a little better trained.

I have currently 6 Kerries and 2 pups I am keeping.

My daughter is raising one and I the other. The pups are in the house until they are at least 6 months old. Separate crates, separate rooms and separate trainers. I do allow them to play in the house or dog yard a few times a day supervised by one or both of us. This method seems to be working.

We have a Kennel and the older dogs are kept separate most of the time and I only allow 2 dogs at a time in the play yard.

I have 2 dogs, a dog and a bitch I got as older dogs with dog aggression problems as adults. They are 6-7 years old. The female has good obedience training and is manageable in most situations. We have managed to get her CD and Championship and are working her in Agility. I am very nervous about entering her in Open due to the out of sight and I am scared if a smaller dog broke and went up to her she would kill it. The male was raised in a kennel with no socializing and although he is a Champion, was involved in numerous dog fights his owners could not control. He does get along well with a couple of my more submissive females. Is there anything I can do to make this dog realize other dogs (Breeds) are not snack?

I would like to do obedience with him but he will not focus. If I use aggressive methods he shuts down and cringes (I think he was beaten as well) and he is not interested in food. I have tried motivational training and find he is OK if there are no distractions. Is there hope for this guy? He is good with people and kids but he really just seems to not care whether they are there or not. He is a little shy and always crouches when he meets strangers (like a submissive dog meeting an alpha) but with dogs he gives no warning and just attacks.

(Mastiff, Dachshund and pug) that I know of. None were killed but all needed stitches.

Thanks for your input.
Barb

ANSWER:

Male on male or female on female aggressions is the most common – most dogs that are aggressive to either sex are doing it on a fear based situation. These are usually dogs who have been attacked before and they take the approach that a good offense is better than a good defense.

The way to control this is either completely keep these dogs away from other dogs, or try to work through it.

If you want to try and work through it then you need to take the dog through a serious obedience program (normally local obedience classes are not going to work because the trainers don’t understand the principles of aggression and correction well enough). ALL OF THESE DOGS need to be worked with a prong collar and or an electric collar.

The very bottom line on the training is that IN THE END the dog must respect the resulting correction he gets if he is aggressive more than he wants to fight. In other words the correction needs to be at a level that the dog remembers. Many handlers cannot do this. They cannot correct at an effective level so they can't solve the problem.

In most sever cases dogs need to be worked with an electric collar. They need to be corrected for just looking at another dog not fighting with another dog. This work is beyond the scope of an email.

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Question on Dog Fights:

Dear Mr. Frawley,

I hope that you can explain to me what is happening in my house with my dogs. Until three years ago I had four dogs - two Bichons and two Lhasas. The Bichons were two females who were six and seven years old respectively when the Lhasas were brought into the household at 10 weeks old. The Lhasas are male and female litter mates. All four were neutered/spayed. The 6 year old Bichon had a problem at first with the Lhasas but after about two months she warmed up to them and we lived happily for many years. Three and a half years ago that Bichon died at 10 years old. The other Bichon was 11 at the time. The three remaining dogs continued to live happily. The remaining Bichon is almost 15 now and deaf and almost blind. She gets around well enough though with the exception of some arthritis which stiffens her up until she gets going. She eats well and does not mess in the house. In the past year or so I have seen a slow but progressive change in her personality. She seems to be slowly regressing "mentally." The vet says she is healthy enough and as long as she is happy and comfortable, I plan on enjoying her companionship until the end. However, over the last 8 months or so, the Lhasas have become randomly aggressive towards her. Out of nowhere and for no reason one or both of them will attack her, knocking her down, making her scream and cry. I pull them away but they try very hard to continue the attack. I have immediately "gotten in their face" right afterwards by pulling the collar and pulling them close while I look in their face and admonish with "NO!" They immediately calm the aggression and everything normalizes until the next time. Unfortunately, there is always a "next time." When I'm away from the house, I no longer leave them all together anymore, leaving the Lhasas with each other, away from the Bichon. I don't get what's going on. Food has never been an issue, they are fed in three different corners of the kitchen, they eat their meals and the dishes come up. Why do the Lhasas attack a poor old almost defenseless dog that they have lived with all their lives? They are otherwise very sweet, gentle dogs. They have fought with each other on occasion but it is usually over a toy that is then removed from them both and the problem is thus solved. I know the solution is to keep them from the Bichon as I'm doing, but, I really don't understand why this has evolved. Can you explain?

Thank you,
Joyce

ANSWER:

Read the article I wrote on DEALING WITH THE DOMINANT DOG.

The problem is you don’t understand pack drive in domestic dogs.

For the sake of the old dog, I hope you make changes in how you live with these dogs. If they were mine the younger ones would live in dog crates when the older one was loose – put yourself in the old dogs position – if you were 85 years old – how would you like to be in a position where you ALWAYS had to fear having the crap kicked out of you by some young toughs you were forced to live with? It’s a terrible way to spend your final days.

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QUESTION ON DOG FIGHTS:

I was hoping maybe you could help me with a few questions regarding our two family dogs. We have a six year old female Beagle, and a Three and a half year old mixed breed female who is about 85lbs. These two dogs have lived together for all of the larger dog's life and never had any kind of fight or altercation, until yesterday. For no apparent reason the mixed breed attacked the Beagle leaving four large puncture wounds on both sides of her neck. The Beagle was treated at the emergency vet and released. She was heavily sedated and slept until this morning. After only a few hours of her waking up she was attacked again (viscously). My husband and I finally pryed the larger dog's mouth off of her and rushed her to the vet again. This time she has to stay for a few days because the damage was much worse. My husband and I were both bitten during this attack and I am afraid to bring the beagle home with the other dog here. My questions are:

1) What would make her turn on her all of a sudden? (they are great friends)

2) Would having them both spayed possibly prevent this from happening again?

3)Should I worry that this will happen again and find a new home for one of the dogs?

Thank You,

Jennifer

ANSWER:

I don’t know why this happened. There is a trigger of some kind but I don’t know what it is. More than likely it's dominance.

I will guarantee you – 100% - it will happen again if you allow these dogs to be together. It's not even a question. It will happen.

Find a home for one of these dogs or get two dog crates and keep them separated for life.

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QUESTION on Dog Aggression:

Dear Ed,

I cannot thank you enough for all your advise on how to train and establish a relationship with our puppy. Your DVD's were extremely useful and fully implemented, Merlin is a happy 8 month old GSD puppy with a cheerful disposition, never ending exuberance and love towards my 8 year old daughter. Thanks to your extremely useful website tips, he does not nip at her and from very early age, even though he did mouth us sometimes, never our little girl. Couldn't have done it without you!!

There is one minor problem, however, when we are out walking him, he goes mad barking whenever he sees another dog. If the other dog is friendly and does eventually get nearer (if it dares!) Merlin stops barking and has a good sniff and tail wagging. But mostly people just yell at us, how we should train the dog better etc. and I end up dragging him away. He does not bite or gets in any way aggressive towards me and eventually I managed to pull him away (he is always on a lead so never gets near other dogs), but he
is either frightened or does not know how to behave towards other dogs. The fur also sticks up on his back whilst he is barking, does this means aggression? Is the Electric Collar the answer, I would prefer not to use one as he does not seem to need one otherwise he never barks!

Please help.

I have attached little boys photo he is from the German Quantum Arminius bloodline (daddy) but as he is longhaired is considered 'unworthy' in England. We adore him!!!

Kind regards,
Edit

ANSWER on Dog Aggression:

All of these signs of unwarranted aggression require a stiff correction. The UK does not allow prong collar so all you can do is use a dominant dog collar. Read my description on how to use it.

Here is the way I approach these issue.

1 - This is a lack of respect issue with you. You need to become a better pack leader - this does not mean be mean it means you need to take charge. The dog is afraid of these dogs he is not a tough dog - I see it in his eyes. He needs to learn that you will not let other dogs near him and you will protect him.

2- When he barks - you say NO - obviously he will continue barking. Then you give a level 3 correction - in the beginning he will continue barking. After one NO and one level 3 correction you jump right up to a level 8 correction - you are being fair here - you warned him, you popped him then you gave him a correction that meant something to him.

3- Do this every time - maybe even a level 9 correction on the second time. Bottom line is the dog needs to remember who the leader is. The leader starts fights. The leader says when not to fight. The dog instinctually knows this - you just need to enforce it.

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QUESTION on Dog Fights:

Dear Ed,

I don't know what to do. I have a male Cavalier King Charles spaniel who is 3 years old and neutered. He is the friendliest, most unaggressive dog one could ever meet and he has never had a problem with another dog until now.

We have made friends with another couple who have a 3 year old female cocker spaniel who is also neutered. Whether we go round to their house or if they come to ours, the cocker attacks our dog out of the blue. It gets very nasty and clumps of our dog's hair flies all over the place.

My husband has tried to separate them and finds it nearly impossible because of the force that the cocker uses on our dog. Our dog doesn't fight back at all and we are frightened for his health and sanity.

The thing they both have in common is their appetite for food, and we thought that perhaps this might be the reason the cocker is aggressive - she feels her access to food is threatened by our dog. But, Alfalfa (our dog), has never pursued any food in her presence and is totally unthreatening.

This couple has another dog, a Shitzu, who is female and un-neutered. She is very docile and has no part in these fights. But our dog is now petrified of the cocker (she is the same size as Alfalfa) and he hides in the corner. He is not normally so diminutive, and is usually a lively, happy dog with many friends. So, it's very strange to see him behaving in
this way, when he doesn't appear to us to have provoked the cocker in any
way.

It is becoming embarrassing with our friends, since they insist on us bringing him round to theirs. They even want to take care of him when we go away for a week next month. The idea of this fills us with dread, since we don't think Alfalfa would survive it.

Is there any way we can try to solve this problem? I also thought of paying the cocker a lot of attention and ignoring my poor dog who is being victimized, just so that she wouldn't attack him. Perhaps there is something we can do to remedy the situation?

Thanks,
Claire.

ANSWER:

You are dramatically failing your poor dog. Your dog expects you to act as a pack leader. As such it is your responsibility to protect your family pack. You are not doing this and don't think this is wasted on your dog. It now looks at the world as if it has no one because you and your husband dropped the ball on one of the most important responsibilities to your dog.

Your friends are idiots. Flat idiots. This has nothing to do with food. It has everything to do with dominant temperament. If you allow your poor dog to go near this dog again it will be a travesty. I don't mean when you go away - take the dog to a boarding kennel. I am talking about even allowing this dog near your dog.

You need an education on dog behavior and training. Here is some reading material:

I recommend that you go to my web site and read the article I wrote on my philosophy of dog training. I think you will get some good ideas there.

Read the article I wrote titled DEALING WITH THE DOMINAT DOG. Also the Q&A sections and the Q&A on Overly Aggressive dogs.

If you choose to go in the same direction I suggest that you read the article I wrote titled how to break up a dog fight without getting hurt.

Bottom line is these other owners should be kicking their dog's ass for this. EVERY incident of unwarranted aggression (towards dogs or humans) requires quick firm and hard corrections. To ignore this, to make excuses for this behavior is un-responsible.

You never should have gone back to that house after the first fight. Do not think for one minute that these traumatic incidents will not have a life long effect on your dog. Most of the time something like this results in a dog that is dog aggressive forever. Dogs take the attitude that a good offense is the best defense.

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QUESTION on Dog Fights:

Hi, I searched your site and couldn't find an article that pertained to my problem so I thought I'd just e-mail you.

I have a 4 y/o border collie/gsd mix and a 9 year old chow mix (both rescued at 9 mo). I made the mistake of introducing Wicca (BC) to Tuesday (chow, who was 6 at the time) the old fashioned way (muzzle the both of them and let them go at it). But what is done is done. Now, they have lived pretty happily together for 4 years, but they do have a lot of dominance issues. Tuesday is pretty much dominant over Wicca, though Wicca is continuously trying to outdo Tuesday, which naturally leads to fights. These fights tend to be quite devastating for Wicca, who is much smaller than Tuesday.

I know this could be fixed by going through the pack establishment in crate training for both of them from scratch, but how would I go about doing that with both dogs? Would i crate Wicca (who starts most of the fights) and let Tuesday have free roam, vice verse, or crate them both? And when do I know when it is OK for them to be let out together again?

Tuesday has NEVER shown any dominance towards us. Only to other dogs. So is she in need of being told who's boss by us by crating, or just stepping in whenever she is aggressive towards other dogs? Wicca is starting an obedience class Saturday, I hope that will help keep her in check. I have a very firm hand with the dogs and am not afraid of any new training method.

I am very interested in adding a male Border to the household for agility, but with the state our current dogs are in I don't think that's a good idea.

Thanks so much,
Sarah, Wicca and Tuesday

Answer:

This is a serious case – at least serious if you consider the fact one of these dogs could die in these fights. You would not believe that number of emails I get like this which result in the death of a dog.

What you have done is 100% wrong. Hands down wrong.

Get three dog crates and use them. These dogs should NEVER be together unsupervised. If they lived in my home THEY WOULD NEVER BE TOGETHER AGAIN (and we have 4 house dogs and 4 dog crates in the basement furnace room where the dogs stay at night ) There is nothing wrong with this. The dogs will be more comfortable.

If you cant or wont do this – then find new homes for a couple of these dogs.

I sell a ton of muzzles – a muzzle is not the solution.

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QUESTION on Dog Fights:

Hi, could you help me I have a german shepherd 3 years old and a labrador 17 months old both bitches .they have started fighting but I am concerned that it is getting out of hand .they just start fighting for no reason. Sometimes they just stare at each other and then it kicks off. And then they will not stop till you pull them apart. The german seems to be the one that starts more than the lab can you help as I love them both.

ANSWER:

The worst dog fights are among bitches. This will continue because the younger one is just entering maturity. Your only solution is to keep them separated with dog crates or dog kennels or find a home for one of these.

Just so you know – most of the time females fight with females and males fight with males, but females are the worst.

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QUESTION on Dog Fights:

Hello

We have a problem between our 11 yr old chow and our 3 yr old pit-bull, both female, and the pit-bull just had pups 8-9 weeks ago. The puppies are completely separated from the chow. The two adult dogs will stare each other down especially in the house. They have had a few fights before the puppies and after. During their fights the chow usually submits making your technique for breaking the dogs up easier, and is very effective. After a day of separation when reintroduced with supervision the pit-bull will lick the chows face. Any ideas what this is about? The day after their last dogfight when asking the chow into the bathroom (close quarters) while giving her praise and pets she growled at her owner.?.?.

We know the dogs must be separated but find this hard to do constantly. It has gotten to be that the chow seems almost frightened in close quarters therefore a crate is not an option for her. Our pit-bull is crate trained but cannot stay in a crate all day. (The pit-bull also has basic and advanced training and is CGC certified. The chow is trained and obedient.)

The chow in this past year has become untrusting to most anyone except her owners (mom and dad). Growling even biting one family roommate (cousin) after he put his hands on her chest and back simultaneously. We now no longer allow anyone (before only select few) to touch her. Our chow may not be able to stand more fights although she is in a healthy condition.

So with knowing our situation is there anything as good dog owners that we could do to put an END to the human and animal aggressiveness being shown here other than complete separation.

We have gone through your site and find it informative.

Thanks- Rick and Juli

P.S. We do own muzzles for both dogs.

ANSWER:

The solution is two dog crates. There are no silver bullets here that are going to fix this problem. The fact that the older dog does not like the crate is the dog's problem not yours. If this were my home these dogs would NEVER COME IN CONTACT – not ever. Muzzles are not the solution – dog crates are the solution.

I would ONLY feed the dog in the crate – and the crate would be the only place the old dog got water. Taking water away from a dog is a BIG BIG deal – the person who gives it water is going to be a very good friend and if she only gets it in the crate she will come to like it.

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QUESTION on Dog Fights:

I'm hoping you can help me, I have a 18month old Staffy x Bull Mastiff who I adopted from an animal hospital when she was 12months old. Initially showed signs of fear aggression towards other dogs, most all dogs. I figured this was due to her street life and shelter life. The shelter does not adopt dogs that are aggressive. Working with a trainer and continuing to we have been quite successful in removing this from her behavior however i have noticed that 3 breeds set her off. I have been trained to look for various signs etc and the trainers are quite good however I want a second opinion. She is aggressive towards German Shepherds, Huskys and Border Collies. We thought maybe shape or hair length but she socializes well with Goldens, staffys, kelpies, you name it but those 3 dogs set her off. I am confused as to why, I am taking steps to correct this behavior. She is fabulous with people and generally a big softie but around those breeds is a different dog. Strangely she will play with a GS x Kelpie all day and be submissive at times but never aggressive. I feel that something in her first 12months of life has obviously caused this. I write to you because the other night she was in a park when a GS entered the park, both dogs off lead, other dogs around and made a V-line for the GS.Ran at least 100m to get to the dog. Didn't attack initially, circled around then jumped. Naturally i ran over but not in time, they had been at it for about 3-5seconds before i puller her off the other dog. Both were fine this time (i also read your article on how to separate fighting dogs) and I guess I'm lucky to not have any marks on me. I am totally confused as to why this has occurred and what i can do. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We have been attending classes for about 3months with great results and will continue to attend for a 12month period, longer if necessary. I am dedicated to the process and the animal.
Thank you.
If you do get an opportunity to reply, can it be via email or please direct me to useful articles.

ANSWER:

I recommend that you go to my web site and read the article I wrote on my philosophy of dog training. I think you will get some good ideas there.

Read the article I wrote on dog parks. You can find these if you go to the list of training articles and scroll down.

That's the first step.

We don't allow our dogs around other dogs. Not any other dogs unless we know them and we know they are 100% neutral.

If we have a dog aggressive dog we train with an e-collar. My new DVD is Electric Collar Training for Pet Owners. (it's 2 1/2 hours long and done for pet owners - dog aggression is part of it) I use a Dogtra 1700 NCP.

Hundreds of thousands of people go to obedience classes every year and the vast majority of dominant dogs come out of class just as dominant as when they went in - that's because pack issues were never taught or trained.

You may get additional information out of the article I wrote on Dealing with Dominant Dogs.

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QUESTION on Dog Fights:

I have 2 dogs. I've had my Rot for about 6 years and I've had my Akita/Lab mix for about 1 year. About 2 months ago my Akita/lab mix started fighting my Rot for food and water. They are both females (the Rot is fixed, the Akita/lab mix is not). It started over the food, then we made a pen for the Akita/lab mix for feeding time. Now it is over the water. Is there any way I can get them where they are not aggressive?

ANSWER:

This is an owner problem not a dog problem. You don’t understand pack behavior. If you care to learn you can start by reading my web site. There is a ton of information there.

Find a home for one of these dogs – this problem is beyond your experience.

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QUESTION on Aggressive Dog:

Hello, I own a 12 yr. old poodle weighing about 13lbs. He is arthritic and is diabetic needing insulin twice daily. My neighbors dog is part terrier and very aggressive, has bit me once already. Last night I took my dog out and he was doing his thing when the neighbors opened their door and their dog came out and attacked mine. We did nothing out of the ordinary for their dog to attack mine. Both dogs are male, both neutered. Mine is very protective of me but only to the point of standing beside me never attacking or growling at anyone or other animals. How can I protect him from the neighbors dog? The human owners of the other dog don't seem to care, what can I do? Today my dog can hardly walk. Help!

Thank you,
Pat

ANSWER:

This is a no brainer.

1- Tell the neighbors if this happens again you will call the police.

2- You should call the police today and tell them what happened and that you want them to write an incident on this – then it's on file.

3- Tell your neighbors that you are going to file a law suit against them if it happens again. Tell them you have an attorney (any attorney will take this on a % deal because insurance companies settle them all – the neighbors will then lose their insurance.)

4- Carry a stout walking stick every time you go outside. If that dog comes over top your property – don’t wait for it to do something. Chase it off and if you can get close to it – hit it HARD !!! I guarantee you will only have to hit this dog one time and it will not come back.

5- You are the pack leader (at least you are suppose to be) you should have protected your dog.

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QUESTION on Dog Fights:

I stumbled upon your website while trying to learn more about dog on dog aggression. I have found it very informative and helpful. However, I am still at a loss as to what to do with my specific situation. I have one male 10 month old, one female 14 months old, and one female 18 months old. We have just had to move to a new house due to hurricane Katrina, which I am sure adds stress to the dogs. It is my two females that I am having problems with. The 18 month old is a chow mix who went through an obedience class when she was about 3 months old. It has been a while and I am sure she needs a refresher course. The 14 month old is a pit bull who I believe is trying to show dominance. Prior to this, the chow has been the leader of the pack. Now, the pit bull is trying to challenge that. The problem is that my nine year old daughter has already been bit while trying to break up a fight. Tonight when they started fighting, they really got a hold of each other. Surprisingly, it has been the pit bull that gets hurt the most, with tonight being the worst yet. This whole situation has really only escalated in about the past week. With everyone being closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, I am just trying to keep them separated until Monday when I can hopefully get some answers. They are both so much a part of our family that I am willing to try anything before giving one of them away. I know that training and behavior modification are obviously what needs to come first. I just don't really know where to start or who to turn to. Do I bring them both together, or separately? Will they ever be able to live peacefully together again now that it has gotten to this point? One other concern that I have is I am having a baby in May. I am scared for the safety of the baby and my other two children.

If you could point me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jessica

ANSWER:

This is more of a lack of education problem than a dog problem. Your problems are a result of the way you chose to live with your dog.

