What Is Your Rule For Dogs That Fight In The Same Household?

Okay…. here’s the deal on dogs that fight. I’m going to be somewhat general here, so if there’s still something that doesn’t make sense, feel free to post a question to our discussion board, on the internet:

– In most cases, if you have a male and a female in the house, they’ll work it out.

– In most cases, if you have a much older dog (but not geriatric) and a much younger dog (one year or less) they’ll work it out.

– In most cases, if you have two dogs that have been living with each other successfully for a number of months, they’ll work it out.

There may be some minor cuts and scratches, but after two or three little scuffles, they’ll work it out. If you break them up and don’t let them work it out, then– in general– the next time they get together and go fight, it’s going to be worse than it normally would have been. This is general advice, and YOU are ultimately the one who must make a judgement call.

Personally, my general rule is that if there’s no blood or gripping, I’ll let them work it out (this, of course is if the dogs are housemates. NOW, if you’ve got two dogs of similar age and sex, and they HAVE NOT been living together. And you introduce them, and they go at it, no holds barred to kill each other: — You can train them independently so that they’ll respect YOU!

This means that, as long as you’re around, and the two dogs are around you, everything will be cool. They’ll be normal. But the minute you leave them alone (if you go out to dinner) all bets are off. In this type of sitution, I’d confine the dogs when I’m not there. Again, this would be the type of situation where I’m already so dominant to these dogs, that I can break them up with a simple voice command of “No.” and they won’t think of doing this again.

If you can’t command this type of control (gets back to how skilled a dog handler you are) then it’d probably be easier to place one of the dogs in another home. — On a somewhat related note, I never allow my personal dogs to interact with random dogs that I don’t know. That means, if I go for a walk with the dog by the beach, and someone lets there dog start to come up to mine, I’ll get WAY in front of my dog, and restrain the other dog, or chase him off with body language, if he’s off leash.

You cannot account for the wide variety of temperaments out there, and everytime a stranger lets his dog come up to yours, you’re taking a roll of the dice. I know, I know… they always say, “My dog’s friendly….” — but they don’t know. Even if they did know, they certainly don’t know what my dog’s temperament is like, and therefore they are either ignorant, or stupid. Better safe than sorry.

-Adam