Fear: How to Help Your Dog Overcome It
By Kathy Diamond Davis
Article source : http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1612
Dogs can develop fear of any person, place or thing. Considering that the same thing happens in humans, this isn’t surprising.
Dogs inherit their temperaments from the dogs who make up the family tree. A confident mom and dad don’t guarantee confident offspring, though, since dogs further back in the bloodline may have planted genetic surprises that hide for a generation or even a few generations. Dogs have less reasoning ability to overcome their “hardwired” genetic behaviors than humans do, so a poor genetic temperament can be difficult or even impossible to overcome.
Physical health plays a major role in dog temperament, too. Unable to explain that something hurts, a dog will try to avoid that painful situation. Some dogs do this by moving away if they are free to do so, but these dogs as well as the more assertive types may react aggressively to ward off something they know from experience is going to hurt. With any fearful or aggressive dog behavior, medical issues are the first thing to consider.
Once a dog has begun to react with fear, correcting the original trigger of the behavior is not always enough to change the dog’s habit of reacting that way. The earlier you intervene, the better your chances of relieving the fear. Recovery is faster when you start rehabilitating the fear sooner. In fact if you work through it immediately after the scary event happens, you may be able to alleviate the fear in just one session. In such a case you’re dealing with a first impression rather than an established fear.
Don’t count on this quick fix, though. Be prepared to continue helping the dog at a pace comfortable over the long haul for as long as it takes. Your patience and willingness to work through tiny steps will in and of itself take pressure off the dog and speed the process. Slower is literally faster when it comes to this type of work with your dog.
Prevention
Puppies who have the right early life experiences have the best chance of developing confident personalities that cope well with life and have the ability to bounce back from stresses. The temperament the puppy inherits from its ancestors will always be a limiting factor on just how healthy the personality can be. But the right handling will make the most of whatever strengths are there, and help to limit the problems from the dog’s inherent temperament weaknesses.
Providing a puppy with the right early experiences is more complicated than it seems. Puppies can stoically endure events in their lives, apparently be fine, and then show serious fear reactions from those events as their defense drives emerge with maturity.
Yet keeping a puppy protected from any potential fear or stress doesn’t work, either. Part of growing up to become confident is learning that scary things can have happy endings. Another part is learning that you can overcome something scary. On the other hand, puppies can get carried away in the enjoyment of overcoming and become aggressors.
Puppies who have too little stress in early life can grow up lacking the ability to handle stress. Puppies who have no frustrations can grow up unable to cope with frustration, and unable to take “no” for an answer. This can happen to pups who grow up in one-puppy litters with no littermates to compete with, and to pups removed from the mother dog prior to about 7 weeks of age.
Into every life, no matter how adorable, a little rain must fall. Otherwise the pup will not be equipped to cope with the inevitable storms of later life. This is not only tough on the people and other dogs who will have to cope with this dog later, but it can also set the dog up for stress and unhappiness in life. The right experiences give your pup the best chance of a full and happy life.
Puppy kindergarten classes have saved many a puppy and family from dire problems later. A good class will help the family find the right balance of taking the puppy out for positive experiences and setting limits for the puppy. Class can also teach the family the dog-handling and management skills to make it all work.
Puppies seem deceptively easy to rear. It’s actually a sophisticated and potentially exhausting job to properly raise a puppy. The breed of dog is a factor in the degree of difficulty, as is the care that has been taken by the breeder. Good genetic decisions about the dogs in the bloodline combined with excellent handling in the puppy’s earliest weeks are both critical factors in the dog your puppy will become.
For people not equipped or interested in raising puppies, plenty of dogs who are past this difficult and uncertain life stage need homes. Instead of “inheriting someone else’s problems,” as some tend to view adopting adult dogs, you are quite likely to find yourself blessed by the love and care someone has invested in the dog’s early months. Either way, the dog’s personality is much more evident and testable than is the future personality of a puppy.
Common Fears
Several things seem to haunt the minds of a great many fearful dogs. Let’s look at some of these, why they may develop, and hints for working through them.
Vacuum Cleaners and other Household Appliances
Vacuum cleaners make weird noises. Their use involves a person thrusting the thing around the room in gestures that wouldn’t make any sense to a dog. The concept of cleaning a floor, other than by eating any food spilled on it, would also be foreign to a dog’s way of thinking. There’s not much about a vacuum cleaner for a dog to like! The occasional herding dog will chase it because it moves, and some dogs will “attack” or threaten it because it isn’t acting right!
Adding treats to vacuuming time can work through this fear. If the dog is really traumatized about the device, you may need to start with setting up the vacuum cleaner and giving the dog treats in the next room. Over several sessions you can move the treat-giving closer, never faster than the dog’s comfort level can handle. Do the process with the vacuum off, next with the vacuum cleaner running, and finally with the vacuum cleaner moving. While going through this program, put the dog in a different place whenever you vacuum so as not to undo all the good conditioning by scaring the dog again.