Your own a dog pack and you don’t understand pack structure and pack rules.

Here is some reading material:

I recommend that you go to my web site and read the article I wrote on My Philosophy of Dog Training. I think you will get some good ideas there.

I have a saying that I like to tell people. It goes like this ” Everyone has an opinion on how to train a dog – just ask you barber, your mailman and your neighbor”

The problem is very few people have the experience to back up their opinions. This results in a lot of bad information being passed out on how to deal with behavioral problems.

Pet owners like yourself need to figure out who has the experience to warrant listening to. Dog training for me is not a hobby. It’s a way of life. I have been training dogs for over 40 years. I have bred over 350 litters of working bloodline German Shepherds, I was a police K9 handler on a drug task force for 10 years and I have produced over 100 videos on dog training. Many of them directed towards professional dog trainers.

My web site is over 5,000 pages. It has over 300 training article and the web board has over 90,000 posts with 7500 or more members. I don’t have time to answer a lot of personal emails but with this said I will almost guarantee you that your problems have been answered someplace on my web site. It’s the largest dog training web site on the Internet.

Read the article I wrote titled Dealing with a Dominant Dog.

I recommend that you visit my web site and read a training article I recently wrote titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING

The reason I wrote this article was to help people understand how to motivate their dogs in training. Most people either use the wrong kind of correction or over correct dogs in training. I am not a fan of “force training” (although I most defiantly believe that every dog needs to go through a correction phase). By exploring corrections in training you will become a better dog trainer.

Bottom line is you need to change the way you live with your dogs. Get three dog crates and use them. TRAINING them – here is the DVD to teach you the correct way (Basic Dog Obedience) Use prong collars or electric collars in your training . I can tell you if these were my dogs I would run them through my obedience program and my groundwork program

You may want to read the article I wrote titled The Ground Work to Becoming a Pack Leader . This is the protocol we use in our home when we raise a puppy for ourselves. It is also the part of the protocol we use to solving behavioral problems such as dominance and/or house breaking problems.

I would also be using remote trainers - this DVD teaches you how to do this correctly. (Electric Collar Training For Pet Owners)

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QUESTION ON DOG FIGHTS:

Hi Ed,

I wandered onto your site today and found it to be very interesting. I am originally from Eau Claire, WI and was surprised that I had never heard of your facility. Anyhow - I have a question I was hoping you could provide insight to. I have three female dogs. They are all spayed, and all very lovable. Lately we have been having some "scufffles" between our Sher-pei and Pitt mix. They are usually the best of friends, but sometimes tend to fight over rawhides and toys. Today I had a terrible fight in my living room, and I'm ashamed to say I had no idea what to do. After the fight, my Shar-pei has several lacerations, and my Pitt mix is virtually untouched. What can I do to ensure that this never happens again? I can't point my finger on what the trigger is sometimes and it usually happens out of the blue. After the fights, the Pitt mix is loving and licking the other dog trying to clean her wounds. It's almost as if when she's fighting, she's another dog completely. Thankfully, my third dog, our lab mix tends to stay back and never really interferes in such altercations. I would hate to assume that this is typical "Pitt-bull" behavior, but I'm worried. Do you think it would be worthwhile to enroll her in some kind of obedience class - or some kind of class to control her behavior?

I appreciate your time, and anxiously await your thoughts.

Thank you,
Jeannine

ANSWER:

I don’t train dogs for people and I don’t run training classes - so there is no reason you would have heard of me. During the 10 years of the 1990’s I worked as a K9 handler for West Central Drug.

With that said – your problem is a owner problem and not a dog problem.

You don’t understand rank and pack drive. THREE DOGS is s dog pack. Your dog fights are 100% a pack issue.

Bottom line is you either change the way you live with these dogs and educate yourself or you find a new home for one of the dogs or dig a hole in the back yard to bury one of them in – because you are going to need a grave is you don’t make some changes

If you want to fix this – you are going to have to learn pack behavior.

I recommend that you read the article I wrote titled Dealing with the Dominant Dog.

You may want to read the article I wrote titled The Ground Work to Becoming a Pack Leader. This is the protocol we use in our home when we raise a puppy for ourselves. It is also the part of the protocol we use to solving behavioral problems such as dominance and/or house breaking problems.

I recommend that you visit my web site and read a training article I recently wrote titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING.

The reason I wrote this article was to help people understand how to motivate their dogs in training. Most people either use the wrong kind of correction or over correct dogs in training. I am not a fan of “force training” (although I most defiantly believe that every dog needs to go through a correction phase). By exploring corrections in training you will become a better dog trainer.

I have a saying that I like to tell people. It goes like this ” Everyone has an opinion on how to train a dog – just ask you barber, your mailman and your neighbor”

The problem is very few people have the experience to back up their opinions. This results in a lot of bad information being passed out on how to deal with behavioral problems.

Pet owners like yourself need to figure out who has the experience to warrant listening to. Dog training for me is not a hobby. It’s a way of life. I have been training dogs for over 40 years. I have bred over 350 litters of working bloodline German Shepherds, I was a police K9 handler on a drug task force for 10 years and I have produced over 100 videos on dog training. Many of them directed towards professional dog trainers.

My web site is over 5,000 pages. It has over 300 training article and the web board has over 90,000 posts with 7500 or more members. I don’t have time to answer a lot of personal emails but with this said I will almost guarantee you that your problems have been answered someplace on my web site. It’s the largest dog training web site on the Internet.

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QUESTION:

Hi Mr Frawley,

I have spent the last hour reading all your q&A on dog fights, And it seems like all your answers come down to keeping the dogs apart for good, or muzzled when together. I have two chows male and female and 95% of the time they are inseparable and love each others company. then out of the blue the female will start a fight for no reason. She is getting fixed in less then a week but form what i read on your website that wont help.

I can't imagine them having to be separated all the time. So any advise you can provide as well as which video or book you have that may help. They don't fight daily or monthly for that matter, it is however enough to concern us. And for the mean time, what would be the best way to break it up without hurting them. If we pull one always ends up cut from the pulling.

I appreciate any advise you can give.

Thank you
Isabel

ANSWER:

Isabel,

Keep reading. The Q&A on Dominant Dogs is a good place to start.

You have a lot to learn.

More than likely your vet is more interested in the spay fee than telling you that neutering an adult female more often than no MAKES THINGS WORSE not better.

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QUESTION:

I read through the questions on dog fights and found quite a few answers but I do have a little twist to my scenario. My dogs are 6 year old female, husky/healer, litter mates (boy do I wish I had found you 6 years ago!).

Needless to say, we have of course had difficulties establishing our dominance and pack order, it is something we work on constantly. Usually, "Mai" is more dominant but every fall "Blixa" decides to test her and we end up with a bloody battle. Somehow, it's been 2 1/2 years since the last fight and we though we had the problem licked until today. A neighborhood dog's ball ended up in our yard and a fight ensued. I was here to break it up and the dogs are sequestered. Our difficulty is that unless it is immediately following a fight, they have severe separation anxiety from each other - Mai has had medical issues with her stomach that our vet thought may be partially attributed to anxiety - so I'm not sure that kenneling at home is an option for us. Also, seeing as the fights are so rare, is there another option we should look at? Lastly, we have tried a choke collar for walks and the Husky pull drive was so strong they were near to causing injury to themselves, I'm concerned they will continue to pull right through the prong collar - your advice? Oh yeah, we currently use a gentle leader which helps some, but has not fixed the pulling either.

Sincerely,
Allison

ANSWER:

Your dogs have you very well trained. This is a common thing with pet owners.

Your vet is wrong. Find a new vet.

Use a prong collar or a remote collar on walks and obedience train these dogs - they are not trained.

We would never put these dogs together if they lived here. They would go in a crate with a Tri-tronics no-bark collar on and learn to be crate trained. I can't tell you how many people I have advised to use these collars on dogs that owners said had separation anxiety. They work. I get emails 4 to 6 weeks later saying the problem is solved.

So this really comes down to you making a decision to solve this problem - which is an owner problem not a dog problem.

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QUESTION on Dog Fights:

I have three GSD. I have 2 females and 1 male. The females are old one is 10 and one is 8. I got a male he's 1 years old and ever since he became a year old he's been starting a fight with my 8 year old GSD its an everyday situation. It always starts with him. He would just jump on her out of the blue she could be lying down taking a nap or in the middle of scratching herself once my male GSD jumps on her my 10 year old GSD gets in on the fight. One is biting on her legs in the back and one is biting her face all to pieces. Then the Male GSD would run off and its the females fighting. my females never fought before and they're both fixed. Like I said this is an everyday situation I don't think my 8 year old GSD can take this kind of beating everyday. She'll limp on one leg, and one of her ears don't stand up anymore because my male chewed it to pieces. I've read in one of your paragraphs that its unusual for a male and female to fight so why does my male start a fight everyday with my female? She's very submissive to him so I don't know what the problem is. Oh and this doesn't happen when I'm always around I could be at work and when I get home my neighbor would call and say there was another dog fight. All my GSD are all trained from the inside of my home to the outside. I could bring my male in my home and he'll play with my cats that he grew up with he can get along with my cats but not along with my female dog? Every time he looks at her its with an evil look I just understand why he hates her so much she's never done anything to him. Well hopefully you can help. Thank you for your time.

Stephanie

ANSWER:

This is 100% an owner created problem. I too feel sorry for your female.

1- Your dogs do not have a pack structure with a strong pack leader – that is suppose to be your job and you have failed at it. When dogs have a strong pack leader they don’t fight in the presence of the leader because they know the leader will not allow it. This is the last thing that would happen in my home because my dogs know the result of my corrections would be devastating to them .

2- Read the article I wrote titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING. It's also on a free podcast on my web site.

3- Your dogs ARE NOT OBEDIENCE TRAINED – you don’t even have to tell me -- I know they are not. Get my Basic Dog Obedience DVD.

4- You also need 3 dog crates. These dogs need to be separated. Read the article I wrote on HOW TO INTRODUCE A NEW DOG INTO A HOME WITH OTHER DOGS.

5- Read the free eBook I wrote on HOW TO ESTABLISH PACK STRUCTURE WITH ADULT DOGS.

6- I believe that the DVD I recently finished could really help you. It’s titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and it was a 5 year project.

This DVD is 3 ½ hours long. You can go to the web page and read the outline of what’s included on the video. My DVD's are not meant to be watched one time. The fact is anyone who needs this information needs to watch it many times because every time they watch it they will pick up new ideas.

For the sake of your dogs I hope you take the steps to educate yourself on the issues I talk about above. If you don’t then the best thing you can do is re-home your dogs.

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QUESTION:

My problem is my aggressive mastiff mix.  She is dog aggressive because her first owner trained her to fight other dogs.

She is stout, with short nose, broad muzzle, strong body.  She weighs about 90 pounds and I am short 5’3” and 115lbs.  Her body type is more like a small bull mastiff.

I am interested in the following:

1. Stopping her aggressive dog behavior.
2. purchasing the following with your recommendation:
   1. Collar:  prong or dominant collar?  Which will give me the best control over a powerful dog with a big neck.
   2. Muzzle:  Safest for extended use
   3. Video: Controlling her aggression- preferably stopping it.

Thank you,
Nora

ANSWER:

Possibly some words of encouragement – dogs don’t live in the past like human do. Dogs live in the present and react to what faces them here and now.

In your case the old owner allowed dog fighting and you are going to NOT ALLOW dog fighting. This means you can deal with this if you want to put forth the effort.

I would use one of the wire basket muzzles we sell. They are accepted better by dogs. We have a chart on our web site to size it (if you make a mistake a=in the size and send it right back we will exchange it if its not used and all you are out if is the shipping for the new size – but our chart is pretty good)

Frankly when people talk about a LARGE dog then I am inclined to recommend that they learn to use a remote collar. I did a DVD on this “Remote Collar Training for the Pet Owner" I use a Dogtra 1700 on my personal dog.

With that said you still need to understand this aggression issue and the cures for it. SO you the Dominant and Aggressive Dog dvd will teach you this and you will have to have your dog on come kind of a collar – I defer to the dominant dog collar and a stout leather leash (even when you train with remotes the beginning of the training is always done on leash).

When the dog is trained I will walk my dog on leash and still have it wear the remote collar for control while on leash. This system is the great equalizer for small people and big dogs.

You should also consider readying the free e-book on my web site on establishing pack structure with adult dogs. My web site has a large number of FREE E-Books that I have written.

Good luck – I hope this helped.

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QUESTION:

Dear Sir:
I have a female German Shepard about 2 years old, who has been spayed.  She has always been a lovable dog and still is, but in the last 2 weeks she has become aggressive toward my 9 year lab, who is also a female and has been spayed.  She never offers to fight with this dog when they are eating, in fact, if the lab goes over to the shepard's pile of food she will move to the other pile of food.  The shepard has acts like she is trying to dominate the lab.  She will go up to her and put her foot on the lab's back, and her ears go up, and then she wants to jump on the lab, and she has drawn blood with her attack on the dog.  The lab is such a humble dog and goes down in a ball and doesn't try to defend herself.  I have a chow that I took in a year ago, and the shepard does not do this to the chow, he is a male.  The shepard plays with the chow, but doesn't fight with this dog.  I have noticed that when the shepard jumps on the lab, the chow sometimes joins in with the attack on the lab, but the rest of the time, the lab and the chow get along fine.  I talked to the vet and he thinks it is the shepard wanted to be top dog since she has matured, but I don't want her hurting my lab, she is such a sweet  dog, and whenever the shepard attacks her, later she will start licking the shepard's fur.  These two dogs will lick each other in the mouth and be friendly, then all of a  sudden the shepard wants to be aggressive.  I try to show all the dogs affection when I show one affection.  I will try to get the lab to walk next door with me and the other dogs, and the shepard will stand and stare at the lab, and the lab will go back home.  Can you give me any ideas as to what is going on, and what I should do.  I do no want to get rid of any of the dogs, but I don't want my lab hurt.

Thanks,
Linda

ANSWER:

The GSD is going through maturity. With that new pack behavior develops. You own a dog pack and don’t seem to understand the ramifications of what’s going on.

You need to get the DVD titled Dealing with the Dominant Dog. I believe you will find the answers you need in that DVD or in the article and Q&A section of my web site. There are simple solutions to these problems. The question is if you are willing to do the work necessary to make the changes that will fix the problems.

You should also read the article I wrote about how to break up a dog fight without getting bit. If you don’t get three dog crates or three dog kennels and keep these dogs separated you are going to need this information.

These dogs are going to kill the lab if you do not make changes. Each fight empowers the other two dogs. They fights will escalate.

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Question:

Hello, I have been browsing your website and am very impressed by it. I was not able to find the answer to my question and called your establishment. I was directed back to your website and if need be email you. My 10 year black lab is a very protective, loving and friendly dog. She has killed her share of skunks and chased many cats but has never had a dog fight. She has growled and let it be known she does not like female dogs. Today on a walk down our country road a neighbor’s dog came out and the two sniffed each other. The dog then pounced and attacked my dog. My dog’s instinct kicked in and we had a full blown dog fight on our hands. My screams brought our neighbor running and he was able to separate the dogs. His dog jumped from his grasp and attacked again. Finally the two were separated and he dragged his into the house as I hugged and held mine until each of us were calm. Each has minimal punctures and cuts. I know my dog is a protector and have always felt she would do anything to keep us safe. I am now worried that she may be traumatized by this event and may be the first to attack now. I feel a little unsure of her actions after witnessing such an ordeal; it scared me. Can you help me in what she is feeling, how she is going to be from now on and how will she be around other dogs? She has always been one to keep unwanted small animals off our property such as squirrels, cats and skunks. She has killed skunks at our cottage during a campfire and has chased away other small animals that come near us. She does not like other dogs near her food or water dish. We have a cat and the two of them live quite nicely together, as he is an indoor cat. I hope I have given you enough information and that you can be of some assistance to me. Thank you in advance and I hope to hear from you soon.

Alicia

Answer:

In the future your dog will probably be aggressive when it sees other dogs because YOU failed her.  You are supposed to be a pack leader and as such your dog expects you to protect her. You did not do that.

Your email tells me that you know nothing about pack structure and canine leadership. The message you sent your dog was that she is on her own and her pack leader is not going to be there to help protect her when attacked.

I could write a chapter in a book on this but don’t have time. If you care to learn you can read what I have written on my web site.

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Question:

Hello Mr. Frawley:

I've spent most of this morning reading your site (which has been BY FAR more helpful than anything else I've found, Thank you) regarding why my 2 dogs:  Pit bulls, a male (10-11 yrs old) and female (7-8 yrs old), neutered and spayed respectively, had a drag-out brawl this past weekend in the backyard, where they have coexisted peacefully for 7 years whenever my husband and I go out of town. Otherwise they are house dogs, the younger female is crated during the day while we're at work and the older male has had the run of the house for 7-8 years now. The older male (a very calm, gentlemanly soul) is at the vet as I write this and the female seems very withdrawn, sore, and quiet so while he may be the one at the vet, but I'm not sure he lost the fight, since she's normally very energetic and lively. The problem is that I need to know what to do now.

Note: when we returned home late last evening, the dogs were in their respective holes (they have each dug a considerable hole in the yard over the years where they like to sleep when they're outside), but last night they would not come when called, we had to go get them, and the wounds were at least a 1/2 day old (a friend had just checked in on them the night before, as usual) -- so we figure the brawl happened early and they settled whatever it was between them.

The stories and advice I've found so far all concern recent additions, changes in environment, and /or dogs that haven't been around each other for more than a year or 2 at best, or aren't more than a year old, puppies, etc. These 2 have been house/yard/car/ sleeping buddies for 7-8 years. What do I do now?

The only change is that the older male had a torn tendon in his knee 3 months ago which has required him to be in a splint/harness (we opted against major surgery on such an old dog). But she's gotten extra attention since then because she tore a dew claw off when we went hiking a few weeks ago -- so I think I can rule out attention jealousy, but I just don't know.

Please help.

Shelly Z.

Answer:

Since you weren’t present for the fight, it’s hard to say what happened but my guess would be that the younger dog may have caused the older dog some pain or vice versa.  If they both have injuries (the knee and the torn dewclaw).  I know I am pretty quick to snap when I am not feeling well and someone bugs me or bumps an area I have injured.

The other possibility is that the pack order is shifting now as the dogs age and they are fighting to re-establish rank.

Dogs have a very developed set of social rules and they are constantly changing.

If these were my dogs they would not be left alone together unattended anymore no matter how well they got along in the past.  In a pack situation when one dog senses weakness in another pack member this can cause aggression where there would normally not be problems.  

I hope this helps.

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Question:

Hello my name is Alicia and I raise boxers, And I have a question for you. I have a female boxer that is aggressive towards my other boxers and does not want to go anywhere near them and if they come toward her she will fight them. What can I do to help her? or to help her join the pack.

Thanks,
Alicia

Answer:

Pack structure and how to live with a dog in your home are the first issues to deal with whenever you add a new dog to your family or have problems with an existing dog.  We are taking orders for a new DVD that extensively covers the way Ed and I live with dogs in our home. It is called Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet.

We also have a directory of information specifically for people with multiple dogs. http://www.leerburg.com/multidogdirectory.htm  this directory will guide you to articles and videos that can help you. 

In the meantime, keep the female separate from your other dogs.  Until you have control of every member of your pack, you should not be allowing them any contact with each other. Realize that while working with all your dogs may help, some dogs are never comfortable around other dogs or specific dogs.   Only with time and pack structure training with ALL of them will you know how well she will be incorporated into the pack.

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Question:

I'm about to delve into some problem solving with a client's S&R dog.  This particular dog has a great deal of talent and truly excels at his work.  One problem though.  He is aggressive to other dogs on the search.  Do any of your materials address this issue?  He is 3 yrs old and intact.

Susan

Answer:

I see that you have both the Dominant Dog and Ecollar DVD.  I would think the ecollar would be the best and clearest way to deal with this.  It’s also possible that this dog may never be trustworthy around other dogs. 

The dog can be great at his job, but if he isn’t controllable around other search dogs and is already 3 years old he has probably had plenty of reinforcement for his aggression. It may be that he just isn’t the best candidate for the job, no matter what his skill level is in the work.  The social aspect of SAR is just as important as the talent the dog has.

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Question:

Hello,

I need your expert advice in regard to one of my dogs (who is a 4 yr old male rottweiler) a few months ago  my mother was walking him in an open area in the north of England, He left her side to investigate a german shepard who was been walked by some guy, the investigation became a little hostile and soon turned into a fight. The owner of the German Shepard kicked out at my rottweiler in response my dog bit his leg.

Later we found out that the dog walker was an off duty police officer walking his police dog. Now there is a large chance that the courts will place a destruction order on my dog. They claim the officer says my dog is vicious and out of control and his word is final as he is a professional dog handler. After reading your articles I discovered that he must be poorly trained as a dog handler as you state one should never grab or kick a fighting dog. And if you do so you could be (unknowingly to the dog) attacked by the dog as he is in fight mode.

At the moment in England, there is a classical witch hunt going on towards rotties. I am therefore wondering if the officers actions were indeed unprofessional, and the fact my dog bit his leg was the officers fault, as the dog was unaware of what he was doing. your expert opinion could help me greatly.

Kindest regards,
Simon

Answer:

You either miss-read or miss-understood what I wrote.

