May 20, 2011
My Rott plays with my brother's dobermans everyday, today she bit the older one. Should I be concerned that she will do this again or if she'll snap at my children?
Full Question:
I read a little about dog fights because of an incident with my dog this afternoon. I have a 1 1/2 year old female Rott. .."Sunny"....she is very gentle with my three little boys. She has been a little aggressive on two occasions with repairmen that have come to the door....snapping and hair standing up on back, otherwise she has basically licked to death anyone who comes to the house. We live across the street from my brother who has two female Dobermans. Sunny plays very hard with the younger of the two and has a lot of fun, the older Doberman, Thunder, doesn't like to play and usually keeps her distance from the other two.Today the younger ones were playing hard as usual, rolling in the snow, tackling each other, etc. and Thunder tried to get in between for some reason. Sunny, our Rott, turned on her and bit her ear and gave her a few small punctures around her neck area. The whole incident lasted only a few seconds, Thunder ran away quickly, unfortunately, bleeding a little. These dogs have been with each other every day for almost a year now and nothing like this has ever happened. If Sunny could snap on another dog, should I also be concerned about her snapping on one of my children? I also wonder if the dogs should be kept away from one another now? I don't know what to do with her and I don't understand why she could have turned on Thunder. Could you please give me a little insight into this situation and advice for trying to avoid it in the future.
Thank you.
Theresa
![Cindy](https://leerburg.com/Photos/articles/authors/cindyrhodes.jpg)
![Cindy](https://leerburg.com/Photos/articles/authors/cindyrhodes.jpg)
Your dog is now becoming a young adult and trying to establish herself over the Doberman. When the Doberman resisted, Sunny tried harder and this is when dog fights happen. This is normal pack behavior.
We don't allow our dogs to interact in this manner, our dogs listen to us they don't wrestle around at their own discretion. If we want all of our dogs to spend time together we take them on walks where we are in charge.
If Sunny was my dog, I would not allow her to play with these dogs again. It's just a matter of time before it would happen again.
I believe that this recently finished DVD could really help you. It’s titled Pack Structure for the Family Pet. 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.
Please read this article about becoming an effective pack leader. This article was written for people like yourself, people who have great intentions but not enough knowledge of pack structure.. There are links within the article that will take you to other articles on my web site.
I hope this helps.
We don't allow our dogs to interact in this manner, our dogs listen to us they don't wrestle around at their own discretion. If we want all of our dogs to spend time together we take them on walks where we are in charge.
If Sunny was my dog, I would not allow her to play with these dogs again. It's just a matter of time before it would happen again.
I believe that this recently finished DVD could really help you. It’s titled Pack Structure for the Family Pet. 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.
Please read this article about becoming an effective pack leader. This article was written for people like yourself, people who have great intentions but not enough knowledge of pack structure.. There are links within the article that will take you to other articles on my web site.
I hope this helps.
100% (1 out of 1)
respondents found this answer helpful
![](https://leerburg.com/Photos/index-imgs/ask-cindy-question-marks.png)
![Expert Dog Trainer Cindy Rhodes](https://leerburg.com/Photos/index-imgs/ask-cindy-portrait.png)
Can't find what you're looking for?