Aggression Q&As

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...

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 ...

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: Stopping her aggressive dog behavior.purchasing the following with your recommendation:Collar: prong or dominant collar? Which will give me the best contr...

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 o...

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 ...

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...

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 t...

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...

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?

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 tra...

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 wi...

Hi, could you help me? I have a German shepherd that is 3 years old and a Labrador at 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 until you pull them apart. The German seems to be the one that starts more than the lab. Please help as I love them both.

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 issue...

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 ...

Dear Ed, I cannot thank you enough for all your advise on how to train and establish a relationship with our puppy. Your DVDs 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 wit...

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 v...

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 t...

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 althoug...

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 ou...

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 pr...