If your dog attacked my dog I would kick the living shit out of your dog. I would want my dog to see that I was in the fight with him – as a pack leader. My dog would expect nothing less.

Bottom line is you screwed up. You did not train your mother to walk you dog. It is not trained to mind her so it should not be off leash.  Sorry to say it but this never should have happened and the blame sits on your shoulders – definitely not the K9 handler. Maybe next time you will do better.

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Question:

I write you because my dog attacks other dogs without warning. I've had 2 different trainers revue her and find nothing wrong with her, one trainer specialized in aggressive dogs. My dog doesn't attack all the time, it's extremely random. She gives no warning signs except for some posturing, there is no growling or anything. In fact she is quite silent. Never barks. A huge problem is I'm not strong enough to really pull on the pinch collar enough to do anything useful when she gets into fight mode. Now recently, we had a new play date at my apartment and she attacked the dog (14mo. puppy) before they even entered the threshold. I ended up at the ER with a bite from the other dog. There was no room to break them up properly.

I can't live with a dog that is unpredictable, yet I don't want to get rid of her. I've spent hours training her and she is responsive with commands (except when attacking-of course) and I keep an alpha household. Heck, she even models for magazines and has an agent. I originally wanted her for therapy work, but have since changed that thought since she has problems with other dogs. There are three cats in this household one who attacks her and she doesn't attack back. I know it's got to be something I'm doing wrong around other dogs, but at this time I can't pinpoint it. She is friendly with people of all ages and even plays with 2 year olds, supervised of course!

What is it with certain random dogs?

She is a purebred rescue puppy, I got her at 12 weeks. She is a sight hound.

Help? Any ideas?

C.

Answer:

There is no such thing as a dog that attacks without warning.  It’s typical that the humans don’t understand or recognize the signals the dog is sending, but your dog is sending warnings.  These signals can be very subtle and are often silent. Barking and growling are easy to recognize, but once you understand what you are seeing dogs become very easy to read.  You say your dog postures, in the canine world that’s like screaming at another dog.  it’s a VERY serious warning.

I recommend this book about Canine Body Language.

Your dog is telling you and the other dogs that she isn’t interested in playing with other dogs.  Play dates for dogs are a human idea of fun, and unless the dogs already know and like each other is a horrible idea.   We feel the same way about dog parks. Our dogs are friendly to dogs in our family pack but we don’t expect them to play with strange dogs.  It really goes against the nature of many dogs.  Our dogs expect us to protect them from strange dogs, not put them in a position where they feel so worried they need to behave aggressively in order to maintain their personal space.

I suggest these videos  DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project.  This DVD shows you how to safely handle your dog when she is showing aggression. 

You can go to the web page and read the outline of what’s included on the video. My DVD's are not meant to be watched one time. The fact is anyone who needs this information needs to watch it many many times because every time they watch it they will pick up new ideas.

Pack structure and how to live with a dog in your home are the first issues to deal with whenever you add a new dog to your family or have problems with an existing dog.  We are taking orders for a new DVD that extensively covers the way Ed and I live with dogs in our home.

Please click in this link for a description of what is covered in this DVD on Pack Structure.  There is excellent footage in this dvd of dogs showing signals to each other and how they handle rudeness in other dogs.

Here is a link on dog fights problems, with a lot of information for you to read. 

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Question:

Hi Ed,

I found your site online and I wish I found it earlier. After reading some of your site I realize I didn't know the importance about properly training dogs from the start and it clearly wasn't a smart thing to do when I stuck my hand in the middle of my fighting dogs - but it already happened and I want to try and figure out what to do now. 

Basically I tried to break my dogs up during a fight that took place indoors, and I was in the middle of them from the get go so I guess it wasn't 100% my stupidity, maybe just 99%. My submissive dog was on the couch next to me and my dominant dog was on the floor on the other side of me. (I know, bad bad bad....) I ended up losing the top part of my left ring finger, and it was excruciating... There are also bite wounds on my right arm on the inside. I think she realized she was biting me at that point and let go, since she could have easily ripped that part of my arm off.

I have a male and a female. Both are mutts from the pound that I got when they were both puppies, and the female has clearly become dominant. There are things my wife and I do that led to her disposition that I can describe in detail if you need more info but what I want to know is if I should put her down due to this?

I personally don't feel 100% safe with her anymore but I also love her immensely and know she didn't intend on attacking me, she was attacking my other dog who is totally submissive. I just stuck my hand in the way... Her name is Sadie and she is about 75lbs. My male dog is named Bentley and about 70lbs. I plan on having children and there is no way I will feel comfortable with her around any kids or any other dogs at this point. Do I put her down or try to give her to someone that has no kids or other animals or what do I do?

Considering she bit off a large part of my finger I don't see how any shelter will take her and I certainly can't lie to anyone about why I want to give her up...so it just seems like there is no hope for her and I feel horrible for this and totally responsible as well.. She is unbelievably powerful and protective, so maybe someone would want her has a guard dog???

Any advice is greatly appreciated...

Shawn

Answer:

Boy I am sure this was really painful. I have owned tough dangerous dogs for 35 years and never been bit much less had this damage.

Your right – this was 100% your fault. This happened because of the way you chose to live with these dogs. You did not establish pack structure nor did you train this dog.

Its also not a difficult thing to fix if you choose to do so.

The fix starts with getting two dog crates and then educating yourself on pack structure.

Get the DVD’s I did titled ESTABLISHING PACK STRUCUTRE WITH THE FAMILY PET.

Basic dog Obedience

Remote Collar training for the Pet Owner

Read the descriptions of these DVD’s. Read the free eBooks on my web site. There is one on how to break up a dog fight without getting hurt.

Bottom line is if you control the environment of these dogs, do a better job of establishing leaderships and then train these dogs there is no reason to find a new home for the dogs. I seriously doubt these are dangerous dogs. I compare it to someone who owns a gun shooting themselves in the hand because they never learned how to use the gun – was it the guns fault? I think not.

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Question:

I've got a 3 yr old female German Shepherd from European bloodlines. I've been reading your website and looking at your articles. I'm trying to find out how to get my dog to release something when it's in her mouth. For example, when we play with her favorite ball she get so excited that the play session turns out to be more like tug or war than fetch. This morning she grabbed a piece of food off the counter (she only does this when my wife is around) and I tried to retrieve it but she wouldn't let go. Can you recommend and article or some information to help me deal with this situation?

Thanks,Frank

Answer:

The easiest thing is to teach your dog to trade for another item, and set it up in training so when this happens at other times you are not getting involved in a battle.  This is the first step. 

With issues like this I always recommend that people train their dog with a remote collar. Of course before I recommend the remote, I suggest your dog have a good foundation in basic obedience commands.  This will accelerate the dog’s learning.

Here is a bit of info on one of the chapters in the Electric collar video

Training the Leave-it or OUT with the electric collar. There are two things that can get dogs into serious trouble. Not coming when called and not leaving something alone when told to. In this section I chose a strong dominant adult male dog that has had been protection trained. This dog could be a dangerous dog if it were not handled properly. He was protective of his toys and prey items. I show how to handle this kind of dog safely and effectively by using a remote collar. By the end of the first training session he was consistently releasing the toys when told to do so and doing it in a manner that did not produce a conflict with the handler.

When people hear ELECTRIC COLLAR they always quiver and shake because there has been such bad publicity on these training collars.

The fact is today’s collars are 1000 times better than those I bought 25 years ago.

We produced a training DVD in the fall of 2005 titled ELECTRIC COLLAR TRAINING FOR THE PET OWNER. In this DVD, Ed teaches people how to handle the foundation training and then how to use the collar.

Many trainers, especially hunting dog trainers and even some professional dog trainers use “escape training” when they train with remote collars. This is where they stimulate the dog, give it a command and then teach the dog how to turn the stimulation OFF by doing what’s told. I don’t agree with “escape training.” I don’t think its fair to the dog. He is being stimulated before he is even asked to do something. In my opinion this is ass end backward.

Rather I believe in using the collar to reinforce a voice correction. In other words, I always tell my dog “NO” before I correct him. I give him the opportunity to change his behavior. My goal is to always teach my dog to follow my voice command. 

If you read the article titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING, you will understand how to approach corrections. In the article, Ed simply applies that philosophy to remote collar training.

The article explains how to determine the level of correction to use on each dog. This varies according to the temperament and drive of the dog along with the level of distraction it’s currently facing at that moment in time.

This DVD shows how to determine what level of stimulation to use on your dog. That’s important.

In this DVD we never used a level higher than a medium and most of the time it was on the low settings for every dog we trained.

We use a Dogtra 1900 on our personal dogs. This is about a $300.00 (plus shipping collar)

There are other good collars for less money. I recommend staying with DOGTRA  and TRI-TRONICS.  Other companies sell cheaper collars but in the remote collar business you get what you pay for.

I hope this helps.

Another Question:

Cindy,

Hi, I've got one last question if you don't mind. I want to get my Czech GSD a playmate, however, I failed in socializing her to other dogs. What is the best method to socializing her to other dogs? 

Frank 

Answer:

Some dogs never become social with other dogs, no matter what we do.  It’s more of a human idea that dogs need a playmate of their own kind, and while many dogs enjoy having a buddy there are many that could care less about this and others that are downright upset and aggressive about having other dogs in their home.  

First of all I would re-evaluate why you think your dog needs someone besides you to play with.

If you are dead set on getting another dog  I would read this article http://leerburg.com/introducingdogs.htm  Realize that when you are adding another dog to the mix, there is always the chance that the relationship between the 2 dogs may not work out and you may end up keeping them separate for life.

Also, I would recommend a male dog if you do get another one.

It may work out just fine, but I wanted you to be aware that judging by the emails Ed and I get every day (dozens and dozens of them) that many of these multiple dog households have huge problems if they don’t go into this with any knowledge of how dogs think about their territory and family pack.

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Question:

My name is Justin and I've been a longtime customer of Leerburg.com.  I'm hoping that my dedication to the site and your products will tempt you to give me a little personalized assistance with my Rottweiler.

I have a pure breed German 5yr old neutered male Rottweiler with dog aggression issues. I have purchased and studied Basic Dog Obedience, Dealing with Dom/Aggr Dogs and E Collar Training as well as most of the training equipment you recommend and have put them to great use.  I handle him on leash with a prong and Tri Tronics collar at all times.  He has responded very well to obedience training with markers and I'm able to control him in all situations except one.  I have not been able to curb his dog aggression issues.  He has improved immensely but he is still very aggressive to certain dogs in certain situations.  I'm to the point now where I feel that I need to give him hard corrections and/or stimulation if he looks at another dog.  First, let me tell you what I've done and how he's responded:

When I began working with him he was so dog aggressive that even seeing another dog across the street would cause him to growl, bark, lunge, etc.  I used a properly fitted prong collar and followed the methods you recommend in Dealing with Dom/Aggr Dogs DVD and he responded appropriately.  I then began gradually upping the distraction level and eventually took him to a dog park (outside the fence along the perimeter) and started correcting him at the first sign of aggression. I agree with your philosophy on dog parks....I wouldn't bring him into one even if he wasn't Dom/Aggr.  He responded well with the fence separating him and the other dog and he eventually got to the point where he can be nose to nose with another dog through the fence with no signs of aggression.  I did this dog park work over a couple weeks with maybe four visits before he showed zero signs of aggression.  I then started working him near the entrance/exit of the dog park, thinking this would be a good exercise to condition him without the fence divider. He responded well to certain dogs but then he would become very aggressive to others.  All dogs are required to be on leash in the parking lot so I think it's a great place to challenge him.  He has no handler aggression issues and I can restrain him when he gets aggressive so it is relatively safe for me, him and the other dogs and owners. I would allow him to look at another dog as it was walking by and I was never able to correct him or even say no before he began barking/lunging.  He is able to go from calm to extremely aggressive in a split second.  He would seem calm and well mannered to several dogs in a row and then he would get stupid with one or two after that. Part of it is my lack of experience but I do think he is a bit unique in the sense that he appears calm and curious then snaps into aggression without warning.  I've setup scenarios where I can pass by one dog on a sidewalk (the dogs are three feet apart) and he is fine and the same scenario a minute later with a different dog and he goes nuts. 

I exercise him regularly. We walk about a mile or two per day and I take him hiking with me as often as possible and he carries a dog pack with about 15lbs in it.  I've taken him on 5 mile hikes with the pack on and he still manages to work up enough energy to become aggressive to other dogs that we encounter on the trail.

I've just recently began working with the E Collar after the conditioning period and several re-viewings of your DVD on E Collar training.  I've never had to use it once in obedience training so far because he always listens to my commands.  He's great at the recall, down, sit, stay, long stay, etc.  The main purpose of the E Collar and the E Collar DVD purchase was to have a tool to control his dog aggression.  When a situation arises I am always late with my correction.  He's already barking/lunging by the time I stem him.  I've been stemming him on 3 (out of 5) and he immediately stops and turns to me but the "damage" is already done.

I need some pointers and some support from you so I can solve this issue.  Common sense tells me that I should stem him on 5 (the strongest stem level) when he first looks at another dog but I have been hesitant to do this because he is so friendly to most dogs we encounter and because I am concerned that I will somehow damage his good behavior with other dogs.  He is a 130lb Rottweiler and when he gets aggressive it scares the crap out of the other dog owner and I can't allow this to keep happening.  I live in a high rise building in a congested area of Houston and I can't have him barking and being aggressive to ANY other dog because of obvious reasons.  It took major convincing of the Community Board to even allow me to have him live here with me.  This building is full of toy breeds that bark like crazy at him and are totally out of control and I need him to be silent when he encounters this on a daily basis. 

I know what to do to make him go into complete avoidance with all dogs but I just need to know if I should do it.  It just sounds so depressing to me to have to hit him on the highest level when he looks at another dog.  But if that's what I need to do then I'll do it.  Something must be done or it's only a matter of time until someone in this building complains and I won't be able to keep him here.

I can't move because of financial reasons or I would.  It's either make him stop or I have to find another home for him and there is no way I can do that.

Any and all info would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.

If all else fails I guess I can switch to clicker training and a Halti to solve his dog aggression issues...haha   JUST KIDDING

Thanks in advance,
Justin

Answer:

Hi Justin

I admit I chuckled at the halti/clicker comment.

I will tell you what I would do if this were my dog.  Because he is aggressive to some dogs, in my opinion, he has lost the privilege to interact with any dogs.   I don’t think you need to put your dog into avoidance with a high level correction though.  I don’t want ANY of my dogs (none are dog aggressive) to be interacting with other dogs, I want them to be aloof and neutral. If I had a dog aggressive dog, I would still want my dog to be aloof and neutral.  I don’t see any good reasons for my dog to be interacting with dogs from outside my family pack.

As far as using the collar, I’ll use the example of my Malinois who has been taught that our outside cats are a big NO.  I only use the highest level stim I need to use, in order to get the dog to respond.  Sometimes that means NO correction with the collar at all.  My Mal has off the chart prey drive and aggression, and because I am consistent and I give her a verbal before she is even on “alert” many times I do not even need to tap the button.  If she were to continue to look at the cat I would tap the button on a low level and work up if I needed to.  I don’t believe in cranking it up to the highest level right away because I am trying to teach the dog to follow my voice, not teach the dog that he is going to get pain every time she sees a cat.  You can always go up, but once you are at the top then what? Does that make sense?

I would teach a dog like yours a “look at me” type command, to give eye contact to you.  I would use LOOK or WATCH ME and reward.  I would do this at home with no distractions at first and maybe even teach him to catch food you drop from your mouth (small pieces of hot dog work well for this).  Once he understands this, then you have an alternate behavior to do with him when you see a dog coming up.  You see the dog, tell him LOOK and then tell him GOOD.   If he chooses to not comply, he gets a correction for not looking.  This is much different to a dog psychologically than being given a correction for seeing another dog.  If you think about it, getting corrected for seeing other dogs can many times build more tension and aggression towards dogs in general.  Give him something else to do instead and make it worth his while.   It creates a much more balanced and trusting relationship between the 2 of you, and takes a lot of conflict out of the whole situation.  Of course, he may need a high level correction at times but this gives you a way to communicate with him fairly and so that he actually can get a reward out of the situation instead of only corrections.

You need to work on your timing, don’t wait to give him a command.   You see a dog in the distance, get his attention even if he hasn’t noticed it yet.  Don’t let him zero in on another dog. If you can be quicker I think your training will progress much faster.  You need to be hyper aware of your surroundings, and not just looking at your dog.  Anticipate your dog’s actions ahead of time and things will fall into place.

I hope this helps.

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Question:

We have a problem with our 15-week old female GSD - or should I say, she has a problem with our neighbors pit bulls. Our little girl is a solid, stable, dream of a dog. She has displayed very sound temperament and good nerves from day one. However, I worry about negative effects from our neighbors pit bulls. We share our back fence with them, and at any given time, at lease one of their FOUR pit bulls is in the yard. We have never liked these dogs, as we were told horror stories about their escape-and-attack escapades when we moved in; and they are left to bark outside all hours of the day and night. As a dog lover, it breaks my heart to see the conditions they live in, but all our efforts to involve the police and/or animal control have failed. They had one dog removed and destroyed after an attack, but because the remaining four have not bitten anyone (YET), the authorities are unwilling to help.

My concern for my dog is this:

From day one our little female either ignored the pit bulls barking, or simply watched with mild interest. She never approaches the fence, but neither does she display fear. She just looks on, and then continues about her business. A few days ago, however, she had a scare with the pit bulls. One of the pit bulls was barking at her, which caught her attention. Her attention was focused on the barking pit bull, and she didn't see the second pit bull sitting outside her line of sight, until it stood up and began snarling. She turned and took a step backward to look at this second dog, and as she did so, backed up into a bush. The bush startled her, and she tucked tail, yelped once, and ran back towards the porch and my husband, the alpha dog. I charged the fence, yelling, and gave the fence a couple of kicks for good measure. Then I approached my dog, who had laid down next to my husband. She didn't seem particularly fearful or upset at the time- she's a pretty hard little pup- but since then she has been cautious about that area of the yard. I can encourage her into that area, but she'll stay only as long as I make her, and won't do so on her own accord.

I'm not concerned so much about her being traumatized by this one very minor event, but more that these vicious pit bulls (who really need to be destroyed, it'd be doing the dogs a kindness) may eventually create some incident that will screw my dog up. Is there any way to deter these pit bulls from approaching the fence so aggressively, and if not, what measures can I take to protect the dog from any negative effects from these growling, snarling monsters on the other side of the fence.

Your website has been fantastic, by the way. We (my husband and I) were so thrilled to find such a wealth of information that FINALLY confirms our beliefs and approach to dog training.

Thanks,
Tim and Alyssa

Answer:

If this was my yard, I would be video taping and calling the police or animal control until they did something. I would become a real pest.

Since the pit bulls do not belong to you, the only immediate solution I can see is to put up a solid fence between the yards. You can’t control the neighbors or their dogs, so blocking their visual access it probably the best solution.

Cindy

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Question:

I have reviewed your web site and hope you could share your insight and opinion about our ability to positively resolve this situation.

I have a 12 month Brittany who was one of 2 puppies (both male) in a litter I bred. Parents and grandparents had good temperaments. We compete in field trials which require 2 dogs to be turned loose together and search for birds in 30 minutes to 1 hr braces. I have 6 dogs who are all house pets; 1 female (the puppy's mother), a 13 year old neutered male, and 4 intact males ranging from 8 to 3 years. All co-exist without any aggression. My sister's female beagle also often visits without incident.

As a 8-9 week old puppy, when confronted with another small Brittany puppy
(male) about the same age, my puppy's reaction was to growl and exhibit signs of dominance. After a correction, they both played appropriately remaining leashed the entire time. At about 4 months he also growled, hair raised, and lunged at slightly younger female puppy walked close while he was on the end of a stakeout at a field trial. Again, I made a correction, which I now realize was not severe enough apparently.

He competed in about 5 trials last spring, being loose with another strange dog without incident, although at the last trial he exhibited aggressive signs (hair raising) until receiving a verbal correction. He has been trained with his now male sibling (owned by someone else) and other strange older dogs occasionally and has clearly been the dominate dog with his sibling. He approaches the dog who rolls on his back and will stand over him. Again he has received a verbal correction which ended the behavior.
He does not exhibit any dominance signs with his family dogs. He always gets his treats last in the group and is fed in a crate. He has been shown in conformation ring with incident.

Last weekend a simulated trial session, he was braced with his sibling. Upon release, he immediately attacked the other dog who was submissive to his attack. The incident was broken up when I ran towards him saying no. (Yes, I have read your article about saying no, no, no but I was not expecting such behavior and was totally surprised.) Believing that the situation was resolved, the dogs were released again and again, my dog attacked the other dog. At this point my husband had to physically grab him to resolve the situation. He was very loudly corrected and shaken (apparently not severe enough). In what now was obviously a incredibly stupid decision, we released the other dog and let him get out into the next field before letting ours go. He had on an electric collar for other training purposes. Once he could see the other dog again, even though he was not very close he immediate sought out the dog. My husband used the shock collar while yelling no but it did not prevent yet another attack.

None of the attacks drew blood but clearly, there is a problem. There is no way we can risk this happening again for all involved and unless we feel this can be successfully corrected, we will need to place the dog in a situation where he will not encounter strange dogs in a uncontrolled manner.
In order to compete he must accept being loose with strange dogs who may even bump into him. Your "leave it" command ultimately will also not always be in option since he may encounter the other dog out of the handler's presence.