To condition your dog to appliances that merely make noise without lunging around the room, use the same process. For these appliances as well as the vacuum, you can use not only treats, but also meal times (place the dog’s dish increasingly closer to the scary thing, a little closer with each meal) and games. Dogs who like to fetch have a real advantage, because retrieving is so motivating to dogs.
The dishwasher is an interesting case. Dishwashers that open with a big movement can cause dogs to dash out of the room. But if your dog likes to try to sneak a lick off a dirty dish when you open the dishwasher, there’s a built-in treat. Some of these enterprising dogs love dishwashers. That makes it your job to avoid hurting the dog with the dishwasher door, or letting the dog eat spoiled food. Dishwasher soap can be toxic.
The dishwasher would be a case for teaching the dog to calmly remain in the room but back from danger. Reward the dog for keeping his head OUT of the dishwasher!
Lawnmower
For similar reasons to the fear of vacuum cleaners, some dogs are afraid of lawnmowers. This seems to be less common, probably because we use lawnmowers in the open air, not in enclosed spaces where dogs feel trapped and the noise reverberates off the walls like the vacuum cleaner. There are dogs who run from lawn mowers, though, and even worse, dogs who will try to “attack” a lawnmower. Running lawnmowers are extremely dangerous to dogs. Always remove your dog from the yard being mowed and keep the dog in a safe place until the lawnmower is turned off.
Slippery Floors
Fear of walking on vinyl or other smooth floors is common. Fear begets more fear in this case, because when the dog slips even more from tensing up and trying to hold tight to the floor with toenails. Sometimes the events that trigger these fears are invisible to the human eye. A puppy slips and hits her chin on the floor, hard. Other parts of the body can take similar licks when feet slip. Dogs seem to have trouble at times managing all four feet at once. Unless they develop the skill for some reason-such as special training or games-they may find it awkward to walk backwards or to get their feet under control when one or more feet slip.
For dogs with orthopedic problems including hip dysplasia, walking on smooth floors can be painful. Make physical changes to aid these dogs. You can put rubber-backed rugs across the floor as a pathway for the dog. If the slick floor is not at your home but rather is someplace you’re visiting, you could either carry the dog or transport the dog across that floor on wheels.
If you know the fear is not based in a physical problem, use mealtimes to work through it. Mealtimes are opportunities to work on fears of slick floors that you know are not based in physical problems. Place the dish in a spot relative to the smooth floor where the dog seems comfortable. Meal by meal, gradually move the dish further and further into the room with the smooth floor.
Continuing to feed the dog on this floor-provided it doesn’t hurt the dog to walk on it-can help maintain the dog’s ability to cope with smooth floors. Be alert, though, for changes in the dog’s body that mean it is no longer humane to ask the dog to walk on this floor. Most dogs develop orthopedic problems as they age, and injuries that cause these problems are extremely common at younger ages, too. At that point, add a rug walkway for the dog.
In situations where a dog walking on a smooth floor is unavoidable, look at possibilities for making the feet grip better or making the floor less slick. The way the floor is cleaned and treated makes a difference, and you’ll also want to promptly clean up any fluids spilled on the floor. Various things have been tried for making the feet grip better. Discuss safe options with your veterinarian. Dog show enthusiasts suggest creating a puddle of sugary soda pop on the floor and wetting the dog’s feet in it to make them sticky!
Sights and Sounds
Some dogs react fearfully to something that looks strange. Others are more reactive to things that sound strange. Sensitivities from one dog to another are largely rooted in the huge differences in how different dogs actually perceive the world. Dogs have been bred for such different tasks that their bodies are quite different from one another. Paying attention to your dog’s reactions will help you learn what kinds of things are likely to cause your dog to react. Whatever the fear, the principles outlined below will help you work through it.
People
When a dog reacts fearfully to a man, people tend to jump to the conclusion that a man has abused the dog in the past. Possibly that is the case, but often it’s a problem of lack of early social experience with men. Men, women, children, people wearing big hats, people in Halloween costumes and a wide variety of other human presentations can spook dogs who have not experienced that “style” of person before.
Of course, if there has been actual abuse or something has happened to frighten the dog in conjunction with that type of human, the dog’s fears will go deeper. Either way, the treatment is basically the same. Don’t let people force themselves on a fearful dog. In spite of hurt feelings on the part of the offended human, this process needs to be taken just as slowly as when dealing with any other fear.
Working Principles
With a severe fear that causes the dog to suffer, you need to enlist the help of a veterinary behavior specialist who can prescribe both the behavior modification protocol to deal with the fear as well as any indicated medication. When the fear places people in danger because the dog reacts aggressively, that’s another case for in-person expert help.
Similarly, get help quickly with an extremely fearful puppy. The right intervention can do so much more for a puppy during early development than if you let this opportunity pass and the habit of fear to become stronger with time.
Whether working on your own or with the help of a specialist, the following principles are typically part of working through a dog’s fear:
1. Have a veterinarian examine the dog and perform any indicated tests to diagnose problems that could be causing pain, sickness or disability. Work with the veterinarian to treat the problem and ease the dog’s physical pain. Bring the dog back to the veterinarian regularly.
Don’t assume that a problem brought under control at one point will never need further treatment. Make any indicated changes in treatment to keep the dog comfortable.
