Fight between my dogs yesterday evening has me concerned

[Deborah and Molly]

Last night I was in the kitchen cleaning up after supper and my two smaller dogs (Jug – 20lbs and Bug – 40+lbs) got into a fight over a rawhide bone.  This is a fairly regular occurrence with these two.  They are vicious, serious, “I want to rip your head off” fights when they occur and have sent both of them to the vet for facial injuries.  The fight last night was different because Molly, my 7 month old doodle, heard the commotion and jumped in herself (in the past she has tried to run from it.)  Molly immediately grabbed the smaller dog by the scruff of the neck and began to shake her while the other dog continued to bite.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!  I grabbed Molly by her collar and pulled her away, she let go of the small dog but definitely wanted to get back into the fight.  My husband managed to get the two smaller dogs separated.  My poor little Jug was trembling and breathless.  I inspected her and found that her ear had been bitten…again and she had 2 puncture wounds on her neck.  As of last night, there will be no more rawhides in the presence of the two smaller dogs; Molly will only be allowed those when she is confined to her crate.

My question is what happened to my sweet, loveable, furry 7 month old puppy?  Is this a sign that she will be aggressive or was she caught up in the moment?  I was so upset by this last night, and I’m still in shock this morning wondering what I need to do now so that this doesn’t happen again over something else.

Has this happened to anyone else, what did you do, did it happen again?

 

[Adrianne Matzkin]

I cannot give you more advice then to say rawhides need to banned from your home for all 3 dogs. They are obviously too high a value and that brings out a nasty side. Get Molly an antler, which cannot be chewed up and chocked on.

I don't think she is aggressive since this is the first time she got into the meley. Sounds like she was protecting Bug. But no matter what she was thinking, it is a behavior that is not acceptable by anyone. The rawhides are the catalyst to these fights. Stop the rawhides and stop the fights. 

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

They can get caught up in the moment for sure.  Rawhide can bring out the worst, so I agree with Adrianne and would not feed it to your dogs since the two small ones fight already over them.  Just remove that from the situation. 

I also don't think you should be too worried about her behavior at this point.  Make sure you are practicing "leave it" and "drop it" with her.  Peri gets very territorial over her antlers and sometimes growls at Taquito (my chihuahua) but she never acts on it and I can tell her to drop it and she hands it to me immediately.  Make sure you start training these commands - at only 7 months old, they are good commands for her to know and obey consistently.

 

 

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I know when we watched my daughter's dog and I made the mistake of giving each dog a bone, Vern got very naughty and went after my DD's dog. He was about 6 months old and I immediately removed the bones and never gave another one while all three dogs were here. Now, if I give Fudge and Vern a marrow bone, I always supervise initially, but the two of them have never had a problem. I think it was three dogs and Molly got caught up in the moment. I would no longer give them rawhide and work on the "leave it and drop it" command, so that you can always take any item away from them. I hope all your dogs are fine.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I have no advice, just to say I'm sorry this happened. I've never seen my dogs fight but if I did I would totally freak out too. I hope you find a solution!

[Marnie, Stanlee's Mom]

I have an eight year old 100lb mutt that isn't food agressive but he DOES guard his bones when the pup (Stanlee) is around.  Cooper doesn't attack Stan but we all know what that growl sounds like that can lead to fights.  To solve the problem I removed the bones.  Cooper (the older fella) is very good about "dropping" if he is hogging a toy or not wanting to share.  He knows immediately if I tell him to drop something that he has gone too far and gives me the "I'm sorry puppy dog" eyes.  The aggression has never gotten out of hand at my house because the dogs have never been given any kind of bone or chewie unsupervised - ever.  They are dogs, even the best behaved dog can have an "I don't want to share" day.

 

It's a horrible thing when your dogs fight; I know, I've been there in the past.  I too don't think the pup will be aggressive IF she doesn't learn bad behavior from her siblings.  Remove the trigger item and ban the rawhide from your home. 

 

BTW, are rawhide bones the only thing that make your other smaller dogs fight?

[Deborah and Molly]

Molly has been to Obedience 1 training and I'm working with her on those commands (look, sit, down, stay, come, place, leave it) before moving to Obedience 2.  It's funny because when it happened, I was so shocked, it never crossed my mind to give a command to her.  I don't know that she would have listened at this point in her training.

The other two dogs (both 7 yrs) have been fighting, since we got them, over the oddest things and sometimes over nothing other than they walked by each other and one stepped into the other one's space.  You never know when they'll fight or over what.

[Ginny Nightingale]

I agree that rawhide is a big no-no--at any time!! But if you give them high value treats like a cow hoof (plain, unfilled and usually much safer then rawhide) or anything else, use gates or a crate until the boundaries are established. I think that young puppies automatically avoid fights, but they do change as they get older and the three dogs you have are trying to establish the pecking order.  Since these fights are serious ones, you can't really just let them "fight it out" like you can when it just involves a bit of growling and snapping.

My youngest doodle was in charge from the day he was old enough to assert himself, even though he was just 3 or 4 months old and one of the other dogs in the room was his mom!! My other two doodles drop anything he wants almost immediately. I am not happy about this, since he thinks he is king of the hill and tries to apply it with ANY dog he sees! But at least, in the house, there are no  fights. I can give each of them anything and they will not fight over them but the alpha male will take the others treats and they don't put up a fight. I make sure, though that I can ALWAYS take things back away from him--I always have to be the "top dog" and so far, no problem there. 

In your case, you have more then one "alpha" and they will fight if you don't try to avoid the situations that cause it. Also a good idea is to have a good water bottle on hand that is set on stream. You can use it to distract them in a fight and they will stop when the water hits them. I just have to pick up the water bottle now and my alpha male is subdued. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I would definitely remove anything that would cause competitiveness or guarding behaviors.  I would be concerned about the way in with Molly joined the fight.  I think she probably did get overly excited and stimulated by what she was seeing and naturally your reaction would be one of stress as well.  What would worry me was her picking up and shaking the smaller dog.  I personally would want to talk with a real good trainer about exactly how to respond to this.

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

I agree with Jane, I would want to get a good trainer involved in addition to banning the bones.  It's picking up the smaller dog and shaking it that would concern me.  She doesn't sound aggressive but she's in a stressful situation when the other two fight. Wishing you luck...  

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

We had a training session this morning and I mentioned this to my trainer.  He feels that the real issue is the two smaller dogs, and that Molly was reacting to that unstable aggressive energy.  He did say that it is "normal" dog reaction to want to stop the "fighting behavior" if the humans are not taking a strong lead.  The main concern is the way in which she did it.  When they hold the dog and shake it like Molly did, they are trying to break the neck.  At that point it has gone beyond a warning stage.  He certainly did not feel that this is an indication that Molly is an aggressive dog.....she was reacting to this specific situation.  He does feel though that you might want to think about getting some help from a trainer with your two smaller dogs.  Until you have them truly under control Molly could easily respond in this way again.  He said in simple terms the dog (Molly) is thinking "okay if you aren't going to handle this I am".  A response like Molly's is usually after there have been other episodes and the situation is not addressed.  Please keep us posted....I can imagine how upsetting this must be for you.

[Marnie, Stanlee's Mom]

That was really nice of you to discuss this with your trainier - good karma, great friend.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Yes, sadly I have seen my doodles do this very same shake to death behavior in our yard with various rodents : (