My question is twofold; does your experience tell you this can be corrected for a trial situation and, secondly, would you recommend a muzzle, leashed, leave it training as the first step given where we are at now?

Any insights you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Kathy

Answer:

This may be a tough one to solve. If it were a matter of teaching him to avoid all other dogs, this could be done but if you want to compete in trials where he's ranging loose with other dogs that may incur the aggression I have to say it's a dangerous thing to try. As a person that has years of experience with aggressive dogs, I have to say it's a challenge I would hesitate to take on.

I think the only way to deal with it is to make sure he understands 100% that his world is going to become very uncomfortable if he even looks at another dog. Since I am not familiar with how a field trial works, I don't even know if this is realistic of feasible.

I would suggest restructuring this dog's life regardless of which way your training takes you. He needs strict rules and boundaries. I have included our groundwork article, I would start this with him right away.

I would retrain this dog using our dominant dog dvd and I would double check the ecollar you are using and make sure it's operating properly and making contact. We recommend Dogtra or Tr Tronics collars, the cheaper brands just aren't reliable enough in our experience. I would also use a muzzle.

My feeling is that a field trial career may not be in the cards for this dog, because whenever you are handling a dominant and aggressive dog it's a balancing act and staying one step ahead of the situation. Prevention and management are the key, and I am afraid that neither prevention or management can take place when the dog is a distance away, off leash.

No matter what direction your training takes the dog aggression must be extinguished. At only a year old, he's not even a fully mature dog and it will only get worse if it's not dealt with properly.

Cindy

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Question:

Dear Ed,

I am going to pray you read this and answer me. I have 2 dogs that have begun fighting and we are at the end of our rope. We know we need professional help, we know that we have made the mistakes that have lead up to this. I have 4 children ages 2, 5, 9, and 12 they all love our dogs, as my husband and I do as well. We have a 4 and ½ year old terrier chow mix and a 3 and1/2 year old pit boxer mix. They lived peacefully together until Jan 16, 07. That was their first fight. They were both down stairs eating, as they had done 100’s of times, and for some reason the fight began. It lasted what seems like a lifetime, fur and teeth and growling, and blood everywhere. I tried desperately to break them up, I was home alone with them and my 18 mth old and 3 year old. I screamed, I hit, I dumped water then stupidly, I bear hugged my bull and pulled her off. I KNOW HUGE, HUGE, HUGE MISTAKE. Thank god I wasn’t bitten. I will be honest that after that I became terrified, not of the dogs, but of the “FIGHT.” The noise, the ferocity terrifies me. All was then quiet until literally 1 year to the date, Jan 16th, 08 they fought again over the attention of a child friend (he is 15) that I was babysitting. Two weeks later another fight erupted over a bowl of mac n cheese on the table. That leads us to this past Monday night. My 12 yr old daughter and I gave the dogs a bath, separately, first was the bull. We put her inside then tended to our terrier mix, we clipped her and then bathed her and brushed her. We then let them both down into the back yard as usual. We have an electric invisible fence which both dogs mind Very well.  Right away I sensed something amiss. My terrier was walking around and my bull was acting strange. Head down, tail down kind of slinking. They both did the smell thing, head perky kinda jumpy. I didn’t like what I saw so I called my bull to me, she did come right up to me. My daughter seemed to think all was good. I then went into the yard with the animals and daughter. The black dog was on the other side of the yard pooping, my bull was sitting in front of my daughter, my black terrier walked over to them they touched noses and as my terrier went to turn my bull attacked, it was horrific. She was relentless. I screamed, I panicked, my husband came running and the only thing we had was the hose so my husband aimed and squirted. It stopped my bull long enough for my terrier to escape to the deck. The very odd thing about this is that FOR THE OTHER FIGHTS MY TERRIER WAS THE STARTER OF THE FIGHT, THIS TIME IT WAS THE BULL AND I CAN NOT FIGURE OUT WHY? They both ended up in the hospital, both needed stitches and we are left confused, frustrated, scared, annoyed and heartbroken. We believe that to take on the responsibility of owning animals you see all of it through. We know we need help, this is out of our range as to what to do. We own a camper and take our dogs camping all over the country with us, after Mon I’m terrified. If that broke out in our camper the result would be devastating. We want to keep both dogs, but realize we need to fix this pronto, start from the beginning. BUT HOW, Where?. Is this fixable? I have been reaching out for help to no avail. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP US. TELL ME WHAT WE NEED TO DO. PLEASE.

I pray you read this and can guide us, we love them both and want to do right by them and by the family.

Thank-you,
Jennifer

Answer:

I can tell you that this problem is an owner problem not a dog problem. All these things happen because you allow it to happen. Your have missed every single signal these dogs have sent – FOR YEARS !!!! These things didn’t just happen now or on June 6th 2007. These dogs have been sending warning signals forever and you have not educated yourself in pack structure to see or read what was going on.

There is NO EASY FIX To this solution. It involved handler education and changing the way you live with these dogs. Unless your prepared to do this you may as well wait for one of these dogs to kill the other or re-home one dog.

I don’t have time to go through every one of your mistakes. It would take hours.

Here are the DVD's that will fix this – in this order.:

Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs
Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Dog
Remote Collar Training for the Pet Owner
Basic Dog Obedience

Ed

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Question:

Hello Mr. Frawley:

I appreciate the time and effort you put into helping dog owners.  You and your website are the first resource I go to when I have a dog question.  Now that I have "buttered you up" I'll ask my question.

Background: I own two dogs (5 year old male GSD, 6 year old male black lab).  Neither dog is neutered.  They have lived together peacefully in the same 10'x20' kennel for the last 4 years with daily exercise (approx. 30 minutes) in our yard.

Problem: In the past two months the more dominant GSD has been barking at and most recently attacking the lab at feed time. 

Further information: It is always the GSD attacking the lab and it only occurs at feed time.  The feed time routine begins by having the GSD sit, I set the food before him while he remains sitting and then I give him the command to begin eating.  Then I repeat the same routine with the lab.  The dog dishes are located 8 feet apart with doghouses between them.  By the time I exit the kennel the GSD will begin showing aggression towards the lab while the lab remains at his food dish.  I have successfully (and safely) broken up two fights using the techniques discussed on your website.  We feed the dogs once a day and do not remove their dishes.  As I have learned from your site this "free feeding" is not a good practice.

What can I do to differently to correct this issue? I greatly appreciate your insight on the matter.

Thanks a bunch,
Ben

Answer:

Your dog is doing this because it lacks pack structure and I am sorry to say it doesn’t completely respect your leadership and rules. If it did it would not do this.

Run this dog through my pack structure program - Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Dog.

Then part way through the program add marker training - and remote collar training Remote Collar Training for the Pet Owner.

In the short term you need two dog crates and you need to feed in the crates. It’s time to micro-control this dogs environment. Life as he knows it needs to change.

Kind Regards,
Ed Frawley

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Question:

Thank you so much for all the time you have put into getting this information together! It has been a relief for me to read it and know that there are many other dogs & owners out there dealing with this issue.

Here's my story and question.
I have a 2 year old American Staffordshire, Gus.
Gus grew up in a house with 2 other dogs and 3 cats until he was six months old. Then I got married and moved out of that house into the mountains which is very secluded. There was no animals for Gus to be around just lots of land for him to roam on. One day we ventured down the road to my aunts property where she has a barn full of horses and some barn cats. Gus never had a problem with any animals before this time. He was sitting there minding his own business when the cat came up to him (and two from behind) and all at once attacked him. Gus didn't know what to do as this was a huge shock to him. I chased the cats away immediately and Gus wasn't really hurt, just shook up. About a month later he was sitting by the fence where we keep the horses and a new horse we had just put on the property wasn't dog savvy and came up to the fence and kicked Gus in the head. Again Gus was fine (those dogs are rocks) but shook up.

A few months later one of the horses broke out of her fence and came all the way down to our yard where I was out pulling weeds and Gus was lying beside me. She came right up to us and I was petting her and out of nowhere Gus lunged at her and bite her....she took off running and he was right on her heels. By the time I caught up and was able to tackle him he had torn her up pretty good. A month later we went to our family's house and he attacked their puppy and killed her. A few weeks later he got a second small dog... mangled it pretty good but didn't kill it.

My husband and I were devastated, we didn't know what was happening and we started panicking thinking we had to put our dog down. My aunt (who owned both of the attacked dogs) is a dog lover and encouraged us to seek help from a behaviorist before going to that extreme.

So we did and this expensive behaviorist told me all the stuff that I just read on your page about, dog rankings, how he saw us as his protectors and we had let him down in that department. I understood now where my dog came from and how it was all my fault for his behavior now. We went through the domination exercise and saw a huge chang in our dogs behavior. We had scheduled for a second session with this lady to come out and work with us on the horse problem now that we had the rankings established. Unfortunately the day before she came out through complete stupidity on my part, our dog was let out and another horse had broken out of the fence and was in our yard. Gus attacked that horse too.

Our landlord said no more (which I totally understand) either we have to move or find the dog a new home. I'm not willing to give my dog to another person because I believe someone else should not have to deal with the problem that I created. So we're moving and now I'm scared that being in town around so many other animals... (cats and dogs) that there will be another attack. He is only aggressive to cats and toy size dogs. He has never in any way shown aggressionto a person or child. In fact he lets my 2yr old nephew ride on his back. Except for this one problem he is a trophy dog, perfect obedience, perfect manners, perfect temperament.... By far the smartest and most magnificent animal I have ever met.

I'm just so scared if he gets out of his yard one day and attacks some cats or another dog... I really can't deal with that fear anymore. Up to this point I have been lucky and all the attacks were on families pets who were not wanting to press charges or do anything drastic. I may not be so lucky next time & quite frankly I don't want there to be a next time. What can I do?!? Would a socialization class help? Can anything be done about this problem?

I'm tired of worrying, and tired of stressing. I admit that this problem is all my fault and I'm willing to do whatever is in my power to fix it.
I just don't know what to do...Please help me!

~Corrie

Answer:

You have taken the biggest step by realizing that our dogs need us for leadership.

I would recommend our groundwork program.

I don’t know what a socialization class entails, but if I had a dog that had killed or attacked another dog I would be training him to ignore all living things. For many people socialization means letting dogs and animals interact, and I would not do that with your dog. I would teach him to ignore other dogs.

Here are the DVD's I would suggest.

Basic Dog Obedience
Pack Structure for the Family Pet
Dominant and Aggressive Dogs
Electric Collar Training for the Pet Owner

We also have a DVD on how to train dogs to get along with horses, but if you are moving to an area with no horses and you don’t have any plans to have Gus around them you would not need that one.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

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Question:

We have a 10 month old female german shepherd. She has never been allowed to meet or socialize with other dogs, but that seems to have been a mistake. Any time another dog walks by or is within site, she barks and tries to bolt toward the other dog. She continually pulls at the leash or collar until the other dog is well away from her. Even when she was on a prong collar, she would pull at other dogs (although not quite as hard.)

Is there a safe way, other than having the direct supervision of a trainer, to introduce her to other dogs? If she DID get the opportunity to meet other dogs, would it calm her down?

(We do have several of your videos, and we're going back through them again looking for answers as well.)

Thank you for your assistance.

Teresa

Answer:

Why do you feel she needs to meet other dogs? I think many people mistakenly think their dog ‘needs’ to meet and interact with strange dogs.

We want our dogs to be neutral to strange dogs and people, neither aggressive nor overly interested in them. We do this by being a firm pack leader, and protecting our dogs from outsiders from our family pack. Once they realize they are not going to be put in a position that makes them uncomfortable they tend to relax around new situations.

You may want to consider going to a remote collar in the near future.
When dogs pull into a collar, they have an opposition reflex which makes them pull even harder. By using the electric collar we can interrupt this pattern by using low level stimulation with a slack leash. It works very well. Here’s the link to the video we released a short time ago. http://leerburg.com/318.htm

You can also use the SEARCH function in the upper left corner of our website, type in ‘socialization’ and you will get some additional info.

I hope this helps!

Cindy

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Question:

I have been reading the question and answer section as long as I can tolerate sitting here. I am sorry to bother you, I recently had back surgery and cant sit here any longer.

I have 2 dogs, 5 year old mushball of a Boxer and a young 1 year old American Bulldog. I keep my dogs sleeping in a crate at night. During the day they are out on our 2 acres to run freely. They are contained with the Invisible Fence system. They are very people friendly. Problem is keeping a neighbor dog out of our yard....and the attacks are getting worse and more severe....so far there have been 3 instances. I am afraid that my American Bulldog could kill this dog if it keeps coming around. The visiting dog is a Pit /Shar Pei cross, I have witnessed her enter the yard, tail up high over her back head help very high, she approaches very abruptly, within seconds.... FIGHT. Very scary my children have been within feet of these dog fights and they do not understand to get the heck away. I am at a loss as to who is responsible here? I am also very saddened
by the fact that my AB has now drawn blood.

Thank you,
Dawn
Wisconsin

Answer:

The bottom line here is that while your neighbors should keep their dog in their own yard, you are responsible for keeping your dogs and kids safe. I would have a secure fenced in kennel or bring my dogs inside when I couldn't be outside supervising.

I would be talking to the neighbors as well, and would call the police or animal control to report them if they don't do anything about this.

Neighbor problems are tough, but I wouldn't leave my dogs out unattended until this problem is resolved.

Cindy

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Question:

1) I have an Australian Shepherd – rescue dog – really was abused.  Previous owner’s’ grandparents took the dog when he was not home and took it to a shelter because of how poorly he was treated.  When I got him, he was 1 year old.  10lbs under-weight, worms, matted and had been tied to a tree by himself in a yard … took a good six months before we could have him around any men with facial hair at all (previous owner was a large man with a beard).

He is also an in-bred blue merle.  Fortunately, his only medical side-effect is that he is 95% blind.  It used to only be about 50%, but over the years (he is 8 ½ now) he has gotten progressively worse – not that you can tell by watching him.

The issue with him is separation anxiety. 

And that he is brilliant.  Plastic kennels – a no go he eats them.  Wire, he disassembles or breaks (all of his canine teeth are broken off).  Loose in the house, he is destructive … not furniture or the such, but any food type thing he can get his mouth on, including fish food and guinea pig food, candles that smell good (garbage can – he can open the pantry door to get to it).  Laundry room, a no-go – he has figured out how to turn the door knob.  Garage – same thing … if we lock the door (that he now knows how to open) he will tear the moldings off the door.

The yard – he opens the gate – have to put special lock on the gate and then he cuts his nose trying – and he knows how to open the slider to get in the house. 

The bark collar was a nightmare that resulted in a large vet bill.  He tried to take it off … best guess by the vet, he got his foot in the collar and embedded the prongs in his neck and then yelped all day.  It had to be removed from his neck in a very painful process.

As his eyes have gotten worse, his behavior has gotten worse. 

I don’t know what to do with him next.  He really is too smart for everyone’s good.  He sees each new attempt on my part (in my over-dramatic mind!) as a new challenge to his brain. 

He gets a LOT of exercise, to the point of exhaustion and still this behavior ensues…

I have read through the boards and did not see much of anything other than the option of leaving him in the kennel 24/7 & I am worried he will seriously hurt himself.  Have you have any experiences with instances such as above where this has worked?

2) 1 ½ year old Rottie – dog aggression.  He was fine with other dogs (we have 4) until our neighbors dog un-altered GS attacked him about 6 months ago.  WE were walking down the street … dog came running up the black and jumped on him.  Life has not been pretty since

Pinch Collar does not work.  Even took him to a clinic to make sure we had it fitted properly.  Dominance collar … again, he will get himself to the point of passing out and will not stop. 

I have recently purchased a halti (much like a be-nice halter I once used on a rescue horse I had to work on) and it stops the outbursts once they start, but does not stop the outburst.

He is still a puppy – and he is a large dog +/- 130lbs – all muscle and quite scary looking to anyone who might pass (except he LOVES people … I don’t want him to have to live with his stigma of being  dog aggressive and would love to break it.  (note, he is fine if dogs come over and are in his yard and introduced properly)

Will enough of his hurting himself with the halti break him of his reaction?  How do I get him back to ignoring other dogs?

Thank you in advance for your time & I hope to hear from you.

Val

Answer:

Dog 1)

Like many dog owners, you are living in the past with this dog.  The problems he had in his previous life was 7 ½ years ago, and in order for him to truly move on you need to quit feeling bad for what happened to him in the past.  Dogs live in the moment, and we need to be aware of the fact that feeling sorry for them transmits weakness and instability to them.  Dogs can’t be emotionally balanced in an environment where the past is still such a big part of the day to day life.  You even say in your email that you have an over dramatic mind.  Dogs mirror us in many ways, so start paying attention to your emotional state and you may see some correlations between you and your dog’s behavior.

What kind of exercise does he get?  How much mental exercise? I always recommend working an anxious dog’s mind as well as his body.  Marker training can be done by any dog, of any age.  Read the article titled Training With Markers.  

I also don’t see any other choice than to kennel him when you are gone, no matter what.  Every time a dog like this gets out of a crate or a room or performs a self rewarding behavior (like getting in the garbage) it becomes more and more difficult to keep them confined.

Here is article Ed wrote on dogs that break out of crates.

You may need to purchase a solid crate that your dog can’t chew out of.

Dog 2)

I would recommend the dvd Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs  and I would recommend the Electric Collar DVD with the difference being when dealing with aggression you don’t wait until the dog is actively showing aggression. You correct the dog on a very high level for even looking at another dog. I don’t think there is any other way for you to deal with this problem with such a large dog.

I would recommend a muzzle for him also.

There is a large amount of information on the website concerning dog aggression, if you spend some time using the search function (located in the upper left hand corner of the website) you will find many useful articles and posts that address all the problems you are having.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

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Question:

I have searched the web site for specifics regarding our dilemma and could not find any similar. Please read and give me direction...

 We have a 3 year old boxer (female, fixed) and a 2 year old bulldog (female, not fixed) both have aggressive personalities and it use to be that every time the bulldog goes into heat the two fight.  Lately they are out of control and fighting constantly and our bulldog is not going into heat for 3 months, so we can't  blame hormones. Our boxer attacks the bulldog if she even gets to close, and each fight is getting worse, it seems like the boxer is out to kill and does more damage with each attack.  We are going to breed our bulldog, and do not plan to fix for a few years.  

They are fighting so much for dominant roll that when they are outside together, one will urinate and the other will go over and urinate on top and then first one will come over and have bowl movement on top of it.  I am scared to have two together if husband is not home.  When they fight we put them in their kennels for discipline.  We have trained them both in the sit stay command when we get their food out etc.  They are obedient in may ways, but lack obedience when other people/animals are around.  Both have terrible aggression towards other animals as well. 

Please tell me, do you feel they fight because both are females, and having one fixed and one not fixed causes problems, plus both appear to be aggressive breeds.  Is this a lost cause? Do we need to find a new home for our boxer?  We have them separated right now, but that seems to make the aggression even worse, each wants to know what the other is getting that they are not.  Should we muzzle both and allow them to be together?  Please give me direction. 

Sincerely,
Teri
Grand Island, NE

Answer:

We have an entire section of the website on dog fights.  I'll warn you that some of the photos are graphic but we want people to realize how dangerous this is.

I don't believe getting one or even both of these dogs will do anything to curb the aggression.  Female fights are the worst.

We have another section with dvd recommendations for training these dogs and giving them the structure and discipline they need.

You may want to use muzzles, but only while you are training them.  Muzzles don't solve the problem; they merely keep you and the other dog from being bitten.  The aggression needs to be addressed or it will continue to escalate.  

You need to have a crate or kennel for both dogs and start our Groundwork program.

I will list the dvd's we recommend.  The fact that your dogs only listen when they want to tells me they have very few rules and structure.

Pack Structure for the Family Pet is the dvd that picks up where the article leaves off.

I believe that this DVD could really help you. It's titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project.

Basic Obedience

Electric Collar Training for the Pet Owner

I hope this helps.

Cindy

Another Question:

Thank you for emailing back so quickly...  I have read thru dog fights and plan on ordering a couple videos, but what I need advice on is whether a strong willed boxer and bull dog is a bad combination and this is a lost cause... can two strong willed types live in harmony if we are strong leaders?

Thanks again,
Teri 

Another Answer:

It depends on your definition of harmony.  If you think you can spend a few weeks training and then it's done then the answer is no. 

Dogs need structure and management every day, all day, and some dogs are more labor intensive.  You may never be able to have them loose together without supervision.  It will depend on how good you are at training, how well the dogs respond to training and how consistent you are.  Dogs usually take to this idea quite readily, it's usually the people that have a problem changing their routine.  I will say that from your email description of these 2 dogs, no matter how well they do in training if they lived with me I would NEVER let them interact with each other unless I was present AND I could keep my attention on them. I wouldn't want them interacting when I couldn't be there to assert myself and I would not want them doing things I was not aware of.  That really can slow down your training progress.

Think of this as a permanent lifestyle change, for everyone in your household.  The way you have been living with your dogs isn't working so the only way to resolve it is to change it, every day from now on.

You can always rehome one of the dogs, but due to the fact that they both have terrible animal aggression I would recommend the same training even if you only keep one.  Placing an animal aggressive dog in a new home is a huge legal liability.  I have gotten emails from customers who have rehomed their aggressive dog and it's hurt someone or another animal and they have been sued.  Just something to think about.

