I own a 70Lb Female Brindle Am-Staff and a 60Lb male APBT. The female is 5 1/2 yrs old and the male is 4 yrs old. The male was introduced to our house 2 yrs ago. All was well until November 2004. A baby sitter was taling care of our son & dogs. When we got home, we didn't notice the dogs until my wife had driven away. Mt ATV was badly damaged & poarked in the garage and the dogs could hardly walk. My female had internal injuries and nearly died. When the babysitter (15yr old boy) was asked, he said nothing happeneed, but my son said a few of this boys friends had been over. I don't know what happened that night, but I know that it affected my dogs a lot.

There have been fights since then and my wife is sick of them. I had a specialist in dog behaviour come over and he has helped greatly. He also told us to read Ed's web page and that it would help. He observed the dogs together and said they reacted well with one another. He also said that there would be another fight, which happened 3 days ago.

My female is the Alpha and hence she is getting most of my focus. When the last fight occurred, my wife and I calmly grabbed their hind legs and pulled them apart. I shouted at the top of my lungs "NO" to her and brought her outside. She seemeed a little jittery and was not listening well. Again I shouted commands but she did not listen. She seemed a little purterbed. I had her wire muzzle on and gave her a few whacks on the side (muscly part)of her leg. This had some reaction and stunned her. Again when she did not listen, I picked her up by her collar off of the ground and began talking gently in her ear "Be Nice!" When I did this she defecated all over. She is very sensitive and she just started coming around yesterday.

The 2 dogs are still apart & I would like to reintroduce them. Zeus is very leery of Roxy right now, but I want to know where to go. Keeing them seperated is a pain in the butt. I am looking for help on next steps. Any ideas folks. The dogs are very lovable, I just want peace in our house. This web site has helped

In my opinion the dogs need to be separately PERIOD. It's rather apparent that even "Dr. Phil" can't make these dogs get along.

Scolding the dogs, wire muzzling them is only going to create more problems and it's really not good to the mental health of these dogs to have them compete for rank this much or pulled apart only for one to "poop" on himself (or herself). It's not truly fair to either of them in my opinion.

A LOT of folks don't recommend multiple dogs in the household for this reason. See a few of Ed's articles on this.

You've got to make a decision on how you can orchestrate giving these dogs some freedom and play time separately or perhaps send one to another home.

I've learned from mistake that despite dogs may appear to get along for sometime, once things escalate to this level the dogs need to not be together even if Oprah says otherwise.

I saw that sarcasticly but I'm very serious.

Good luck

The dogs are currently sperated. One is upstairs and the other is down. I did make a lot of errors in the past with my dogs but am correcting them now. They used to lie in bed, on furniture, etc. I really am looking for suggestions. There has to be a way to break them of this. My make is not aggressive and does not start the fights. The last fight seemed to be over our son. Roxy is very protective of him.

Help!!!

I'm also of the opinion that the safest course is to keep the dogs separated permanently. Any other choice puts the passive dog at an ever increasing risk of injury. It's your call, but the safest and 100% sure cure to your problem is to separate them.

I've never seen dogs, that have once seriously fought one another, be totally reliable afterwards. Constant supervision, yes. By themselves, no.

I wonder what Ed thinks of this. Again both dogs are seperated at this time and no reintroductions have been attempted.

Scott, the earlier posts are all correct. Keep these dogs separated (forever) with 2 dog crates. Tell the baby sitter you know he is a liar and you never hire him again - tell his parents.

We have 4 crates in our basement. Most are full at night. This is not a big deal to live witth

Two Pit dogs are going to fight. Yes it is a pain in the behind. Your babysitter had his buddies come over and they fought your dogs. I sure he has a bright future. I feel bad for you and your dogs. Hopefully you can keep them apart and keep them healthy.

I have been keeping both dogs seperated and crated. I have let them be together for short bursts when I am home alone and no other distrations are around. This has worked well and Roxy (the one that causes the issues) has responded well to commands. She has gotten a bitchy look to her onece in a while, but now, listens. I still do not trust them together alone,. There seems to be an understanding. The dogs get along great during these meetings.

I am proud to report no dog fights since the last one in April. My female, Roxy, has been wonderful to deal with. Her obedience has stepped up a notch and she has impressed me with her demeanor. It's like I have a new dog again. The dogs still get crated and we are choiceful in how we deal with the dogs. Roxy will even listen when she is in prey drive (my male does not). Roxy seems to respect Zeus better than before. Since taking Roxy's responsibilities away, she has been a good dog. Again, we are being cautious in everything we do and all meetings between the dogs are closely monitored.