I like to remind people with the (general) statement, "space is EVERYTHING to dogs". Thank you for open honesty here, and sharing how you handled this situation. Like you mention 99% of people will immediately separate after a situation like this, rather than address together. Good and helpful topic!

I totally agree with you about the three triggers of dog fights in the home. I have to be very aware of what I do with my two dogs. I have a six year old Anatolian Shepherd named Lulabelle and a one year old lab /pit /huski/boxer mix. I can’t pet my one year old Oliver first without petty Lulabelle first. I give Lulabelle her food first before I give Oliver his or all hell breaks loose. Yet Lulabelle loves Oliver and lets me know if he has to go outside. Dogs are crazy.

This is a topic that comes up on many fb groups and other SM discussions so it's worthy of a deeper dive into causes and solutions.

I have two females. My oldest was guarding a papertowel that somehow blew into our back yard, and the younger challenged her. Unfortunately the younger realized she was bigger than my oldest now and decided that she wanted to be the alpha female of the household. Now she tries to murder her older sister, full on rage aggression for her, and has instigated fights by trying to dominate her with stares. My eldest doesnt want to give up her status. They simply cannot be together at the same time anymore and its sad.

@Mike20274

Ай бұрын

Our 2 males have been separated for about a year now, their last fight put me in the hospital breaking it up. I have a baby gate separating them inside the house, and they are never untethered together outside. :(

@seananthonybenoit

Ай бұрын

@@Mike20274 sounds like we need to swap some dogs around. Lol. What kind of dogs are they?

@Mike20274

Ай бұрын

@@seananthonybenoit Rottweiler and a Shepherd/Malinois mix, we definitely need to swap. They had some small tussles the 1st few years but for the most part got a long. At 3 to 4 years old the fights were pretty vicious.

@seananthonybenoit

Ай бұрын

​@@Mike20274where are you located? It would be hilarious if this kind of a swap would work successfully, and that they'd all have loving homes where they have a bit more freedom. Our lab/curr kinda mix is extremely sweet with humans and our baby and cats, but just awful with her sister. I think we'd be ok with rehoming her since she's the best scenario for a new acclimated environment. She's trainable and the other is just a staffy that's had hip surgery, our lab mix is very healthy and hasn't had any issues or prior situations other than instigating a fight with her sister for alpha status.

I'm sorry to hear about the health status of Buddy and Luca. I've seen them in videos, and it makes me sad to hear they are not doing well.

when i had 2 dogs i would give them moments of one on one attention and moments of group attention. when one got a chew treat so did the other. when my older dog wanted to lay calmly and uninterrupted i would call my younger dog back and give him something else to do. its important to get them to work well and live well together but its also important to give them one on one time.

Thanks so much for your transparency, Larry. It's helpful, instructive, and validating to know that these things happen even with professional dog trainers.

Sorry to hear the 2 are ailing

I am so guilty of doing all the wrong things, would love to hear more about this topic. Two female heelers (I didn’t know, ok?!?!), they went to board and train and really improved, and then back home they regress. Yeah I know it’s me but how do I not be so scared of more fights?

Very well said Larry! Thanks as always for sharing your wealth of knowledge and helping us all with our pups. Also, very sorry to hear about Luca and Buddy's health...we never get enough time with them.

Thank you as always Larry for, always sharing everything so authentically. A great reminder that the ‘small’ details matter to dogs and their owners mutual success! We ALL have slip ups just like our clients and it’s so overwhelmingly important to share the details of our (dog trainers) slip ups as us to are only human at the end of the day just like our clients. Props to you Larry 🤘

I appreciate this video. The details is what matters. Little things start snowballing. Thanks to this video I am looking for more things in their behavior

Thank you for the honesty here, Larry. Helps us mere mortals learn from our mistakes and know that experts like yourself also deal with life with dogs.

Yep. I went 7yrs no fights until I brought a service dog in training into the house with my service dog. Fight was over space-passing in the hallway, over me and my attention. That was over 10yrs ago and I’m still not confident I could handle two females and guarantee a fight won’t happen between my service dog and service dog in training due to the attention thing. Still looking into it. I thought I did everything I could last time… I won’t put a dog in that position unless I am sure I can prevent such a thing from happening again. No damage done but still not ok.