Cindy

Thanks:

Thank you... You have been very helpful and we really appreciate your honesty. 

Teri

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Question:

Hi Ed and Cindy:

I am writing you for any information and advice you can give me regarding one of our dogs. We have 3 dogs; (Polo), a 6 year old male American white shepherd, (Bella), a 5 month old female lab/shepherd mix, and (Riley), a 4-1/2 year old female australian shepherd/cattle dog mix.

We got the puppy at 9 weeks old in June, and previous to that we had a 16 year old female black lab/shepherd mix. They are all spayed/neutered except the puppy which will be spayed on October 31st. Our problem is Riley the aussie/cattle dog She recently attacked our neighbor's black lab, and did some serious damage. Riley was in our yard on a 15 foot cable, when the dog came into the yard. Riley apparently attacked the dog. My husband heard the commotion, came out, and was able to pull Riley off the other dog, who is also a female. The other dog had bite marks on her head, ears, stomach, and at one point Riley had her by the throat. Polo and Bella were also on cables, with only Bella, the puppy, being close to Riley. We got Riley when she was about 1-1/2 years old from my co-workers son. They said they couldn't keep her since they had Riley's brother, and their house and yard was not big enough. She had been trained by an in-home trainer. The only problem we had with her was at first she was aggressive to our cats. She now will just chase the cats, and tries to play with them. She never bothered our older black lab, and gets along and plays with the white shepherd. She has a habit of biting the back of his legs when they play. She plays with the puppy, always under close supervision. She does get pretty rough with the her. The only other incident of biting was when she bit our neighbor's 5 year old daughter in the back of the legs about 1-1/2 years ago. She did break the skin. The girl was running, and we attributed it to her herding instincts. Riley is never allowed to run freely in our yard anymore. She shares a 14' x 4' dog run with Polo. We do have 4+ acres, so my husband used to run the dogs in the marsh, but lately they have not gotten enough exercise. When we first got Riley I used an electronic training collar, and now use a choke and prong collar when taking her on walks. The dogs are crate trained.

Polo and Riley are both dominant personalities while the puppy is submissive. Riley is not aggressive to people. She has excellent behavior at the vet's office and in public. She does bark at other dogs on walks, but never before has attacked. We think she is territorial in our yard. She's intelligent and a wonderful family pet with us. We realize that we have not exercised her enough and obviously made mistakes in her training or the lack of keeping up with it. Comments have been made that we need to "put her down". I made an appointment with an animal behaviorist in Madison this Sunday, November 2nd. I am rethinking taking her to the appointment. The behaviorist does not recommend electronic collars, choke or prong. She also made the comment that going for the stomach is a "kill maneuver." I saw on your website that you do not recommend animal behaviorists. We do not want to kill Riley, unless we have no other options. I plan on purchasing your DVD "Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs." We think we need professional training help, besides using your DVD's and going back to an electronic collar. Is there any recommendations you can make regarding trainers in our area? Also, do you think Riley can be salvaged without having to end her life? Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated. I have already gotten much information from your website. We need to make a decision which direction to proceed very soon and are desperate for any help you can give us.

Thanks so much for your help.

Sharon

Answer:

I believe that this DVD could really help you DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project. I would advise thinking about the structure or lack of structure that your dogs live with. This is always the root of all behavioral problems.
People put up with a lot from their dogs, but usually don’t realize that things like chasing, barking and not listening to their owner many times escalate into aggression as the dog is allowed to do as he wishes.

I’d work with ALL your dogs, because in multiple dog households it’s never just one dog that has issues. The other dogs may not be biting but they are part of the whole issue in one way or another.

I’d get crates for all the dogs and start with our Groundwork program.

Pack Structure for the Family Pet is the DVD that picks up where the article leaves off.

Since you have an electric collar, I’m going to also suggest our Electric Collar Training DVD. If you didn’t use our techniques for using it in the past, I think you may benefit from working with your dogs in the manner that we show on the video.

As for behaviorists, I know there are some good ones out there but if the one in Madison that you have an appointment with doesn’t use any training tools like training collars I’d save my time and money and keep looking. I personally would not go to a person who isn’t open minded enough to realize that you can’t use a gentle leader or halti and click & treat a dog through aggression issues. For the record, I train all my dogs with Markers and I think it’s the best (you can read about it on the web site) but if I need to use the other tools I will. Dog training (like so many things in life) is all about balance.

I can’t think of anyone I would recommend around your area to help you, sorry about that.

Cindy

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Question:

Hello,

I am emailing with pics of a bite from my 7 month old GSD female.  She was going after my yorkie and I had her leash thankfully but she turned and bit me instead.  Of course I was glad it was me and not my yorkie.  She has been after them lately, what can I do?  I have been establishing the pack structure.  Its not perfect yet but its a whole lot better than when I first got her.  Only had her a couple of months.  I keep her in her crate when she is not on my leash by my side.  She is fine one minute and it just happens.  Should I muzzle her when she is out?  I dont want to have to get rid of her but me and my yorkies cant be attacked every couple of days.  I love her very much and would do anything to keep her.  Please help.  Thank you.

Answer:

Managing a multi dog household can be much more challenging than a single dog.  I would be following our Groundwork program and the video Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

Owners of dogs like yours underestimate the genetic power of  "PACK DRIVE."  Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership a dog NEEDS then he or she will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way.  Your dog is not behaving badly out of spite or stubbornness; your dog is simply being a dog, a dog that needs some guidance and rules.

If you want to fix a problem like this you can but it takes some work.  In order to get the most out of the training, it’s important to work with all dogs in the household, not just the individual you think is the problem.  If the Yorkie is not under control, then you are going to have a hard time making any progress.

Here is a DVD that I would recommend titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs.

If you go to the link on this DVD you can read about what it covers. You will also see a detailed outline of what’s in the video.

I would definitely recommend a muzzle while you work through these issues. They can be fixed but it will take a lot of work and making sure if you can’t pay 100% attention to the dogs then they should be crated to prevent any altercations.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have.. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum. 

I hope this helps.

Cindy

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Question:

I came across your website while researching information on dog on dog aggression, and hope you can help me! My husband and I have female two dogs -- a 9-1/2 year old mutt and an almost 5-year old lab mix. The lab mix (Koda) was raised in the house with the older dog (Sadie), and both dogs were spayed as puppies. Sadie has always been very submissive, while we realized very early on that Koda has a very dominant personality. While training Koda as a puppy we've taken steps to ensure that we're the alphas in the pack, including crate training her (she still sleeps in her crate in a room by herself) and making her sit and stay before giving her food. She has never shown any aggression towards us, or any other people, but occassionally when she was younger would attack Sadie over food, toys, etc. To stop this we've tried to ensure that there's never anything they can fight over -- the food is stored in the garage, the dogs are fed separately (using gates to keep them in separate rooms and out of sight of each other), and they have multiples of toys so that each one can have their own. Also, when they are in the house with us and there are toys available, we keep Koda leashed to the furniture as recommended by a previous trainer, so that she cannot try to take the toys away from Sadie or bully Sadie over them. There have been instances where Koda becomes jealous if Sadie gets more attention, so we make sure to show Koda more attention any time they are both together.

Generally the two have gotten along, although there have been occassional fights over the years because of the above mentioned things, they were never bad and it was easy to stop them. However, Koda has become increasingly aggressive towards Sadie over the last several months, and has attacked her for no apparent reason very seriously, although we've so far been fortunate to not have any permanent damage to either dog. She has also become very menacing to Sadie in her body language, to the point where Sadie will sometimes not even be in the same room with Koda and acts afraid to go outside with her at the same time. The most recent fight was particularly bad -- my husband was barely able to pray Koda's jaws apart to get Sadie's throat out of her mouth! (Luckily, she's never attempted to turn on us during a fight, although we usually don't try to pull them apart at the biting ends!)

I am currently 7 months pregnant and worried that her aggressive behavior will continue towards my child, even though she's never shown any aggression towards humans... Also, I cannot help but wonder if the fights are happening over some sense of protection (or jealousy) of me, since they always occur when I'm in the room and Sadie is between me and Koda (even if I'm not actually paying attention to Sadie at the time), and the behavior started this summer around the time I became pregnant.
I've tried researching aggressive dog behavior and pregnant owners, but haven't had any luck so far. My husband and I love both of these dogs dearly and we don't want to have to get rid of Koda because of her aggression, but this behavior just cannot continue once there's a baby added to the mix!

Have you ever dealt with instances of owner's pregnancy causing behavior problems in dogs? And do you have any training suggestions that could help us get Koda's behavior under control before the baby is born? Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Rachael

Answer:

My educated guess is that your dog is reacting to YOUR change in behavior and emotions, not necessarily to your pregnancy. I know first hand that moods, emotional state and behavior changes during pregnancy, whether we (as the pregnant woman) realize it or not. Dogs perceive this as weakness and will act out in various ways, depending on the dog’s core temperament.

Both your dogs need beefed up pack structure. I’d start with our Groundwork program.
Pack Structure for the Family Pet

I would also recommend you spend some time reading about dogs & kids, we have an extensive section on our website about this.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have.. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

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Question:

Ed

How are things in Menomonie?

I’ve got some dog issue questions I need to run by you.

First off, yeah, I’m a dumbass, I should not have 4 dogs together, 2 beagles, lab and a gsd…. But, the damage is done, and I need to figure out how to fix it. We’ve had the gsd for probably 4 yrs, she came from a humane society in Redwing, nice looking dog, healthy, good temperament, never been aggressive except towards cats and a skunk that got in the Kennel (really dumb for the skunk, huge mess…). We’ve managed the prey drive aggression toward the cats by always leashing the dog when she is out of the kennel, never been an issue. Since we got her we have always had 4 dogs, pretty much a complete change of dogs from at due to old age, illness etc but she’s never had issue with other dogs. The lab on the other hand can be a bit aggressive, but seems to
be dominant and it never goes more than a bark or two.


The 2 beagles are basically inside dogs but go out together with the lab and the gsd when needing to go out or when we are gone, we have a heated porch (dogs have the run of it) attached to a big fenced in yard. 3 weeks ago we came home in the evening to find our younger beagle (we’ve had the dog over a year with no issues) beat up with a bite mark on the back, we assumed it was the gsd since by looking at the size of the bite pattern, we got the dog healed up, reintroduced them with supervision, no issues. Last night I got home, the beagle got the shit kicked out of it, bites all over, damned near killed her. The gsd had some slobber on her, other than that not a mark.

So, any hope for these two? Or should I just work on finding homes for the lab and the gsd? I hate to sound like an asshole but I really honestly don’t have the time required to work with them as needed and I’m not sure Yonna is up to it.

Brian

Answer:

Brian,

Nice to hear from you and now that YOU GOT the “dumbass” comment out of the way I will answer your problem. :-)

There is nothing wrong with having 4 dogs. I have 4 house dogs. But you need to do a better job of managing their time together. When this comes down to it this is a common sense problem. People who have this many dogs need to either have a set of dog kennels or inside dog crates (4 of them not 2 or 3) .

Now that these dogs have fought like this they can never be left together unattended again – or you will come home to a dead dog. When people have dog packs (and you have a dog pack) and a fight starts – its not uncommon for all 3 to turn on the weakest one in a fight. When that happens owners come home to a dead dog. Don’t for one minute thing this cannot happen. I have a list of emails from people who had exactly this happen and they were so shocked that their “little babies” turned into cold blooded killer.

I call that the hard way to learn that pack structure is a real thing.

The issue of this GSD and its prey drive is solved with a remote collar.
The goal is to extinguish the behavior. That's accomplished with the dog getting the highest level of stimulation for even looking at the source of aggression. You don’t wait for the dog to light up – you stimulate the dog for LOOKING. When this is done properly and enough times (you can set her up) she will turn her head away when she sees a cat.

As time passes you will be able to lower the level of stimulation to a fraction of what you started with. The dog will always know that there is more power there if they don’t comply.

With that said – a little common sense here – you have a cat killer so you never take the dog outside without the remote collar on. Not ever!
This is the same concept of when I was a K9 handler. I never went on a call without a remote collar on. I very seldom had to use it but it was there in case I needed it. Kind of like why a cop carries a gun. How often does he shoot someone, but it’s there for emergencies.

Kind Regards,
Ed Frawley

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Question:

Dear Cindy,

I have a two year old, intact male Labrador Retriever (Tucker) who is displaying dominant and aggressive behavior toward other male dogs. Not all male dogs but most. This behavior first showed signs with mounting at 10/11months, he finally stopped because of the training/correction or his hormone's leveling-out I am not sure. It then manifested to the current behavior; he becomes hyper vigilante when he sees another dog, if he obeys the "leave it and Look" command and an introduction is welcomed by the other owner, we approach (on leash) slowly to see how both initially receive one another. When Tucker is within 2-3 feet he rushes & assumes a challenging pose (tail and head erect) he usually does not look directly at the dog but will look from the side or at an angle. If it is a female he will wag his tail, I then allow closer interaction, smelling etc. and he becomes playful even if the female is not receptive or even aggressive. If it is a male, it will usually escalate to guttural growls (Tuck does not bear teeth) either by the other dog or Tuck; If it is Tuck growling, I then correct with a tug on the leash, "leave it " , take a step back "right here-sit" command(s) which usually defuses the situation but does not stop the tension he feels. There were three incidents of dog fights over the past year, no broken skin, mostly no contact but aggressive scuffles non the less. We have stopped going to dog parks and hiking in off leash areas because I was unable to control his behavior off leash during these incidents and it is obviously dangerous. He is obedient and friendly with people (children, babies, young, old and strangers-only time he really barks is when there is a knock at the door). He earned his Good Canine Citizenship (13months-just before the aggression arose) and had highest marks in his obedience class graduation test. I would like to continue with training but confused what is appropriate for him at this point.
Unfortunately, I cannot go into another class when he has this problem with other dogs. We are considering neutering him but with all of the medical research and studies I have read there is no guarantee that it will change this behavior (even though I am sure it will help with the way other dogs react to him) and despite what most commercial websites and veterinarians preach, I do not think that altering animals is good for their health in the long run. It has been a very difficult decision for us.

I was interested in the DVD on dominance and aggression, do you think this is a good place to start? I know it is very difficult for you to evaluate just from my email but where does this behavior come from?

Insecurity, time of life & hormones? What did I do wrong? Any insight, advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long email!!

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Patricia

FYI Our Schedule:

7:30 - 10 min potty walk
8:00 - Breakfast
8:30 - 1hr walk (45min walk, 15 min puppy play/soccer, 10 min training brush up-long distance comes, healing off leash etc.)
12:00 lunch
12:30 10 min walk
4:00 Dinner
4:30 1 hr walk
9:00 10 min potty walk

eats raw-organic/ bones two xs a week

Answer:

With dogs like this, not allowing them to get to the point where they are actually displaying aggression is the key. (i.e. growling and posturing) Once the dog is showing this, you have already given up your leadership of the situation. You need to take back the control position from Tucker.

I’d start with our Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off - Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

After you have started the groundwork and have a good understanding of being a leader to your dog then I would recommend DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS.

I agree with you on the neutering, unless hormones are causing the aggression it probably won’t make much difference.

Your situation outlines what we have observed over and over again. A lot of dominant and aggressive dogs go through structured obedience training classes and perform well, but remain dominant and aggressive.
Obedience training is only part of the solution to having a dog that looks to you for leadership.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

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Question:

I have an 11months Border Collie and was introduced to your site by my dog's breeder.

I've watched your DVD "Basic Obedience" and found it to be extremely useful and have practised the three phases approach to dog training as you've recommended. Though my dog has been through Obedience classes, but they all lack the "correction phase." Therefore the results have always been inconsistent. With correction built into the training program, I have seen a vast improvement in his consistency to respond to commands.

That said, I still have a couple of problems I can't really solve with him and hope you might be able to help me on them.

1) I've started him on the prong collar about a week ago and begun correction on it. I did a particular hard correction on him once because he was going all jumpy and refusing to listen. After that incident, when I put on the prong collar, he will look as if I've just taken his life away. He totally become unmotivated and shows a stance of fear. He would do the commands but looked very fearful. Have I over-corrected him with the collar? He is definitely a weak nerved dog. If I have over corrected, how do I solve the problem now to make him mind me and not just the collar?

2) He goes nuts over motorcycles. We stay in an urbanized area with lots of motorcycles, and everytime one goes past us during walks, he will lunge for it and bark like crazy. It's dangerous. How is the best way to correct his? I have recently bought a remote trainer from your website, Dogtra1900. Do I need to do an avoidance correction on this? ie. set to the highest level?

3) He has started to display signs of dog aggression and has been picking fights at the local agility club randomly. He doesn't growl or do anything. Just stare and run off fighting. He is totally unrecall-able when in drive. That was when I decided enough is enough and started him on the prong collar because I wanted a 100% recallable dog under ANY circumstance. However, I'm facing problem 1) listed above. Do I still carry on with doing the automatic corrections now that he is so afraid of the collar?

Please advise. Hoping you can shed some insight into the above problems.

Thanks so much for your time.

Best regards,
Claudia

Answer:

Border Collies tend to be dogs that have a LOT of drive but are very sensitive. This can be a bit of an issue when trying to correct problems like you are having.

I have a couple of suggestions. First off, if you haven't used marker training with him in the past I would recommend it highly.

The Power of Training Dogs with Markers DVD

Once he understands the marker, I would use that to make getting the prong on a pleasant thing. You won't actually be using the prong for anything during these sessions, merely making a pleasant association.

I would use the electric collar for all the problems you have been having, not just he motorcycles. Instead of using it to create total avoidance (you have a sensitive dog) I would use it to reinforce a voice command like DOWN or LOOK or whatever you choose. Do you have our video, Electric collar Training for the Pet Owner? If not, I recommend it.

I also think you need to back up your training and work on the relationship and obedience you have with the dog AWAY from such high level distractions. Once he's working perfectly for you without a lot of distractions, gradually build up to being near other dogs, then other dogs doing agility. For many dogs, watching other dogs doing agility is almost too much, and if you try to rush through the foundation steps you may never have a reliable off leash relationship.

We have a lot of material to read on the website also, check out our free dog training eBooks.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

Another Question:

Hi Cindy,

Thanks for your email and your advice. It's greatly appreciated. You are right. Tristan is an especially sensitive pup that's why I'm feeling quite at wits end what to do with him.

He has been clicker trained since he was 4months old, but I've just switched to marker training (after watching your basic Obedience DVD). It makes a lot of sense to me to harness the power of my voice than just a clicker. That said, I'm not saying that there is anything is wrong with the clicker. Just a personal choice. :)

The problem with his training before was that there was only the training phase, no correction or distraction phase. That's why the results I got from him was always very inconsistent. He's much better now when the correction phase is incorporated.

As for the marking the use of the prong collar, it is tough because he has already been corrected on it, so he knows the powers of it (so to speak). He knows there is a potential of being corrected when that collar is on vs just a flat collar. I'm now desensitiving him to the remote trainer I bought from your web site. I hope that goes well.

Yesterday I took him to the agility club on leash to just watch the action and hopefully correct him when he see the other dog that he hates a lot. I didn't plan to let him participate but his trainer asked him to do a run. The other dogs were in the crate. True enough, he jumped once and ran off banging on that particular dog in the crate to fight. And when he couldn't, he looked around the field for others to fight.

I have a question if you will indulge me. Do dogs make enemy of a PARTICULAR dog?!?! During our walks or even at a place with lots of dogs - all on leash) he has NEVER showed such aggression to any dog before. It's just this other Border Collie (who has fought him before). When they meet, they look like they are ready to kill..

I want to set up a situation to correct him on this, but the owner is not very cooperative. I really need this problem to be resolved because they participate in the same agility trials. There will be NO WAY to let my dog compete because I'm very sure now that if I ever let him off leash to run the course and if he even catch a glimpse of the other dog, he will leave the course and run off in the middle of the competition to start a fight.

If you have any suggestion to correct this behavior, I will greatly appreciate it.

I know you suggested to bring him to the field only when he is more obedient. He is 90% recallabe and is quite obedient normally. That's why I brought him to the field to just watch. Another point is, once I put the prong on him, He will avoid the other dog totally. It was when he was off the leash to run the course (His trainer does not believe in a long lead) that he went off to fight.

So I'm finding it very hard to correct him to show him that it's unacceptable to fight AT ALL. doesn't matter who.

Really appreciate your insight in this. Thanks!

Warmest regards,
Claudia

Another Answer:

There are dogs that do make enemies of a specific dog. With that said, I don’t allow my dogs to show aggression regardless. It’s a matter of me being in charge and controlling my dog at all times.

I really think that at 11 months old, your dog is not ready to be tested off leash especially since he’s showing aggression to other dogs. I don’t think I’d be in such a big hurry to put him in a position to make mistakes until he’s been working for you close to 100% with no incidence of aggression or disobedience.

I would NEVER bring a dog aggressive or easily stimulated dog to a field with other dogs working “just to watch.” When my dogs are with me they are expected to be mentally connected with me, not looking at other dogs and getting excited. I use other dogs working to proof my training, my dogs are not allowed free time to fixate on other dogs doing agility or any other type of activity. I have very high drive Malinois, and I do agility and other sports there are highly stimulating and because of the foundation I have put in place they focus on me even more intently when there are activities going on. They’ve learned that I am the most interesting person or thing around.

