Dog fight~ they usually love each other~what can I do to prevent?

[carolinagirl58]

A shock collar will only make things worse. When a pit bull is turned on, he is running on adrenaline. That's why the fighting dogs get so badly damaged. They are running on overdrive and feel no pain. and if they do feel the bite of the shock collar when they are in that state of mind, it may only fuel the fire.

 

[FourPawz]

Quote:
Poor Chaser. Holly is now 2 years old. This is when GSDs begin their quest to be alpha. Females are worse than males, as others have said. You are right to be afraid to leave them alone together. If you cannot be there, one or both need to be in separate parts of the house, or in 2 well made, strong crates. The separate parts of the house need preferably 2 doors between the 2 dogs and everyone in the house needs to be taught to secure them.

You really, really need to be careful to not leave them alone together. Once they've fought, it's a 99.9% chance they'll fight again, and the damage to the old girl may get worse. You can keep both, but you just need to be willing to protect them from being hurt.

There's a reason I have *one* female german shepherd who is a sweetheart, but she's not fond of other large breed females at all.

My girl, who turns 6 this year:

 

[Miyashi]

I have a pit too...he's a pansie. It was the lady who passed that everyone should have been afraid of.
My female (Syrih) just passed...as you know...can't thank you enough for your kind thoughts!
She was lead dog around here...and she was a White German Shepherd/Lab.
Maybe it's just something...my mare rules the pasture, my lead hen dominates my rooster, Mom has the most say around here...women just seem to rule the roosts of life.
I've never experienced anything like what you are...if my boys started acting up, she would just walk through with her hackles up and they knew she meant business.
This needs to stop though, your poor pup. I hope someone can help!
Where art though dog whisperer!?!?!
Best of wishes to you all!
<3<3<3<3<3

 

[cafarmgirl]

To be completely honest I don't see this situation working out with these particular dogs. Even with training, even if the dogs see you as alpha, there is still an order to be determined and the shepherd is out to make her place known.

I have a 4 year old 100 lb + male rottie and a 1 year old 30 lb Queensland mix female. They both defer to me at all times, no questions asked. But that little cow dog regularly goes after that big rottie and she has proven to him her dominance over him. She is second in pack order here, he is last!

The difference is that when my dogs squabble, while it looks and sounds like a full on dog fight, it never results in wounds or blood shed. Your dog Holly is on a mission and Chaser may be badly injured by her. Unless Chaser submits fully and never, ever gives Holly reason to be irritated, all highly unlikely, this will keep happening on a regular basis.

I would either keep them separately, which may or may not be workable for you, or rehome the younger dog.

 

[Funky Feathers]

Thanks for all the good advice. Rehoming one of them is not an option, as we love them both so much. We will just have to keep them separate. I agree, Holly wants to take over the throne, but her killing Chaser to get it is not acceptable.

 

[Sierra pachie bars]

Try talking to a dog trainer. A good one. I know for us , we have two males. One fixed one not. One day the larger unfixed male just let the other male have it. He stopped when told to, and has since been in training and never had done anything like that again. The dog trainer did ask what has changed in our life to perhaps make the one male so protective of me. He still very much I extremely protective, he rarely will leave my side. Learning their language really helps you undstand why they do what they do. I still do not get the sniffing butts but thats ok.

 

[Funky Feathers]

Sniffing butts is usually a good thing. It's how dogs greet each other and decide to be friends or not. It tells them who they are. WE look at faces and shake hands, they sniff butts.

 

[chickenboots]

Alabamachick is right. You have to be the boss. We look at as being mean. Dogs look at it as knowing their role in the pack. I was always one of those people who got upset when my husband scolded our dogs. I looked at as hurting their feelings. People put emotions on animal behaviors that are not there. You decide the pecking order (with people always being first) and enforce it. Pick the current alpha and let it go out the door first (after you and any other people), let it get its food first an so on. You must be consistent. This will not be training, it is a way of life. We had the same problem when I got my great dane. He tried to dominate my male lab and they ended up in a few fights. This is advice my vet gave me and it worked wonders. Believe it or not we never had another fight, not even over food. I'm not a dog trainer by any means. This is advice that worked for me. Hope this helps. Your dogs are beautiful.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

http://dogsintraining.livejournal.com/
Is the forum I mentioned. Some genuinely knowledgeable people there. When our Aus Shep/Cattle Dog mix started showing aggression of a type my husband and I hadn't seen before, we tried talking to many trainers. We got the same old dominance theory stuff handed to us, even though it didn't make sense in the context of his particular aggression. These folks were actually the ones who immediately suggested neurological issues, specifically partial seizures. They ended up being dead on. Hope they can help you too.

 

[Horsefly]

Sorry you have to go through this. I know how hard it is because I have had some of the same problems. Luckily I just had one bad fight and have since worked with them and keep them seperate more. My dogs are a male and female so the source of their fights are probably different so I have used different solutions than you would need.
I can't give you much in the way of training advice but I do have some tips on if a fight happens. It's important to know how to break them up safely, as bad as it is to have your dogs tore up they could inadvertently injure you too. Always keep a leash near by when you have them around together and should a fight break out take the leash and loop it around one of the dogs middles right before their back legs and loop the clip end through the handle of the leash. Then clip the clip to something solid. After dog one is secured take the other dog by the back legs and slowly drag them apart, keep dragging the other dog until you are out of the room or until the dog calms down enough to go out of prey drive and respond to you. Most of the time they lock on to each other and it isn't worth it to try and pry them apart stay calm get the leash and work on the task at hand.
Another thing I will say is watch them if fight starts to happen or they show stiffer behavior stop it imidiately! The faster you catch it the dogs have less time to go into all out unresponsive drive mode. I have worked with my dogs extensively in redirecting their focus and training them to look at me on comand no mater what the other dog is doing. I don't allow them to have staring matches, I do let them play fight and chase but if I see the slightest hair raise or see one getting irritable they are stopped and put away seperate.
Just work on solid training wih basic commands and get them to listen every time to you. This will establish you alpha comand and will improve their behaviors with each other. Hope something in this helps.