I am fairly new here.... very smart video. Thanks for telling me how it really is when you have multiple dogs of same sexes living together. I agree with this about raising them inside the home. I have raised, trained, and bred European German Shepherds for many years. I no longer breed, but i worked hard to keep a cohesive pack. I have more females than males, and there have been a few times when i have seen inappropriate body language from a couple of the females.(the posturing, getting in their space and being stiff, raising the tail). I have had a couple of small spats, and they know the rules.... i am under 5', and at times, my males can weigh close to me, but I dumped a cup of water on the 2 girls once. It is the space intrusion and attention. I've seen it, i pet 1, and the other more dominant working female gets up and gets in the space. She gets told to sit and wait. I haven't had spats in years....knock on wood!!!! 😊 I do feel that spaying a female doesn't change the attitude or dominant trait if they have it vs cutting a male.... uggg, sometimes i think they sucked their brains out...😅😅😅 I also think you're right about others training your dog, leaving, etc...is a real problem. If you don't train your dog, put in the work, and you dont learn. Usually, the dogs behavior is caused by the humans. I used to train others' dogs and stopped because of that. I dont use ecollars unless it's a matter of safety for the dog, say a dog running off...., i dont like treats unless it's a puppy. I use a specific ball or tug for that dog. I personally force the dog to do something. I verbally encourage, teach, and verbally reward with an im happy with what you did. People need to remember that humans can't walk, talk, read, and write when they are born. They need to treat dogs the same. Teach.... but if you dont participate in that teaching, you aren't learning....you don't learn body language that the dog is sending. You don't learn from your mistakes. I started as an 8-year-old 4-H kid and took private lessons because my dog, a Norwegian Elkhound, thought dragging me everywhere was better than learning. That was my 1st experience with an ecollar. She got away from me at dog class and got hit by a car, after she recovered....she did it again!!!! So it was to teach her, when I say halt....do it. Not because im mean, but because i dont want you to die. I ended up taking her all the way to Utility in Obedience, She was amazing in Conformation, in both 4-H and AKC as a Jr Handler. I was in Dog World Magazine at age 13, and at 16, I got a college scholarship from Purina. The first 2 years, i begged and pled to stop dog training. Im SO GLAD my dad said NO. She is your dog, you will take care of her for her entire life, and that means training her. She lived for 13 years and just died in her sleep next to my old bed when i was in college. I have been training dogs for 49 years. 😊 My passion is for German Shepherds and the higher drive working/herding or guardian type breeds.

I have two intact female WL German Shepherds, and a very jealous Aussie. In order to avoid fights, I learnt very early on that as the human, I need to have ULTIMATE control. When I say Enough, it's Enough. I am the one with the brain and the eyes to watch for silly little Aussie noses poking themselves into German Shepherd space to get attention. It's MY responsibility to keep them safe and I take it very seriously. A very serious topic. I think more people need to talk about the importance, as well as control by the human, of keeping a pack together emotionally. Long walks together, off-leash time together, travel together, play together, etc etc. It's not just about control, though that's step 1 for safety's sake imo. They need to see each other as friends and family.

I have 2 dogs that I have failed so far, not out of nowhere looking back and watching your videos there were signs I missed and now my 2 female dogs for 4 days now hate each other my husky/boxer/ pit mix is terrified of my blue nose pit but she nean mugs her to instigate a fight I say something and jump up the 2 fights they've gotten into, when you say work with the dog in front of the other dog what exactly do you mean? I've started on more obedience for one, they are no longer allowed to sleep in bed or even in my space without being invited I have 3 dogs total I want to fix their relationship me and my boyfriend have started exercising them more mentally and physically I want to do whatever it takes for them to love each other again

Please help--I appreciate this because we have gotten two rescue res dogs in the last 5 months, now 9 mos and 13 mos, and we are definitely dealing with the space/attn/affection aspect inside and outside. The outside "rough playing" seems to get aggressive to me and is not acceptable (and starting to carry over into other dog interactions), but I have NO idea how to deal with this except firmly commanding to stop, which sometimes works, but not definitely nowhere near 100%, and more so with one of the two dogs (the heeler/pittie mix is harder...). SO...what should I be doing to stop both the competition and ensuing battle? I completely see it, I just don't have any idea what to do.

What are your thoughts on altered male and intact male fights? Does making the two "work" together really help with fighting? My 10 year old male ACD, I had no choice in altering him, he's a rescue. He goes from hard to soft, back to hard again in the blink of an eye. My 3 year old intact male, he's a nice, steady "firm" dog. He did an 8 week stint at a board and train, bc I was desperately behind pet training him; I thought raising him for stock work was a good idea. He doesn't like livestock work, so we're just going to do conformation. I've got stares, dirty looks, and the inevitable fight. Meanwhile, my husband is trying to coax my altered blue bitch out from under the bed with all the commotion. We're doing crate and rotate along with structured walks. Everyone keeps saying the only way to keep 2 male ACDs in the same household is if they "work" together. Everyone I know with more than a male female pairing, those dogs are kept for farm work and show. I really like my intact dog intact, I think his cognition and decision making far exceeds my altered dog and bitch. His muscling is just beautiful to look at. My husband is convinced our youngest should be altered once we get his champion conformation title. Maybe I need sheep, lol.

Clean the lens bro❤

What if you and a friend's dogs don't get along?

@Gimpinalong

Ай бұрын

Don’t let the dogs have contact. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I have 2 dogs that I have failed so far, not out of nowhere looking back and watching your videos there were signs I missed and now my 2 female dogs for 4 days now hate each other my husky/boxer/ pit mix is terrified of my blue nose pit but she nean mugs her to instigate a fight I say something and jump up the 2 fights they've gotten into, when you say work with the dog in front of the other dog what exactly do you mean? I've started on more obedience for one, they are no longer allowed to sleep in bed or even in my space without being invited I have 3 dogs total I want to fix their relationship me and my boyfriend have started exercising them more mentally and physically I want to do whatever it takes for them to love each other again