I just recently became a member and have ordered the Basic Obedience Video and Prong Collar for my 2 year old Chow Shepard Mix. the reason I ordered these items is because I'm at my wits end with the fighting that has been going on between my dog and my new roommates dog. Her dog is a Chocolate Lab, 1 1/2 years old that is not neutered. She moved in two months ago and at first it appeared that the two dogs were going to get along fabulously, but since then the fighting has begun. I'll admit there are several problems going on. They have been left unattended in the backyard, a practice I plan on changing. The fighting appears to be most pronounced in the house though and usually seems to be as a result of jealousy on the part of my dog. I cannot even touch the other dog without my dog wanting to take his head off. I have had to break up several intense fights. Thanks to this website I know how to do that the right way now. Luckily I've never been injured. The fighting between the two dogs has never resulted in injury to either, and has become less frequent, but my dog will attack the other dog for no apparent reason still. The other dog is not submitting to my dog though, and that is usually why the fights will go on and on unless they are broken up.
I'm hoping that the problem is a result of obedience problems with my dog. He has only had one 8 week beginning obedience class he took at 4 months old. I will admit that when he is placed in distracting environments he does not listen to me. I had a female dog for nine months and the two of them got along just fine. I guess my question is, whether you think this problem is due to the fact that my roommates dog is male and not neutered and my dog is threatened and/or my dog needs some serious obedience work? I think its probably both. I plan to implement the obedience skills taught in the video and I plan to use the prong collar to show my dog the next time he attacks the other dog that it is not appropriate and will not be tolerated. Am I doing the right thing? Is there anything else I should or could be doing to help this situation? I can't stand to watch the two of them fight any longer and I don't want my dog to think it is alright to fight with other dogs. I appreciate any advice you can give concerning this issue.

Bringing a full grown male into the house with your adult male is your first problem. Secondly, it sounds like both dogs want to be the alpha and neither will give in. You should have slowly introduced the new dog into the family. This takes weeks, or may not work at all. Having your dog obedience trained is nice but I dont think it will fix the problem. Whats going to happen when you arent home or within sight of the two?
There are a couple of articles on this website that will spell out exactly what you need to do to fix this problem, no sense in rehashing it here.

Being that I am a roomate in a house full of dogs I have to say the odds are not in your favor of ever making this 'work' out. You are correct in that your dog needs more OB, but that will not cure all the problems unless you BOTH have 100% control of BOTH dogs at any given time. I live in a house with 6 adult German Shepherds between my roomates dogs, mine, and a couple that are looking for new homes. We understand and accept the fact that all the dogs can not and will not get along and simply do not let them spend time together. It means crates and gates seperating areas of the house, but it surely beats seperating dog fights. Typically speaking males don't do well with other males, and females don't do well with other females, but there are exceptions to that.

The jealous behavior that you are seeing is much like the guarding of a bone on the part of your dog. Your dog sees you as valuable 'property' and does not see you as a leader, so when the other dog solicits or even possibly when you approach the other dog.. fights ensue.

I wish I could tell you to take two of these and call me in the morning, but I suspect that you will need to start making major changes to the way your dogs are managed, for everyone's sake.

I'm with the others. OB will help some, but unless you change the way you manage them, it will not be enough. Their determination to fight may be stronger than any motivation you can instill. You need to start by getting control, and if that means using preventive management, then so be it.

I have two bitches that fight and one male that gets along with both of them, in a family household. We don't have outdoor kennels for our dogs. Here's how I manage my "pack"; it might not work for you, but you might take some small amount of useful info away from it:

The two bitches are kept separated at all times. They take turns being crated and having house priveleges (usually rotated every two hours when someone is home), or one will be in the room with me and the other in another part of the house with another family member. Each of them has a crate in the back bedroom, in which they spend part of their day, one at a time, with a stuffed Kong, the TV turned on (to the public broadcasting station; might as well have them learning how to cook gourmet meals, paint with watercolors, and be Mr. Rogers' neighbor, rather than being bombarded with daytime talk and commercials) and the door closed. At night, they are both crated in the bedroom and the male gets to sleep where he wants (he's a laid back Lab, and has no alpha ideas, so he is allowed to sleep on the foot of my bed, resting his head on my legs).

We often walk them all together, but keep the girls out of leash range. They usually pay no mind to one another when out for walks. The younger one will occasionally glance nervously over at the older one, but the older one is too happy to be out and about to really care that the younger one is around.

In the evenings when we're enjoying family time, the two females are kept on tiedowns in the living room. In this way, they are in the same room with the family, but are not able to fight; they usually just chill and hang out and don't really pay much mind to one another. Where the OB comes in is when one of them even thinks about giving the other one the hairy eyeball, I issue a command to redirect their behavior, then reinforce the correct response. When I first started this routine, since I was several feet away from both of them while sitting on the couch and needed to be able to interrupt immediately (getting up off the couch and walking over to either one to issue a correction would have taken too long), I used a medium sized super soaker (with long range capability) to squirt whichever one was staring, then redirect them to a down, then reinforce the down by tossing a small piece of food from my spot on the couch. The super soaker is unneccessary now, and both will pay attention to my voice alone when I give a verbal command. I don't trust them together without some sort of physical restraint to prevent them having access to one another, but we have found a way that they can be in the same room peacefully and without placing undue stress on everyone else around them. This is so easy to do that even my teenage daughters can do this; they take turns with one of them feeding the animals their evening meals (we also have three cats), and the other one putting the girls on their tiedowns after letting them each go outside to potty one at a time (however, I don't allow them to put the girls on their tiedowns unless an adult is home, but they can and are often asked to rotate the girls in/out of their crates when home alone.).

We've been doing this for about ten months now, and have not had a single fight since (obviously, the girls don't have the opportunity). I consider this to be a long term solution for us, until the older female passes away (or who knows, the younger one may go first). Now that it has all become routine and normal, the dogs are much more relaxed and there is a lot less stress in the household. They seem to actually enjoy the predictable routine. The older one will run over to her tiedown and quiver with anticipation as she threads her front leg through the harness strap, snorting her little happy noise, and will go into her crate quickly and willingly every single time. The younger one is still not too enthused about restrictions on her freedom, but I consider that to be expected from a youngster. She does comply, but can be a pest sometimes.

Sorry for the novel, but maybe there is something useful you can glean from it.