Cindy

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Question:

Hi,

I have a 3 ½ year old labradoodle. I only got her at 4 months and I know she wasn't socialized to people or other animals before then. I immediately got her into training and we were working on becoming a therapy dog team. When she was 17 months old she was attacked by a 3 year old Great Dane. It ran up from behind us sunk its teeth into her hind quarter. When I freed her, the dog then grabbed onto her tail and began to pull her away from me. I did get her free but she was bitten very severely to her hind quarter, since then she growls and barks at about 80% of the dogs that come within 6-8 inches of her. The only dogs she seems to do well with is dogs that aren't interested in dogs.

You know they give the cursory sniff and go about their business. Any dog that approaches her too quickly or wants to get too private too fast she growls and barks. She has no tolerance for Great Danes, if she sees one she begins to growl. I have tried desensitizing her but since there are no sacrificial puppies it's not like I can set up situations in which she responds positively to pups and gets rewarded.

What if she lunges and actually bites. I am concerned. Furthermore, I want her to still become a therapy dog but she would need to successfully do a meet and greet with other therapy dogs and at this point she couldn't handle it. Can you offer any insight?

Thanks
DC in Baltimore

Answer:

This is an unfortunate side affect of being attacked by another dog. Many dogs are dog aggressive for life after being attacked. Some dogs are more severely traumatized than others, and never seem to get over it. I own a 10 year old Corgi who was attacked as a pup and she is the only dog we own that really dislikes being in close proximity to any other dog. This is not a dog that would do well playing with a group of dogs or even being sniffed by other dogs. She's afraid and all we can do is protect her and let her know that this will not happen again.

The most important thing you can do is be a good leader and let your dog know that you won't let other dogs get in her space and make her feel worried. She needs to feel protected.

I suppose it's possible that a dog like this can become a therapy dog but I would not be focused on that goal with a dog that behaves like this. It's not really fair to her. I would focus on working with your dog in a way that makes her feel safe and if she then makes progress you can go forward with other goals. When I work with my animals I try to remember this saying "don't put your goals in front of your principles" My principles are to be fair to my dogs & horses and to listen to what they are telling me with their behavior. If at any time I lose sight of that and start to put them out of their comfort zone because of my own goals I give myself a reality check and re-evaluate. Your dog probably has no desire to be a therapy dog, I would imagine that this is your goal, not hers.

If this was my dog I would totally start over with her. I’d start with our Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off - Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

Dogs that have had fearful experiences love to have very predictable structure & routine and this is a way to show her that you are in charge of her and the space around her.

You may also want to spend some time searching the website; there is a lot of information about dog aggression after being attacked. Ed compares it to a woman who has been raped, who is then nervous and fearful of being around strangers. It's a completely normal and understandable way to behave when the world as you know if changes so dramatically without reason.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum.

I hope this helps you see things from her point of view.

Cindy

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Question:

I have two Heidleberg Shepherds from Heidleberg farms in Houston Texas, both 3 year old bitches. They have both been through off leash obedience training by trainers in Houston. We recently moved to Montana and the neighbor has goats and sheep (5). The owner came home to see his goat missing an ear and my dogs covered with blood and they had the goat cornered. He called my dogs who responded immediately but then wanted to go back to the goat. As a compromise I paid for the goats vet bill and shipped my dogs back to the trainer for remedial training. The trainer advised that the dogs would not attack his goat as long as someone present, but left alone the goat was lunch.

We have the dogs back and when watched they are great but if they are left alone, they go for the goats.

Do you recommend the wire basket muzzle? If so which size? The dogs measure 4 1/2 and 11 1/2 inch.

If you have any other suggestions on my goat eaters, it would be appreciated.

Leta

Answer:

Your trainer is right; someone should be supervising the dogs in order to safeguard the goats.

A muzzle won't do anything to change your dog's behavior, they can still severely injure a goat with a muzzle on. I've seen a dog actually break a grown man's leg while muzzled, and a goat is much smaller than a man. I'd love to sell you some muzzles, but they won't solve your problems.

I think you need to set up a secure kennel or fence to keep your dogs in, and work with them on learning that goats are a thing to be avoided.

I think you are lucky that your neighbor didn't kill your dogs, it's illegal for dogs to harass livestock in many states and the livestock owners are justified in shooting dogs that do so.

I'd recommend a refresher course in obedience with you (as opposed to sending them off somewhere) Pack Structure for the Family Pet, Basic Dog Obedience & Electric collar Training for the Pet Owner.

We have a section on our website about dogs who are aggressive to animals, you may want to spend some time reading there - http://leerburg.com/qadogfight.htm#killed

If you have any other questions, let me know.

Cindy

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Question:

Hi,

I just spent the last two afternoons watching your videos that arrived on Tuesday:  “Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs” and “Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet.” They are excellent! I have been doing everything wrong. I ordered these videos after my two German Shepherd bitches were in another fight this past Saturday.

To give you some background, I have kept them totally separate for the past six months since their last fight. I was terrified Saturday when my grandson came over and let both of my German Shepherd bitches out into the yard at the same time. Almost immediately they were in a fight. I managed to drag the younger one into the house by pulling up her back legs while my son held on to the other one. He did get bitten, but not too badly.

When I examined both of them later, they both had saliva-soaked- hair all around their necks and throats. I couldn’t find any bites. The way they were fighting, I thought one would get killed. Now today, in your video on Establishing Pack Structure, you showed a male German Shepherd and a female Malinois. If I remember correctly, he was the bi-color and she was three years old. You let them run together and at one point, they were rolling on the ground and grabbing throats. She was establishing her #1 rank position. You made the comment that if she wanted to bite him, she would have. This looked very similar to what my two girls looked like when they were rolling and thrashing each other on the ground. Could it be possible, that this, too, was a “rank” fight and not the killing fight that I thought it was since neither of them had bite marks on their throats and necks although they were soaked with saliva.?

My son and husband think it is too dangerous to keep both of them because accidents like this do happen even though I am so careful to keep them separated. They both are house dogs but I do have runs and crates to juggle them into.

These two females are half sisters. One is nine (spayed after the previous fight);  the other one is three years old.

After spending 7 ½ hours watching these videos, I know I am NOT the pack leader. The younger female knows obedience very well in class but if she is out in the yard and wants to stay out, she grabs her ball and runs away from me. It is impossible to catch her. I have stopped taking her to obedience classes at the club because she has gotten dog aggressive and I’m afraid she will go after another dog during the sits and downs. I’ve also stopped walking them for the same reason.

I also have a champion male stud dog. He usually runs in the yard with the three-year old. She is not spayed as she will be the one I breed next.  Do you think having an intact male is part of the reason for the girls’ behavior?

In your opinion, is there any hope that these two can get along without the constant anxiety and fear I experience every day?

I have been breeding German Shepherds for over 20 years and at one time had six of them in the house and never had any fights.

Thank you in advance for any help and direction you can give me. I have been unsuccessful in finding a good behaviorist to work with me and these dogs.

Patricia

Answer:

If you are willing to do the work to establish leadership things can improve but there are some dogs that can never get along without constant supervision. I would follow the protocol outlined in our groundwork article and DVDs you received.  

Fights typically escalate if you don’t do something to prevent them, and unfortunately bitch fights tend to be the worst.

I’ll also add that if you are feeling anxiety and fear, the dogs will pick up on the energy you have and will be MORE likely to fight.

Cindy

Follow Up:

Hi Cindy,

Thank you for answering my email. Since I wrote last week, I have been seriously working with these dogs every day, every chance I get beginning with taking them out of their crates with a leash and out of their runs with a leash. The 9-year old has always been too excitable when entering the house. I never thought I could correct it. After watching the DVD and listening to Ed say he won’t put up with “stupid behavior,” I no longer allow her to come charging in the house and spin herself in circles like a fool. In just a few days with her being on the leash, she has learned to sit quietly to come out of her run, sit before she enters the doorway and only entering it after me; then, she has to sit in the entry way until she is totally quiet. I can’t believe the difference in her.

As for the 3-year old running away from me in the yard….no more! She has the electric collar on each and every time she goes out.

I know this will take time and consistency but I can see such a change in their behavior already that I am now optimistic. I’m following the instructions one by one and will continue to review and implement them.

Your last line was interesting about the dogs picking up the energy that I display. When my grandson opened the door, I freaked out and started screaming. No wonder they immediately got in a fight. I’m trying very hard to remain calm and assertive without the fear.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to let them run together, but I hope I get them to the point where they can tolerate each other without creating tension.

Thank you again,
Patricia

Response:

Patricia, it sounds like you are on the right track! Good work. Keep me posted on your progress.

Cindy

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Question:

Hello,

I have been training an adolescent rescued Belgian Malinois, with four other people, to be a service dog. He (Cade) has, however, recently shown extreme dog aggression that has created a road block for Cade and threatened his future as a pet. So, he has sent three large dogs to the vet with punctures or open wounds. He's attacked over toys (twice on-leash and twice off), and once trying to "protect" someone from another dog, a nonthreatening dog. We've consulted a behavorist, he's great when he's working, he just can't play. We have tried to set him up with a mizzle and ecollar, but he checks out when he jumps the other dogs. His eyes dart to the side and he launches, but he gives no warnings (hair up, teeth, growling, etc.). I really would like your input because of how much promise this Cade shows as a working dog, although he will never be what we wanted as a service dog since he's too challenging for that situation. He needs to be broken of this behaivor before we can rehome him, we will do anything. He won't attack a dog once he's been ecollared for bullying so I hope he can get past this. Please let me know if you think of anything we can try.

M M

Answer:

So I'll ask this question--why do you think Cade needs to play with other dogs? Dogs don't need to play with other dogs, especially dogs from outside their family pack. It really isn't a normal behavior for many dogs. For dogs that show me loud and clear that they aren't interested in being friend with other dogs, my goal is for them to be neutral. I don't want them to be friendly with other dogs nor do I want them to be aggressive, merely neutral.

Although you aren't taking him to dog parks, I suggest you read this article on dog parks.

From your description, he sounds worried about the dogs so by putting him repeatedly in situations where he feels he has no choice, he becomes aggressive. Many dogs do the opposite and shut down. This is where the handler needs to be very observant and learn to read their dog. I don't allow ANY dogs from outside my family approach my dogs, ever. Even if it's a dog I know is friendly and even if I know my dog would probably enjoy meeting him, I protect my "pack of two." It's good leadership and goes a long way to making my dog more relaxed and confident, he knows I'm not going to allow any situations that may make him feel the need to be aggressive.

By using the muzzle and ecollar for this, you've actually made the problem worse. He's now dealing with the use his mouth taken away and he's being corrected. For what? For being worried about other dogs. Guess what this does? Makes him MORE worried and now he doesn't give all the warning signals, because he's learned it doesn't matter. It's a learned helplessness of sorts.

You don't mention how old this dog is, but I'd start with our Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off - Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

I'd start completely over with him, and teach him that he will be protected. I would not put him in any situations that make him feel the need to show aggression. If you do need to correct him, I would follow the guidelines in this DVD, and not use the ecollar for this right now - Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A's and posts on our forum.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

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Question:

Dear Cindy,

I am just about at my wits end. I have three German Shepherds, Mom, Dad and son. Dad is 7 years old and my gentle giant. He weight 125 lbs. and is very laid back. However he is alpha. Son is 18 months old, 100 lbs. and thinks he is the new stud on the block. They all got along really well until Max (son) was a year old then he started to test Boaz (dad). I have to keep them separated as there have already been four serious fights. I have tried just about everything I can think of and do not want to have Max neutered and cannot have Boaz neutered, for health reasons.

They are all AKC with good hips and I have raised shepherds for years and this is a first for me.

Any suggestions???

Thank you for listening.

Susan

Answer:

Neutering wouldn’t fix this problem, no matter what a vet tells you. Dominance is not fixed by castration; it’s fixed by offering these dogs the leadership they need. This is completely normal dog pack behavior BUT when dogs act like this they lack leadership from their owners. In other words their owners don’t understand how important pack drive is in how they raise their dogs.

Owners of dogs like yours underestimate the genetic power of  "PACK DRIVE." Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership a dog NEEDS then they will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way; your dogs simply need guidance and rules.

If you want to fix a problem like this you can but it takes some work.  You will need to work with all the dogs, I’d start with our Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off - Pack Structure for the Family Pet DVD.

Here is a DVD that I would recommend titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs.

If you go to the link on this DVD you can read about what it covers. You will also see a detailed outline of what’s in the video.

If you do some reading on our website, you’ll see this same issue discussed hundreds of times. It’s totally predictable when dogs are allowed to work things out for themselves.  The young dog starts maturing and tries to move up in the pack rank.

I think if you read some of the questions and answers here, you’ll recognize your situation in the emails from others.

Cindy

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Question:

Hi,

Our un-neutered 2-year old female GSD is extremely aggressive toward other dogs.  Thankfully she is not aggressive towards humans at all. It has gotten to the point that we can’t allow the kids to walk her for fear of dragging them to attach another neighborhood dog, and yesterday she yanked the leash out of my wife’s hand and attacked a dog.

In my best estimation… the aggression stems from an abortive attempt to do Schutzhund training with her. Our training director… a German with 30 years of Schutzhund training experience…would have the dogs run free on the field together for 20 minutes or so prior to training. Ellie started this training when she was 10 or 11 months old and of course the other dogs would show a lot of dominance toward her (growling, chasing her back to her crate). This was my mistake… I never should have allowed these dogs to do this to her… and the other owners didn’t make many moves to correct their dogs either.

I was unable to keep up with the demands that Schutzhund training put on the family schedule, and no longer train with the group. However…her aggressiveness toward other dogs is now firmly engrained. Of course I never allow her off leash when other dogs are around, but will allow her to run off leash with a Leerburg muzzle when I walk her in the wee small hours of the morning.

Can you please suggest a training regimen that I can get started with? Remember, she has never shown an ounce of aggression toward humans, only other dogs. I don’t need all the answers in one email, just something to get me started on this project. I owe this to the dog and to my family.

Thanks very much.

Answer:

Hi,

I’d start by reading some of the information on the website about dog/animal aggression.  It’s unfortunate that the trainer you used to go to put the dogs in the position he did.  It’s beyond foolish and as you have found out, has lasting repercussions.  I’ve never heard of such a thing in all my years of being involved in dog training.  Being from Germany and having 30 years experience doesn’t mean this guy knows anything about how to bring along a dog which is a shame because it’s already done the damage to your dog.  I’d like to give this guy a piece of my mind, what he does is ridiculous and DANGEROUS.

Anyway, your dog needs to understand that YOU will not tolerate any aggression towards other dogs.  YOU are the boss, and you say if and when she needs to be aggressive. I believe that this DVD could really help you. It’s titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project.

Even though she’s not showing aggression to humans, you may want to consider our groundwork program for her at first.  It’s a great way to change a dog’s mindset and get them in a follower frame of mind.  

I’m sure sorry that this had to happen to you and your dog.  I think with work you will be able to manage her as long as you are alert for the signs that she’s becoming tense.  The key to this is interrupting and stopping her when the thought first starts to pop into her head.  If you wait until she’s already lunging, it’s too late to be effective.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

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Question:

I'm a little chagrined asking for free advice but I can't seem to find this situation discussed anywhere.

Is there such a thing as a mid-life testosterone rush in dogs? My dog's behavior has changed in a matter of days.

Johann, my 4-yr-old male neutered German shepherd has always been docile and playful toward all dogs--and philosophical with the ones who lash out at him. But he suddenly became aggressive toward intact males last week--twice at the dog park and once on a walk. It took me a bit to see the pattern. A couple of days later, he lifted his leg and began to mark for the very first time in his life! Then today, unprovoked, he went after a neutered male.

What is going on???

I am using the usual methods of correction, and I am staying away from the dog park for the time being.

This change has been so sudden. I can think of no incident that might have precipitated this. He's the same otherwise, hasn't been attacked by another dog, no health problems, no diet changes, no upset on the home front, still respects me as the alpha, still sweet as can be with people and most dogs.

It HAS to be a case of hormones kicking in, even though he is neutered and definitely an adult. His adrenalin is so high during these incidents that he doesn't even hear me or react to my intervention. If this is biological, I can't imagine a way I can correct this.

Help me find my sweet Johann again!
Thanks so much!
Ellen

Answer:

I believe this is more a matter of dominance than hormones. If your dog is neutered then there is no way it can be a testosterone rush. (unless your dog had a retained testicle that wasn't removed).

I would stay out of dog parks altogether, I don't believe they are a very good idea.
I suggest you read this article on Dog Parks.

How often do you have this dog vaccinated? Showing sudden aggression, changes of personality like this are often linked to the rabies vaccine. You can google this for more information. Most of the dogs in this country are way over vaccinated and many health issues are linked to the vaccines. Whenever there is a sudden change in behavior like this I believe it warrants a check up with a COMPETENT veterinarian who is trained in alternative therapies. A traditional allopathic vet that pumps animals full of vaccines is not going to even acknowledge that this is a possibility. They don't want to endanger their "bread & butter" in many cases.

We have a list of vets that has been compiled by our customers and you can see it here. We are providing this list as a service; please do your own research into any health care provider you choose for your dogs.

I'd also take the time and evaluate how you are living with your dog and the level of leadership you are offering your dog at all times. My dogs would never be allowed to be in a position to fight with another dog because I'm the leader at all times.

You might like to review our Groundwork program.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A's and posts on our forum.

If you are new to our website, you may be interested in taking a look at our weekly newsletter.

Cindy

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Question:

Good Evening,

We are raising two females at my home. One is a pit bull and the other is a mix which we were told had pit in her but we don't see it. We have two small children, 11 and 7 years old. We are currently having a problem with what we think is dominance but we aren't sure. We had our mix pit (named Daisy) first and have had her since she was a pup. She is now 1 1/2 years and we got our 4 yr old pit less than a year ago. They have been in three fights since we got Lexi (the 4 year old pit).  We are a bit lost because we don't know who to turn to that specializes in pit bulls and raising two females at one time. Daisy (the 1/12 yr old) is always trying to play with her (or it looks like it at least) and is grabbing her scruff and trying to wrestle with her. Lexi and her appear to play fine usually. The first two fights were because of toys and we have removed all toys but we aren't sure if that was the right thing to do rather than teach them the right way to have toys together. This last fight was because they were getting riled up from neighborhood kids and they started fighting for a reason that we don't know because we weren't there to see what actually happened. 

What we aren't sure of is because of them both being females, does it make sense to try to fix this problem or should we be thinking of rehoming one of our dogs? We do no know of any professionals other than the SPCA and we have a call into her as well. We feel this is a dominance problem but we can't be sure because we don't know of anyone who can come to the house to observe what is happening. We are afraid for our children's safety and their friends and want to correct the problem if it is fixable.

Can you offer any assistance with this problem?

Best Regards,
Sam

Answer:

If you are willing to separate the dogs and put in the work to train them separately it can work although sometimes dogs can’t ever be trusted together without supervision. If you can’t put it in the one on one time with each dog, and don’t have the ability to separate them then it would be best to rehome one of them.

Fighting between 2 dogs of the same sex, in the same house is a common issue. The problems you are seeing are the result of the way you live with your dogs.  When dogs act like this they lack leadership from their owners. In other words their owners don’t understand how important pack drive is in how they raise their dogs.

Owners of dogs like yours underestimate the genetic power of "PACK DRIVE." Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership your dogs NEEDS then they will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way. Your dogs are not behaving badly out of spite or stubbornness; your dogs are simply being dogs, and they need  some guidance and rules.

If you want to fix a problem like this you can but it takes some work. I’d start with our Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off - Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

Here is a DVD that I would recommend titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs. If you go to the link on this DVD you can read about what it covers. You will also see a detailed outline of what’s in the video.

I’d also recommend that you have muzzles for each dog to wear during the training process.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum. You also may be interested in our free ebooks on training.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

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Question:

Hello,

I've been searching your site on dog dominance, but can't seem to find quite what I'm looking for.

I recently adopted a third standard poodle (male), and after just one month, he and my two females are getting along really well. I  have had no growling, no "arguments," no dominance issues between the new guy, and the other two. My two females have always gotten along so very well, which is why we got a third, and so far, the new boy is fitting in so nicely!  I've been reading your articles on pack structure, and they help!

Here's the weird thing though: My three year old female,has started climbing on my seven year old female (they are both spayed)... she keeps licking her eyes, her ears...and sometimes I catch her her "hovering" ramrod straight around her. The older dog puts up with it, but I'm starting to notice that she's acting alittle skittish around the younger one now. They used to play ALL the time, now the older one's not really interested.  

What on EARTH could change this behavior in my younger girl? I've had to do some pretty tough corrections to make her leave Tasha alone--and yet nothing the new dog does bugs her!! Could Maya be reacting in some strange way to the new dog, through the older one? This makes no sense.

I appreciate any help, I'm a fan,

Thanks,
Cathy

Answer:

This is absolutely because of the third dog. It makes perfect sense if you understand dog psychology. Adding a third dog completely changes the dynamics. What you are seeing are posturing and the warning signs of a fight brewing.

Introducing Dogs is the article I would read and I would tighten up the structure and control on all the dogs now.  Don’t wait until you have a fight.

Think about how 2 kids play nicely until a 3rd kid is added to the mix. It changes how everyone relates to each other. We have horses too, and they are the same. 2 horses do fine, add a 3rd and watch everything change. Your 3 year old dog is claiming the dominant spot over the 7 year old, which she may never have felt compelled to do when it was just the two of them. 

