Excellent insight Betty... earned the hard way.

Barbara, I would never think you were being mean - I take what you said in the way it was intended, honestly and quite rightly pointing out this isn't about my guilt over a stupid decision, it is now time to admit I was wrong and this is now intolerable for all the dogs, I have a heavy heart, but enough is enough.

Kind regards
Tracey

Yes Betty, you are ringing a lot of familiar bells.....thank you for your post.

Kindest regards

T.

That's why I said... the right home.
A breed rescue would vet potential adopters and you would be able to keep him until a home comes up. There's no stigma attached to not getting along with other males in a house.

Homes like that are harder to find but they do exist.

It gets VERY stressful & tiresome...trying to remember what dog is behind door #1, door #2, door #3, etc etc & who gets along with who. One ACCIDENT & bingo...someone is hurt! Been there done that with 3 dogs...It would take one EXTRAORDINARY dog to make me go back to that kind of life style.

It took 2 1/2 years to get the 2 that are here now to get along MOST of the time. They still need vigilance.

Think long & hard about if you want to live that way for the next 10-12 years. I know I didn't.

Plus one of the dogs that I had was a very fearful dog & was 'going forward' on most people that he came into contact with. He was becoming a very serious liability to own. It was just a short amount of time before he was going to bite someone. He had to be kept isolated if I had comnpany or was being walked. Nothing like taking the stress level up another notch.

JMO & experience

So are certain breeds more... dominant, I guess, than others? I mean if you have two male Labs are they just as likely to have issues as say, two male Bully Kuttas? Or does it depend solely on the dog itself, or a combination?

Or a situation? If you had a very submissive male, and brought a pup into your family, would you have issues in the future even if you did properly train it?

Sorry for all the questions. Tracey's experience made me curious.

There are VERY,VERY, FEW actually dominant dogs out there. 99% of these so-called 'dominant' dogs are just dogs that have been allowed to 'run the show' & have no leadership or direction in their lives.

Most problems that people have with dogs are those that they themselves(or possibly previous owners) have created by poor leadership skills.

There are strong breeds & other breeds less so. It is not a breed issue, though. It is an OWNER issue.

When owning multiple dogs you will see the pack dynamics all the time. Often just suttle body language indicators. Often dogs will figure out themselves (without fighting)where they are within the pack order. With the owner on TOP. But in saying that...letting one dog 'bully' another is not acceptable at all. It is your responsibility to not allow this to happen.

Young dogs are not allowed to pester older dogs & older dogs are not allowed to push around younger ones.

Many of the dogs that owners have the most 'trouble' with are often the smaller breeds, as owners treat them like furry children instead of dogs & this creates multiple behavioral problems.

ETA.....I will add that often times there are more problems with multiple intact males living together & also multiple females (whole or not) living together. I will 'steal' a saying that Dennis here says often. "males fight to breed & females fight to breathe". Often very true. Fights between females are usually the worse ones.

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

It makes sense. My mom has a Chihuahua, and it's her child. I hate it. I just always hear of dominance issues and then people attach breeds to it, especially pits.

Why is it though, that pitbulls randomly become aggressive? When I was little, we had a pit that was a huge loverboy, total family dog and then he attacked my mom's Chihuahua, I think he was provoked, and I can't remember if he ever went after my younger sibling, though I was told he did. I just find it hard to believe. And I had a friend who had a pit since a puppy, and when she was around 7, got very aggressive and had to be put down.

Is this all from bad leadership? I don't think pitbulls are bad a breed at all, I love them and the ones I've known have been sweethearts. And I know the majority of the incidents involving them are because of the owners. But can something as small as letting your dog go through a door before you end in aggression?

 Quote: anne jones

There are VERY,VERY, FEW actually dominant

. "males fight to breed & females fight to breathe". Often very true. Fights between females are usually the worse ones.

I think Molly Graf told me that, I can't claim it

"Males fight for breeding rights, Females fight for breathing rights"

Ok...Molly then. Sorry, Molly.

Some breeds do have more animal aggression in them...but most aggression issues are a lack of socialiation, lack of leadership & can just be from breeding lines that have these temperment tendencies or traits. Different lines produce different temperment traits for the better or worse. They can be exacerbated by bad management, isolation etc etc.

When breeders breed they breed for certain qualities in their dogs. If you breed for working traits, you want to breed dogs that have very good working ability(high drives), biddability & so on, if you breed for a certain color you breed dogs that throw that color, that way...on & on. Each time you isolate certain traits to breed for you can loose others or have them to a lesser degree. It can be quite complex to find that 'balance' of genetics to produce the desired dog.

I will stop there, because I am NOT a breeder. But that is the general idea.

Dogs for the most part are not generally people aggressive. They were domesticated to work for & with man & as a companion animal for us.