How to Keep Dogs in the Same House From Fighting

By Melissa Maroff

Instructions

Step 1:
Familiarize yourself with the different types of dog aggression. For instance dominance, fear-induced, food guarding, owner protective, possessive, territorial or play escalation.
Step 2:
Establish the cause of aggression by observing the onset. Is it over food? Did it start off as playing?
Step 3:
Try to prevent a repeat once you suspect the cause. For instance, supervise your dogs when they eat and train them not wander over to each other’s bowls.
Step 4:
Try to determine whether the aggressive dog simply plays rough and acts pushy, or is seriously aggressive. One way is to observe a fight that breaks out. Dogs that don’t want to inflict damage grab around the ears, sides of the neck and shoulders. True aggressors aim for the front legs, the throat, the belly and the eyes. The non-aggressor may grab the aggressor by the ear and hold on, so that the aggressor cannot get to his throat.
Step 5:
Reward the victim of aggression. For instance, by giving just him a treat or petting only him.
Step 6:
Reward the aggressor for ignoring the victim. For instance, in the case of a dog that habitually redirects her aggression on her more passive housemate when she can't get to another dog that passes by the fence.
Step 7:
Take the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em approach" if the above steps don't work. The traditional school of controlling aggression is to clearly establish who the top or "alpha" dog is by greeting, feeding and letting the alpha dog out first so that the more submissive or "beta" dog will follow his lead. However, keep in mind this doesn't always work with a truly aggressive dog.

Tips & Warnings

Take your aggressive dog to the vet for a checkup to eliminate the possibility of a medical condition being the cause of aggression.
Opposite sex dogs or dogs of different sizes do not guarantee a "match made in heaven."
Never pet an aggressive dog to calm her. By doing so you are reinforcing the bad behavior and thus allowing it to continue.
Separate aggressive dogs from other dogs whenever they are unsupervised to avoid a dangerous situation.

Photo/Video Credit

Photo by Neil Edwards

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