I’d be doing our groundwork with ALL the dogs, not just the new one and not just the 3 year old.

Here’s the Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off -  Pack Structure for the Family Pet. 

I would never let these dogs all together unsupervised and I would make sure I had leashes on them so I could control whatever situation may occur.

We have tons of information on pack structure and dominance on the website. I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum. 

Cindy

6 Hours After Cindy's Initial Advice:

Cindy,

Thanks for your quick response... unfortunately, for me, I waited too long to write to you.  My girls got into a HUGE fight tonight, lots of blood,  someone's ear was cut. I could hardly separate them. My newest dog, the male was in his crate, so wasn't involved.

My girls have NEVER done this, so you can understand how devastated, upset and scared I am. I ordered your DVD, and for tonight, sent my oldest dog to my friends house, because I"m so nervous about what to do next.

Could you help me until your DVD comes? Do I let the girls around each other? I was trying to correct Maya when she was posturing around tasha, I'd give her a good tug on her collar, told her NO firmly---but she'd keep doing it until I forcibly moved her. The fight happened after I put them in my bedroom, which I've done for three years, and it was behind closed doors so I don't know how it started.

My corrections obviously weren't enough. What do I do now? They did see one another before I sent tasha out... and HA! wagged their tails at one another. I thought I understood dogs, but I'm officially clueless now.

I really don't want to have to get rid of our new dog in order to restore peace. He was a rescue, and we are his fifth home, and he's been no trouble at all.  

Do you have a moment to send some advice my way?

Thanks,
Upset beyond belief,
Cathy

Answer:

I’m sorry to hear about the fight but certainly not surprised. The best advice I can give is to follow the groundwork article I sent you in my original email, do this with ALL dogs.  You’ll need 3 crates and a new mindset. I’d also recommend dominant dog collars, at least for the females. Your dogs should not be allowed together without supervision any more, maybe not ever (whether you keep the male or not). Taking 2 dogs who were displaying the kind of posturing they were and then putting them together behind closed doors was a big mistake as you found out.

Corrections once the dogs are already posturing don’t usually do much. Your dogs require much more leadership from you, all day, every day.

Owners of dogs like yours underestimate the genetic power of "PACK DRIVE." Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership a dog NEEDS then he or she will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way.

I’m not sure which DVD you ordered? I really still recommend Pack Structure for the Family Pet but since you’ve now had a full blown fight you’re going to need Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs. It shows you how to correct the dogs properly when they start to show the signals (which can be very subtle).

I’d spend a lot of time reading on our website, your problem is a common one and there is so much information there that you can be studying while you start your dogs over. There is also an article on how to break up a dog fight. Use the search box on the upper left corner.

Cindy

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Question:

I have two male Yorkshire Terriers that are 10 years old. They both were brought into the house at the same time (Christmas) when they were 3 and six months. 

They have fought since they were six months. They are cousins (their fathers were brothers).

It is definately a dominance thing but lately they are having many fights (3 in the last two weeks). When they fight they cannot be separated and it is very scary.  Sometimes injury occurs.

We are in the Philadelphia area and about 5 years ago we had taken them to the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary Clinic to have a $500.00 sessions with a behavioral dog phychologist to no avail.

They were both neutered at 6 months but that did not seem to help. One is roughly 10 lbs and they other is 13 pounds. Of course, the 13 pounder has the advantage but that does not stop the smaller one who is the most aggressive.

I know I should get rid of one but they are like members of the family. When they fight if it is summer we throw them in the pool and in the winter when the pool is closed we throw them in the koi pond to break them up.

I know we have done about everything wrong that we could of but we have tried so many things over the years but nothing seems to work. Sometimes they go for 6 - 9 months without a fight but then other times we are walking around on egg shells with them.

I really don't know what DVD we should purchase because they are not socialized and never have been with other dogs because we know they don't get along with each other and are afraid to let them in the company of other dogs.

Please help us deal with this problem - do you think they would benefit from medication to calm them or isn't that necessary?

Thank you for your time,
Peggy

Answer:

Your dogs have been fighting for NINE years? These dogs don’t need medication, they need leadership and structure. The problems you are seeing are the result of the way you live with your dogs. When dogs act like this they lack leadership from their owners. In other words their owners don’t understand how important pack drive is in how they raise their dogs.

Owners of dogs like yours underestimate the genetic power of  "PACK DRIVE." Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership a dog NEEDS then he or she will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way. The fact that they have been doing as they please for the last nine years will make this a little more challenging for YOU, but it can be done.

If you want to fix a problem like this you can but it takes some work. I’d start with our Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off - Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

Here is a DVD that I would recommend titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs. If you go to the link on this DVD you can read about what it covers. You will also see a detailed outline of what’s in the video.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum. 

Cindy

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Question:

Hi there.

We have four dogs in our household.  A Male Neutered Standard Poodle (2 1/2 years old); a Female In Tact English Bull Dog (will be two in July); and two 13 month old Black Russian Terriers.  A recently neutered (8 weeks ago) male and an in tact female.  The Black Russians are littermates.

We are having problems with our 13 month old Male Black Russian (100lbs) named Ralph.  He is a bully and aggressive with the Poodle and the Bull Dog.  He doesn't mess with his sister (the other Black Russian).  He has attacked and jumped on the poodle and the bull dog on several occasions.  Between attacks (which have been very minor and has only once nicked the bull dogs nose), he is a bully and circles around the dogs, etc.  I have tried everything and feel like I have come to the right place finally.  This all started after thanksgiving which was when he was 7 months old.

He has been to basic puppy obedience and is currently attending a weekly Schutzhund class.  My goal with the Schutzhund class is obedience only, not tracking or bite work (for obvious reasons).

The other issues I have with Ralph he lunges and barks at other dogs, cars, bicycles or anything that moves quickly when on leash.  He has never shown any type of aggression to family members.  At least not yet.  He did nip someone that came into our house without knocking.

What DVDs and training materials would you suggest that I begin with.  I have your DVD on Dominant and Aggressive Dogs that I am starting and Establishing Pack Structure. 

Also, could I use a muzzle in the house under supervision to protect the other dogs while training is underway?

Thanks for your help.

Michelle

Answer:

I’d start with our Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off - Pack Structure for the Family Pet DVD.

Pack structure first, then DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS DVD.

I’d recommend a dominant dog collar and a muzzle for now. We absolutely recommend muzzles while working through these issues, for everyone’s safety. Once you get things ironed out, you may want to consider going to an electric collar for off leash control work.  That will be a ways down the road though, but something to think about.

Electric collar Training for the Pet Owner DVD

I hope this helps.

Cindy

Another Question:

Which muzzle would you suggest, the cage type?

Michelle

Answer:

Either the wire cage type or the Jafco.  My own dogs prefer the wire muzzle, better ventilation.

Cindy

Another Question:

Thank you so much.  I am going to get started right away. Do you think these behaviors are fixable at the age in Ralph's life as long as I follow you guys to the tee and put forth the effort or do you think they are just manageable?

Michelle

Answer:

Having multiple dogs is all about management. My dogs are “’managed” from day 1 but I have no doubt that if I ever slacked off on the structure I would have problems like so many people do. A dog pack (3 or more dogs) is a constantly changing entity, not something you fix and then it’s done.  Dogs are projects, and multiple dogs are more challenging. 

My dogs can be managed by a look from me or a verbal warning, because they’ve been managed from the beginning. With consistent training and awareness from all the people who live with your dogs it can be this way as well but I tell people that you can never really consider your training “done.” Leadership for dogs, especially strong working bloodline dogs, is a lifestyle and an attitude more than an activity you perform once in a while.

Cindy

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Question:

Hello,

We have, currently, 5 pit bulls in our household: 3 male and 2 female. 1 of the females is fixed, the other is the mother to the 3 males. All are pure bred. We've always had a little aggression with the males (the are just 6 months now, the last three out of a litter of 8) but n0othing major until recently. When preparing two of the puppies for their walks, Cocoa, the largest of the males, charged from the back porch and attacked his brother violently. We had a hard time even prying him off. They both calmed down, and the walk was uneventful. After the walk, they were both getting a drink and Boo (the second largest of the boys) was across the room from Cocoa, back turned as he was returning to his kennel. Cocoa charged across the room and attacked him again. It took 3 adults to break up the fight, and resulted in a trip to the emergency vet for boo due to a heavily bleeding gash on his leg, bite marks on the leg, foot and neck. Cocoa received a cut on his ear in the fight. Neither attack was provoked, nor was there any forewarning that the attacks were going to happen. While breaking up the fight, Boo settled immediatly when they were seperated, Cocoa took a nip at me but didn't cause any real damage. Currently the dogs are seperated, but Cocoa will growl and snarl when he sees the other dogs..not all the time though, sometimes he wags his tail and is the freindly, loving Cocoa we've always known. It's as if he has some hair trigger and suddenly lunges and tries to attack the other dogs (male or female) without warning, and then will be fine again seeing the same dog not 5 minutes later.

On the visit to the emergency vets, we explained what had happened, and that we have a petite 7 year neice also living in the house. The vet recommended we consider having Cocoa put down, or we place him in a household with no other pets or children and are well aware that we can held liable for any damage he causes, since we are aware of the hair triggered temper. My sister is even concerned with placing him with anyone smaller in stature or lightweight, since the puppies are already 50lbs+ @ 6 months of age.

The vet was very kind, and tried to be comforting. I need some honest advice, though, and to know if this dog should be put down or if there's some of rememdy that we're not aware off. We do not want any other dogs, or any person hurt.

Thank you,
Fred

Answer:

You’ve got a dog pack on your hands, and you need to get a handle on managing them or things will only get worse.

If you spend some time reading this section, you’ll see that your problems are very common. I’ve received 6 or 7 emails just today from dog owners with very similar problems. If you don’t teach the dogs your rules, they can’t possibly behave how you want them to.

I’d start with our Groundwork program for every single dog in your house and the video that picks up where the article leaves off.  Pack Structure for the Family Pet. 

I believe that this DVD could really help you. It’s titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project.

The problems you are seeing are the result of the way you live with your dogs.  When dogs act like this they lack leadership from their owners. In other words their owners don’t understand how important pack drive is in how they raise their dogs.

Owners of dogs like yours underestimate the genetic power of  "PACK DRIVE." Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership a dog NEEDS then he or she will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way.  Your dog is not behaving badly out of spite or stubbornness; your dog is simply being a dog, a dog that needs some guidance and rules.

I personally can’t handle a group of 5 dogs that are allowed to behave as they wish, so I doubt the average pet owner can do so.  It may be a good idea to rehome one or more of the dogs but that still doesn’t mean you don’t need to work with all of them.  Merely separating them and not offering any leadership will do nothing to remedy this situation.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum. 

Cindy

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Question:

Cindy:

I have a 15 month old female German Shepherd that is extremely dog reactive.

When I have her out for a walk and she sees another dog she starts screaming – I don’t know how else to describe it. People come out of their houses because they think that a dog has been hurt. She also pulls and is only focused on the other dog. 

This is what I am currently doing to try and stop this behavior:

1. I have had private sessions with a trainer and introducing her to other dogs. She is not allowed to great the other dog until she is calm. Once the initial greeting is over, she is much calmer and the screaming stops.
2. Now, she is in a group intro to agility class. However, she can’t participate fully because of her behavior. The purpose is to get her to work for me and focus on the obstacles vs. the other dogs.  She is able to focus on the obstacles. However, when we first arrive at class and she sees the other dogs, she goes nuts – screaming, pulling etc.
3. I try to get her to focus on me before it escalates to the screaming point, however she has zero interest in anything else – food or toys.
4. We do obedience daily.
5. She gets 2 walks everyday.
6. We play fetch daily

I am so frustrated at this point and don’t know what else to do. There are so many things I want to do with her, but can’t because of how she reacts when other dogs are around. 

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Melissa

Answer:

I’m going to make a couple of recommendations.  First you need to address the correct way to handle her when she becomes out of control around other dogs.  I’d completely avoid any type of classes that introduce her to other dogs.  This is not going to help your issues and may actually make them worse.  For dogs like yours, they need to learn to be indifferent to other dogs, not friendly with them. You don’t want the reward for any behavior to be another dog, especially if you want to pursue agility or any other dog sport where you want your dog focused on you.

For the dog reactivity, I’d recommend a strict restructuring program in and around the house. Start with our groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off, Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

For the screaming and out of control behavior, you need to be able to block and stop this behavior BEFORE it escalates.  By the time your dog is screaming, you’ve already missed your window of opportunity to let her know that’s not allowed. Good dog training is about being one step ahead of the dog and giving the dog something else to do with herself, instead of the negative behavior. I like to teach my dogs to look at me, or lay down with eye contact on command. This way if I scan the horizon and see something I know will be challenging for my dog I can give him something to do that he WANTS to do and he knows bring rewards.  In the meantime, you need to know how to manage her when she has an episode of pulling/screaming.

I’d recommend a dominant dog collar and Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs.

For teaching the focus and interaction with you for future training should be started at home in a no distraction zone.  You are literally going to have to teach your dog how to focus and learn first before you can expect her to do this in an agility class.  Don’t continue to put her in a class situation until you have a handle on the aggression/reactivity and have taught her to engage and focus on you.

I would recommend using markers to teach her the very basics first.

The Power of Training Dogs with Markers

The Power of Training Dogs with Food

You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you, but if you don’t try to skip any steps and really concentrate on the small details now I think you may be able to get your dog into the proper state of mind.  Just remember to stop letting her rehearse behaviors you don’t want. This means no more classes that have other dogs in attendance right now. If you continue to let her practice the unstable and reactive behaviors, you won’t be able to reach any of your training goals now or in the future.

Learn to use the search function (located in the left hand corner of every page on our website). Simply type in your search terms or key words and you will be directed to articles, question & answers, free streaming videos and posts on our forum.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

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Question:

Hi Ed,

Earlier this year I emailed you with a raw-feeding question, via a Yahoo Group (I think), and of course you were nice enough to respond!  I'm sure you don't remember me, but anyway, the raw feeding is going great with our four dogs.  :)

Only by accident did I come across your Leerburg website today, while Googling for information on the dominance issue we are now having with our two female littermates, 14 months old, lab/chow mix.  I only made the connection that you were the person I emailed about raw feeding when I saw the photo of your dog's food bowls in the article you wrote on pack structure!

Anyway, I want to ask you which of your books or DVDs would you recommend for our specific issue?  A little history... we rescued these two pups in November of 2008 from a litter of eight. They were 7 weeks old at the time. They were brought into our home which already consisted of my husband and me, a 7 year old female golden retriever, 6 year old female chocolate lab, and a 12 year old cat... all spayed. Other than typical puppy issues times two, and a couple of occasions of (seemingly minor) food aggression between the puppies (which prompted us to begin feeding them crated, separately), all was great.  But around their 9 month age, all heck broke loose, and we had three incidents of severe fighting, with resulting minor cuts and gashes. Two of these incidents happened when I was home alone with the dogs, the adult dogs were in another room, or outdoors, and I was FREAKED OUT by the fight and only got them separated by pinning one down to the floor with a barstool. The other incident happened when my husband was home alone with them, and unfortunately he was bitten, clean through a knuckle. After that incident, we hired a trainer experienced in behavior modification (Karen, whom we knew slightly, through a friend), and she began with basic obedience (heel, sit/stay, down/stay, etc), all of which the puppies learned very well. But then she began working with them on "reintroduction" to each other, over a few weeks period. (I forgot to mention that between our first phone call to Karen and the first appointment with her, we had been keeping the pups completely separated, per her instructions... only one outdoors at a time, always crated indoors, even leash-walked from crate to outdoors, etc) -- well, anyway, the reintroduction seemed to go well in the beginning, at first both on leash, always with Karen present, walks around the block to tire them out first, transitioning to leashed time together in the living room, for simple down/stay time... and then some yard time with one on leash and the other roaming loose. Well, this is where fights began again, and we simply gave up on scheduling further sessions with Karen. Now it's to the point that they can't even LOOK at each without going into fight mode (occasionally they will catch sight of each other when my husband and I are bringing one indoors while the other is being taken outdoors, again always on leash). They are fully separated 100% of the time, no physical contact of any kind. This is taking a huge toll on our home life, daily routines, etc. My husband and I have run through all the emotions, and scenarios, even to the point of discussing finding a new home for one of them. We absolutely don't want to pursue that option, and so are hoping to try again with training. So that brings me to my questions... would you recommend continued professional training? Or will we be able to learn how to fix this from your books/DVDs? Many, MANY friends have suggested letting them work it out between themselves, but my fear is that one will die if a fight is allowed to continue... although I also would like to ask your opinion on muzzling them and letting them go at it until it's resolved? The reason I ask this is because I realize now (from all my internet research, and from your website) that we didn't handle pack structure correctly from the very beginning -- we didn't know that the pups wouldn't just learn all they needed to know about rank from our very-well-adjusted adult dogs. Both pups clearly know their rank with both adult dogs, and although they do follow our basic obedience commands, they clearly do NOT listen to us when they're fighting, or even if they're about to start fighting (one of the pups actually seems to be TRIGGERED to attack the other one when my husband or I move to stop the fight, no matter if our move is verbal or by touch... she just attacks the other one!) So, it seems to me that they never established rank between the two of them.  Is it too late for that to happen?

I apologize for the very long email. I am at my wits end, and truly devastated over the situation. I've emailed Cesar Milan's website (no response), done tons of research, etc.  Another thing I wanted to mention... sessions with Karen were fabulous WHEN SHE WAS HERE... but my husband travels quite a bit for his job, and I am simply unable to follow through on the training assignments that Karen recommended while home by myself... (both pups on leash in the same room, or walking them around the block at the same time). So, when he's on the road, I continue to separate them, thereby gaining nothing in the area of trying to reintroduce them to each other. Any help/advice/direction you can give is GREATLY appreciated!! Thank you, thank  you!!!

Gina

Answer:

I’m going to be honest and say if you can’t follow through on the training protocol your trainer recommended or work with these dogs consistently, it may be best to rehome one of them.  Managing dogs like this is something best dealt with on a daily basis, it’s not a weekend only activity or something you do when you have free time. It needs to be worked on daily. There is also a possibility that these 2 dogs may NEVER be able to be safely together without hyper vigilant supervision.

I wouldn’t worry about the pups establishing rank with each other and would worry more about them looking at you and your husband as leaders. YOU are the ones they should be looking to for direction, and how they feel about each other is not for them to act on.  In other words, even if they don’t like each other you are the leader and leaders don’t allow fighting between the pack members. Period.

When dogs act like this they lack leadership from their owners. In other words their owners don’t understand how important pack drive is in how they raise their dogs.

Owners of dogs like yours underestimate the genetic power of  "PACK DRIVE."  Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership a dog NEEDS then he or she will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way

If you want to fix a problem like this it takes a LOT of work. I’d start out with our groundwork program. I’d also recommend the video that picks up where the groundwork article leaves off; Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

Here is a 3 ½ hour DVD that I would also recommend titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs. If you go to the link on this DVD you can read about what it covers. You will also see a detailed outline of what’s in the video.

If you spend some time reading this section on dog fights, you’ll see that your problems are very common. I’ve received 6 or 7 emails just today from dog owners with very similar problems.

You can try using the search function on the website to find the answer to any additional questions.  It is located in the left hand corner of every page on our website. Simply type in your search terms or key words and you will be directed to articles, question & answers, free streaming videos and posts on our forum.

I hope this helps. Cindy

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Comment:

Ed,

Thanks for your excellent article on dogs parks and in particular on how to break up a dog fight without being injured.  (I only wish I had read it before my golden retriever Storm and I were attacked by a very large pit bull at a campground on Labor Day weekend). The 150# mix dragged a 12 year old out of their campsite and across the road to get at my leashed dog. A dog that size should have been attached to a tree, not a 90# kid. I don't have pictures but I should not have jumped in to try and equalize the fight. Got a few really good bites and some nasty scratches. My dog Storm got a minor bit on his ear.

The problem is that each time this happens it makes my dog really worry about another dog's intentions when they approach. Thankfully my dog is whistle trained and will pretty much ignore other dogs at the park when we are playing. I still don't ever let him meet other dogs off leash. The guy with the pit bull was on his phone and came over after the fight was broken up.

He claimed that his dog never started a fight and that my dog must have done something. I tried to explain to him that in Wisconsin a police report is required when a dog attacks a person. I tried to explain how dangerous it might be if a small child walked up to his dog and was attacked. I explained to him that things sometimes happen and that I wanted to be sure it didn't happen again as the next time someone might sue  him for all that his trailer was worth. He got very defensive and wanted to "take care" of any legal issues right now (about the same attitude as his dog had). From now on I will take your advice and bring a walking stick to the dog park.

Thanks for the really good advice that you have posted for free, I have a few things that I will use to re-enforce my dog's good behavior...and to the several people who were abusive to you on your website, (probably aggressive dog owners) if your dog is out of control and off leash in a public area, it better not come after my on leash under control dog. I will make very sure it Never does it again.

Thanks,
D. G.

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Question:

Dear Mr. Leerburg,

My name is Daniel Noguera and I own a 2 years old Vizsla named Diego. While looking online for tools to correct my dog’s problems I found your website and numerous excellent resources. However, I’m still confused about what my best alternative will be among your resources to address my dog’s unwanted behavior; therefore, I’m hoping to get some assistance from you. To do so, I will describe some of my dog’s issues.

