I have littermates who have ‘sibling rivalry’ and they started fighting when they were about 9 months old. How do I fix this?

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

Accepted 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