Aggression Q&As

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...

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.

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 ? 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 ...

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 situati...

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 punctur...

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 h...

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 n...

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 fi...

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, b...

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...

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 moment...