• Diego does not trust new dogs coming up to him and if they get close enough Diego will attack.
• Even when Diego let other dogs sniff him he seems tense you can tell by how rigid he looks and the hair in his neck. However, this usually doesn’t let to a fight unless the other dog tries to mount him. Diego keeps this sniffing rituals very short.  
• Diego will not bark or show any signs of stress/aggression when dogs are not close to him, only when dogs are in his personal space.
• Diego will fight any dog (outside his pack or dogs he knows) who tries to get a tennis ball from him at the dog park, especially when he drops the ball and is waiting for me to pick it up.
• Diego sometimes will chase other dogs running until they stop running. If the dog doesn’t stop running he could and has attacked.
• Diego will attack if a dog (outside his pack or dogs he knows) is chasing after him.
• Diego will not drink water with other dogs, but would not let other dogs drink water with him. This will be a cause for a fight
• Diego has never attack or show aggression to humans.

I recognize how some of the problems developed. For example, Diego was roughed up too aggressively when he was a puppy and he for the first time showed aggression. I did not discipline Diego then since I was trying to get the aggressor away from Diego and I thought at that point Diego was saying “Enough.” Ever since he is very selective with the dogs he allows being in his personal space. The tennis ball has become an issue ever since Diego started enjoying more playing fetch; the ball has become an important resource. I’m not sure why he protects the water bowl, I never seen any problems leading to that behavior.

I understand you don’t recommend dog parks and I have been away from dog parks because Diego kept on causing trouble; however, I need a place to let Diego drain his energy. As you must know Vizslas are full of energy. With this said, Diego’s behavior has improved as result of staying away from dog parks, but his energy level is sometimes too high. I use an electric collar to correct Diego’s behavior (at the dog park), but he usually doesn’t get an electric correction since he usually response great to the tone. The times when Diego has been out of the coverage of the remote control have the times when he has done the worst.

My question to you is: Is the video on dominant and aggressive dogs the best resource I can get from you to address Diego’s behavior? Or do you recommend something different?

Best regards,
Daniel

Answer:

I would definitely stay out of the dog parks, they are a recipe for disaster. Read the article Ed wrote on dog parks. From your description of your dog’s behavior I feel you are very lucky that there hasn’t been a serious fight or injury yet.  It will happen though, if you continue to let him go to dog parks. Dogs don’t need other dogs to play with; this is a completely HUMAN idea.

Dogs need their energy drained both physically AND mentally. Most people underestimate how useful it is to teach a dog how to use his brain. My dogs really benefit from marker training. 

The Power of Training Dogs with Markers
The Power of Training Dogs with Food

I would also find an activity he can do with YOU to drain his physical energy.  This doesn’t mean taking him to a park where he interacts with other dogs and people, teach him to play with you. If he likes the ball, try using a chuck it in an area where there are no other dogs.

I would recommend Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs, so you learn how to handle aggressive situations, if they do present themselves.  With a dog like yours, managing his environment and keeping him away from other dogs is going to go a long way.

We also have a number of free eBooks that may interest you. 

You can try using the search function on the website to find the answer to any additional questions.  It is located in the left hand corner of every page on our website. Simply type in your search terms or key words and you will be directed to articles, question & answers, free streaming videos and posts on our forum.

I hope this helps. Cindy

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Question:

Dear Cindy,

I've written in the past and appreciate the expert advice you gave. I hope you don't mind that I am contacting you again.

I had a major crisis this morning, resulting in a death by pack-attack of one of my dogs and bite wounds to myself (I was trying to break up the fight).

My mother passed this October after which, in my grief, I adopted a new small dog to replace the one I'd had and that had lived here for the last few years. 

The 9 pound rescue mix (double coated prick ear curly tail) had been with me since December and seemed fitting in just fine with my 2 GSD spayed bitches and neutered male 50 lb Aus Shep mix. 

I let her out to potty with the others this morning when the fight broke out with both GSDs attacking Penny (the little rescue). I had been watching and all she had done was walk past them into the yard to potty, when the 10 year old GSD dominant bitch and her larger daughter converged on her threateningly. Penny lifted her lip and then the attack was all out.  I could not get them to drop her and got bitten as I tried to break them up and get them to let Penny go. There was no nip and release, no punishment or warning, they were in for the kill.

Needless to say this was deadly serious and my little dog died of her injuries before making to the vet.

I just got my own tetanus shot but now have to decide what to do.

My reflex is to get rid of them all. Clean slate. No dogs at all, then eventually maybe another small dog to love. I'm getting too old for the big guys.

You had termed the larger, younger GSD 'Little' as Insecure Dominant when I'd written you helped with some advice. She also needs continual work to keep her food- guarding tendency under control.

I  believe she started this BUT old Misty (her Dominant, strong-prey-drive mother) was right there too and might have initiated things; she has also been getting more and more difficult (and I realize it is probably MY energy that is weak and causing disruption in the pack). But right now I feel like I don't like, want, trust or have the energy to rehabilitate or train these dogs. Not after this. And I have way too much else on my plate (living  alone, trying to keep my home, no  job, you get the picture, the same as so many around the country now).

So my question  is, are these dogs adoptable? I would be honest, of course, with a rescue group or shelter, and know that Animal Control would be a death sentence for them. I don't want to kill them or be irresponsible either. 

'Little' might be fine in a one-dog home, as would Misty (and the boy Zak would be fine), but I just can't even look at them now. The memories are horrifying, as you can imagine, watching them shake and tear apart my beloved little bed-warmer while she screamed in pain and fear.

Would I be irresponsible to try and place them elsewhere? Your expert hunch would mean a lot to me as I try to come to this life-changing decision. I just can't give them what they need any more and worse I don't trust them or feel I can love them again. I know that sounds terrible but I'm being honest. If I can no longer control them, they are a danger remaining in my care. I need the right answer.

IF they can NOT be safely rehomed, I would have them euthanized myself rather than call Animal Control. 

Thank you so much for your time and for listening. ANY advice is welcome and appreciated.

Answer:

While I’m very sad about your situation, I really can’t tell you what to do in this instance.  You will have to do what feels right for you.

Obviously, in the wrong circumstances these dogs are deadly to small animals (dogs, cats, etc). Once you release dogs into another home, you can’t control what type of situations they are put into. It could be great, or it could end up being a nightmare for your dogs. Personally, I couldn’t put my own dogs to death for something they did that was my mistake in leadership.

What happened to you is why I stress to people so strongly that the proper way to integrate dogs into a new pack is to control all the interactions at all times. You had this new dog a short time and the size difference was so great that I would have recommended you keep these dogs separated unless they were all leashed. You had aggression problems with at least one of the dogs prior to this incident, so it really doesn’t come as a huge surprise to me that this has happened. When people criticize my advice about being a control freak with multiple dog households, it’s only because things like this happen all too frequently without strong leadership and management.

I’m very sorry that this happened and I hope you can come to a resolution that is in the best interest of your remaining dogs. It’s certainly said and distressing. It’s unfortunate that I can’t tell you what to do, but this is something you will need to decide. 

Regards,
Cindy  

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Question:

Hi,

I hope you can help me. We have (2) one and a half year old Bloodhound brothers that we are training for search and rescue. The problem that we are having is they are now at the age where they want to kill each other. They got along wonderfully as pups (inseparable) but now all hell has broken loose. No, they are not neutered. Yes, they have been crate trained but at over 120 pounds each, they have outgrown their crates. We cannot afford at this time to purchase new crates. We want them to learn to behave around each other at ALL times. They go out in the fenced yard together all the time and play for hours, but when it's time to come in the house they turn into terrorists. I want to purchase two muzzles for them so we can work them side by side in obedience and finally get control with them. Can you tell me which muzzles I should use for this, what sizes should I get, and what the price of the muzzles are? These are family members and I do not want to have to separate them at all times. Please help me before I kill them myself. I have been a professional obedience trainer for over 20 years, have owned Dobes, Rotts and Bouviers. I have had males live in the same house peacefully before without any problems. But these two have me at my wits end. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Connie

Answer:

You are going to need crates or kennels for these dogs if you want to keep both of them and not have this issue continue to get worse. This isn’t a matter of obedience training, this is a pack structure problem. Putting muzzles on will keep the dogs from biting but won’t address the underlying issues.  These fights are only going to escalate as they become more mature unless you make some big changes in how you live with them.

Owners of dogs like yours underestimate the genetic power of "PACK DRIVE." Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership a dog NEEDS then he or she will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way.  They are trying to work out the rank between the two of them. If you have let them run together their whole lives, you have actually created this issue from the way you have raised and allowed them to live in the house. We never recommend raising 2 puppies together, and this is one of the major reasons why. If you want to fix a problem like this you can but it takes some work.

I would start by running your dogs through our groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off; Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

Here is a DVD that I would recommend titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs. If you go to the link on this DVD you can read about what it covers. You will also see a detailed outline of what’s in the video.

You will need 2 dominant dog collars and muzzles.  Once you measure the dogs for fit, you will see which styles will be best for your particular dogs.  If you have questions about which model to choose, you can call our office for assistance.  715-235-6502

If you spend some time reading this section on dog fights, you’ll see that your problems are very common. I’ve received 6 or 7 emails just today from dog owners with very similar problems. If you don’t teach the dogs your rules, they can’t possibly behave how you want them to.

I would recommend learning to use our SEARCH function, which is located in the top left corner of every page of the website. If you type in your key words or question it will find you articles, Q&As, free streaming video and links to threads on our discussion forum.

Cindy

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Question:

Cindy, 

I have an 8 month old german shepherd (Jones) that I have socialized extensively to try and make sure that he had no aggression problems. He has never showed any sign of aggression towards other dogs or people. He has never showed any sign that would worry me. Today we were at a park with a few friends who have a 10 month old Weimaraner and a 4 month old german pointer. The dogs were playing fine and I pulled out a Kong that i throw for my dog and started throwing it for the dogs. Jones had it and was playing keep away from the 4 month old pointer and after a few minutes of this jones would growl at the pointer when he would get close. Noticing this I took the kong from him and about 5 seconds later the pointer approached him and without warning he bit him in the ear and punctured a little hole in his ear. I have been quite bothered by this because I cannot have a dog with aggression problems. Are these early signs of a potential big problem? What advice or suggestion would you have for me. I would greatly appreciate your help. I really value your opinion over anyone elses.

Thank you Cindy,
Max

Answer:

The first thing I want to say is that your dog did not bite without warning, he growled at the other dog (most likely multiple times) A growl is nothing more than a warning to a bite.  You didn’t do your job as his leader by stepping in and diffusing the situation at that time.

I don’t allow my dogs to play or interact with other dogs from outside our family pack, but if I did it would not be until they are completely trained so they will leave any distraction at any time.

Your dog is now becoming a young adult and may begin to have mature feelings which will include some aggression.  This is normal.  It’s up to you to show him leadership & structure so he understands that you will dictate the course of action, not him.

I would suggest our groundwork program and Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

I would also read this article, even though it’s geared to little puppies. This is our definition of socializing.

I would recommend learning to use our SEARCH function, which is located in the top left corner of every page of the website.  If you type in your key words or question it will find you articles, Q&As, free streaming video and links to threads on our discussion forum.

We also have a number of eBooks, which include a number of topics that may help you. 

I hope this helps.

Cindy

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Question:

Ed,

I would like to ask you a question about my 8 month Great Pyr/lab mix. I've had her since she was 8 weeks old. She has been well socialized, gets plenty of exercise, and has been to obedience class. We have a 12 year old Schipperke, and two cats that have been around her since the beginning. 3 months ago she started being food protective with other animals. We no longer give her bones, and we feed her separately from the other animals. At 6 months old we saw the first signs of aggression not related to food, but just the cats and the other dog entering the room. We spoke to our vet who said it may be a pecking order issue, and not to intervene. This seemed to work with the dog, but now the aggression is on the cats. The dog will eye the cats from a distance and start a deep growl as they come near the room. If allowed the dog will chase and attack them. At times if we try to intervene while she is in the "moment" she will turn to us and grab our hand and let go after she realizes what she is doing. It's almost like she is in the attack mode and doesn't realize what and who is grabbing her. She has never bit down hard on us. This behavior usually happens in the evening while winding down and relaxing. We could all be watching tv or reading the paper, and she is laying down and another animal tries to enter the room and she starts to growl and aggressively chase them. We've tried "leave it," and distracting her but she still zero's in on the animal.

If you have any suggestions for us we would be more than willing to try them. Thanking for your time.

Jean

Answer:

Your vet gave you bad advice on how to handle this when you first observed the behavior.  By NOT intervening, you sent your dog the message that she’s in charge of this scenario.  Most vets don’t give good training advice, it’s just not their area of expertise.

Ed has written an article on cats.

I’d take this dogs privileges completely away, start with our groundwork program and Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

She’d be on leash 100% of the time unless she was in a crate or kennel. I would NOT allow any looking at, growling at or chasing of the cats. NOT AT ALL.

I’d recommend Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs and Electric Collar Training for the Pet Owner.

It may be that you’ll need to go to the remote collar to work this out long term. 

It would have been much simpler for everyone to clear this up a couple months ago, and if you don’t make big changes you are going to end up with a dog that wants to kill cats.

No 8 month old dog should have the level of freedom in the home that you have allowed her.  By letting her choose where she lays and letting her go after the cats and letting her redirect and try to bite you, YOU have trained her to behave this way (accidentally).

We also have a number of ebooks, which include topics that may help you. 

For future questions, you might benefit from learning to use our SEARCH function, which is located in the top left corner of every page of the website.  If you type in your key words or question it will find you articles, Q & A’s, free streaming video and links to threads on our discussion forum.  Our website has over 16,000 pages and it’s very likely you’ll find the information you are looking for.  I hope this helps.

Cindy Rhodes

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Question:

Hi Ed,

I have been looking around your site and reading the various articles. I have a 4 year old Labradoodle (poodle X lab) I know it isn't one of the usual breeds you deal with, however I am in need of some advice.

My dog was attacked as a puppy by 7 GSD's. I was out walking her and had let her off the lead in an enclosed space in order to do some training. A man with the pack of dogs walked up to the gate and came in. The dogs saw my pup and pulled the leads out of his hands and chased her. Before I could pick her up, they had chased her out of the park and across two fields. I finally caught her as they had her cornered in some bushes. I don't think the dogs actually bit her - however it has had a long-lasting affect on her. Since that incident, I became very nervous when walking her around other dogs, as did she. She was then charged and attacked by a Boxer, who did actually bite her.
 
At around 2 years old, her aggression towards other dogs became uncontrollable and embarrassing. I think it was fear based. Whenever a dog came up to sniff her rear (she has mild hip-dysplasia which might contribute to it) she would turn and snap at them, then run away with her tail between her legs. She would lunge at dogs when she was on a lead too.

I came across Cesar Millan (I don't know what your views are on him?) and it all made sense. I have been following his rules for nearly 2 years now and they are working very well.

I have been socializing my dog with friendly dogs and it is going well. She has lots of doggy friends and can play nicely with other dogs. On a scale to 1 - 10, her aggression a couple of years ago was about a 6. Now, I would say it is about a 3-4.
 
She can interact with other dogs with nearly no problem now. Only if they are too boisterous she may growl at them, which I think is fair.

Recently we have been walking (off-lead in a park where the dogs can play. I live in the UK, and this is the norm among dog owners) with a collie X (and it's owner). This dog chases other dogs (especially small dogs) it is very rough and pushy in play too. My dog has also started to display the same behavior - chasing small dogs. Can dogs pick up behaviors that easily? My dog attacked two small terriers, both of whom were old. No injuries were actually inflicted on them, however both the patterns of attack were the same. She ran up to it, sniffed it, and watched it tensely. When it moved, she then growled at it, flipped it over and started to bite - release it. She didn't actually clamp down onto them, which is what I can't understand, as it can't really be classed as a 'bite'.
 
She chases squirrels, however I have used a vibration collar to stop this habit. I was thinking she might be seeing the small dogs as the squirrels? She is better with small dogs that are moving. It is the old/timid ones she has problems with.

My dog is very affectionate with people and the dogs she knows. She is actually very obedient - but obviously not enough. If I could only solve this problem she would be the perfect dog!

Any advice greatly appreciated,
Monique

Answer:

I would NOT allow this dog to be off leash around other dogs from outside her circle of friends.

Ed has written an article about dog parks.

Since you have experienced first hand the long term psychological damage that can occur from being attacked by other dogs I am surprised you would allow her to do this. 

Whether your dog sees other dogs as prey items or as threats to her, it makes no difference. If you can’t control her off leash in the face of distraction, she should not be off leash in these situations.

She needs more training and you need to be more selective as to the types of situations you allow her to face off leash until she’s reliable.  For some dogs, this may not ever happen in the company of strange dogs.

I would suggest our groundwork program and the videos Pack Structure for the Family Pet and Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs.

We also have a number of eBooks, which include topics that may help you. 

For future questions, you might benefit from learning to use our SEARCH function, which is located in the top left corner of every page of the website. If you type in your key words or question it will find you articles, Q & A’s, free streaming video and links to threads on our discussion forum. Our website has over 16,000 pages and it’s very likely you’ll find the information you are looking for. I hope this helps.

Cindy Rhodes

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Comment:

Hi,

I just wanted to say that finding the leerburg site at 2 am on my last nightshift at work has changed my life. No really. I have two 22 month old female litter sister miniature bullterriers and then (ignorantly) added a third, now 9 months. The litter sisters fought as early as four months old. Not long ago they fought again and I was alone and had no idea how to break it up. In the end there was blood and pieces of flesh and I was just so traumatised. In reality it took the girls to fight and hurt themselves so badly for me to finally search for a qualified answer. Nearly every single thing that Ed wrote about has happened to me - the fighting, the ranking issues and about the power of the a pack of three dogs. 

The best article, on dog parks (where my girls were attacked at a young age) made me feel so relieved. I will never go back. I had no idea I was supposed to protect them. I ordered the dominant and aggressive dog dvd straight away. I watched it and slipped from the couch to the floor. Finally I wiped away all the tears and got up - I re-erected their crates and separated the girls. I watched more videos. I walked them separately and took one day at a time. They are not allowed in my bedroom at all and I am trying to establish myself as the leader in their lives. I am a psychotherapist and have learnt to understand why and how people act and react the way they do and it never once occured to me to investigate the language of dogs. I felt so ashamed.

The girls are doing well and the most most amazing thing is that now that they are crated and I dont have potential chaos on my hands at any one moment - life has become so much more manageable. They love their crates and I am hoping that one day they might be able to supervised together for short periods of time again. I dont know yet if that day will come. I am learning as much as I can all the time and hopefully they will respect me one day soon.

Thank you for your clear articulated truthful answers and qualified experienced based knowledge that has helped my girls and myself come to terms with reality and hopefully a more structured and safer future.

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Question:

Ed,

I came across you website while looking for answers to an issue with my 21 month old German Sheppard mix, Hannah. I read several articles and lots of Q&A's, but did not find an answer specific to my issue.

We have three dogs, Brandy a 13 year old German Sheppard mix, Lucy a 5 year old lab mix, and Hannah. We adopted Hannah when she was 12 weeks old from a humane society in the area, and quickly began training classes with her. She's very well behaved, follows commands and has never tried to show dominance in any way to humans. The same goes for her relationship with Lucy. She is very obidient with any commands Lucy gives her (which normally consist of "Leave me alone I don't want to play now"). However, in the last few months we have experienced issues between Hannah and Brandy. The first time we weren't sure what the trigger was, but Hannah attacked Brandy with almost no warning. With the second incident we realized food was the trigger and began feeding them separately with no further issues.

We recently found out that I am pregnant and two days ago Hannah apparently figured this out for herself. She has begun to attack Brandy again anytime she comes near me. When I am not around they get along great, we only have the issue when I am in the room with both dogs and this has never been an issue before.

We have been keeping them separate for now, but this will not work as a long term solution during my entire pregnancy. What should we do?

Thanks,
Rachael

Answer:

Your pregnancy doesn't really have anything to do with the dog's behavior.
Your lack of leadership is the trigger. You dog sees you as a possession (like the food) to guard from the other dog. this is extremely common behavior in dogs, and isn't linked to pregnancy at all. Add to that, the maturity of Hannah now. She's trying to act like a mature dog and assert herself in the family pack. I get a few emails a year from pregnant women who I believe think it's some kind of protective instinct the dog is showing when it's really dominance. Your behavior may be different since you became pregnant, so that may be sending some signals to the dog that you are "weak." Dogs instinctually try to be dominant or possessive over someone with weaker or less assertive energy. The fact that these dogs have recently started fighting for other resources tells me it's a progression of behavior that been left unchecked.

If you spend some time reading this section on dog fights, you’ll see that your problems are very common. I’ve received 6 or 7 emails just today from dog owners with very similar problems. If you don’t teach the dogs your rules, they can’t possibly behave how you want them to.

I'd keep the dogs separate for now, while you establish some CLEAR leadership and rules. Start with our groundwork program and Pack Structure for the Family Pet. This simple restructuring may be enough, but you may also want to view Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs.

You definitely want to have this all ironed out before the baby arrives. We also have a section on babies and dogs. Once the baby is here, you will have much less time and energy for training so you want to have solid rules and structure in place and things running smoothly.

I hope this helps.

Cindy Rhodes

 

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