Question:
We have had our dogs as a pair for three years. They are both female. One is six years old (Lab-pit mix; 85lb) and the other 3 (Carolina-Collie mix 40lb). They have lived harmoniously together for two years. In March they began to show aggression to one another. We experimented with feeding, keeping them off the areas they seemed possessive about but the situation has not been overall resolved. They will have two to three good weeks and another incident will happen. W e are feeling at a loss and do not want to re-home one of them unless we have to. Any advice would be welcomed.
Answer:
Dear Lindsey,
When such behaviors arise for seemingly no reason, I must put on a detective hat and investigate.
So, I have some questions and possible answers-
1- Are your dogs crated at any time where they can see each other while in crates?
- If you answer YES, this is a problem of vulnerability for one of the two.
- This begins with one dog being injured or sick (remember that you may not know your dog isinjured)
- An injured dog in a cage feels trapped and vulnerable, while the other dog senses her weakness.
- The weak dog will revert to “kill or be killed” mentality and fight the other dog when conditions warrant.
- I prevent this possibility by ALWAYS covering crates from any other dog’s view.
- Once this happens, a long period of desensitizing is needed, but certainly possible.
2- Was one of the girls sick or injured since March? Without a crate situation? The first fight may have been from that.
3- Advice without details is an overall recommendation for the next 6 months.
- Rid the house and yard of ALL toys and bones.
- Clean under all furniture, somewhere there is a toy or treat hiding. find it.
- Feed your dogs in a supervised room. 8 feet apart- Neither dog is permitted to check out the other food bowl, even when empty.
- IF either dog tends to move toward the other dogs food, that dog must be on a leash until finished feeding.
- NEVER leave an food bowls down after 10 minutes of supervised feeding. Pick them up and wash them after each meal (even if they have not finished or even started eating.)
4- There are valid reasons for all this, but my time is limited to explain.
PRAY, always PRAY for your dogs.
With GOD, all things are possible, I have seen many such cases be completely remedied.
K9-Jack
Longshot Farms