This requires detective work! Dogs have a survival instinct to hide their pain, because an animal showing weakness in the wild gets killed. Look hard for possible physical problems, rather than expecting the dog to cry out in pain or otherwise “tell you.”
2. Assess the problem:
a. Do you know of an event that started the fear?
b. Is the thing the dog fears actually dangerous and/or likely to cause pain to the dog? How are you going to keep your dog safe?
c. Are people or other animals being placed in danger by the dog’s behavior and if so, how are you going to put a stop to that danger right now?
d. How can you protect the dog from experiencing this fear while you work through the behavior modification steps?
e. Is it necessary for the dog to cope with this situation, or could things reasonably be managed to simply keep the dog away from it from now on?
f. If you determine it’s better to protect your dog from this situation rather than trying to treat the fear, give the dog time to get used to your new plan. Chances are you’ll be surprised to see how much happier your dog becomes.
3. To treat the fear, plan the steps for conditioning your dog gradually to the feared thing. Plan how you are going to start at a DISTANCE from the feared thing, with it functioning at a low INTENSITY for periods of short DURATION. Plan how you will, over time, gradually reduce the distance, increase the intensity, and expose the dog to the feared thing for periods of longer duration. Plan how you will increase one variable at a time.
4. Determine what things this dog finds rewarding. For the greatest chance of success, you’ll want to use as many of them as possible. Incentives include: food treats the dog likes, food treats the dog goes crazy for, regular meals, retrieving, games with you the dog enjoys playing, special toys reserved for special times, “happy-timing” the dog with a jolly attitude (using excited voice and body language to convey to the dog that is a happy thing), privileges such as a walk or ride in the car, and anything else THIS dog likes.
If you can’t come up with anything your dog finds rewarding, developing these motivators is your first training goal! You may need the help of a behavior specialist or trainer. One option is to break the dog’s daily food into more, smaller meals. Some or even all of the food can be fed by hand, depending on what works best for your conditioning program.
5. Discontinue all exposure of the dog to the feared thing. Start your conditioning program at the distance, intensity and duration where your dog happily accepts rewards. Advance very slowly toward your goal of having the dog comfortable with the feared thing so that the dog will be able to function happily around it in the future. Be patient and take as long as needed to avoid pushing the dog too fast. If you trigger the dog’s fear during this process, that’s a big setback, so keep the progress slow enough to avoid that.
6. Reward your dog at times the dog is showing confidence. Avoid rewarding fearfulness. Certainly don’t punish the dog for acting fearful! Just give the rewards at the moments when you see in your dog the state of mind that is your goal.
It Works!
Chances are good that at some point with every dog you’ll have the opportunity help the dog overcome a fear. Some dogs go through most of their lives with barely an apprehensive moment, and then get hit hard in old age when their bodies begin to fail and they don’t know how to cope. Now you know how to help your dog develop the ability to cope, at any age.
Spay/Neuter Behavior Benefits
By Kathy Diamond Davis
Article source : http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1570
Why do we spay female dogs and neuter male dogs? Spay/neuter helps produce healthy and good-tempered purebred dogs. Spay/neuter allows a breeder to remove dogs from breeding who should not be bred because some of their puppies and the people who lived with those puppies would suffer. Spay/neuter puts a stop to passing on undesirable genetic traits, while allowing the pup or dog being “culled” from the breeding program to go on and have a great life.
Another significant reason is that spay/neutered dogs do not produce puppies who join the population of unwanted dogs. Spay/neuter is part of the solution to having to put massive numbers of dogs to sleep because there are not enough homes for all of them.
But what’s in it for us? What’s in it for the dog who is spay/neutered instead of being left intact? What’s in it for the family who will live with that dog? After all, you could conceivably keep your intact dog from breeding-though you might be surprised at the difficulty that involves!
But let’s say you could do that and didn’t mind the inconvenience. Leaving breeding ability aside, why ELSE would you want your dog spay/neutered? Lots of really good reasons exist for doing this. Too often, people stop at the overpopulation reason and never get to the “good stuff” that will matter much more to the average dog and family. Let’s talk about the good stuff.
Males
A male dog who remains intact experiences a huge increase in testosterone in adolescence. At several months of age, the male’s testosterone level can be several times that of an adult male! This gives a real jump start to hormone-related behaviors, including urine marking in your house, aggression toward other male dogs, territorial aggression, and escape-oriented behavior in order to roam.
Some male dogs, especially tiny terriers and hounds, may be impossible to housetrain if you wait too long to neuter them. With all dogs, be guided by your veterinarian’s opinion as to the best time for spay/neuter. Six months to one year of age is usually about the right time.
For best behavioral results, it’s best not to wait past a year of age to neuter males. Once a hormone-triggered behavior has continued long enough, you can be dealing with a firmly entrenched habit that will not fade even after neutering. Frequently, neutering helps with behavior problems, even if done much later, so don’t give up on it just because you’ve missed the optimum time.
Intact male dogs tend to have more difficulty concentrating on tasks and to show erratic behavior in the vicinity of a female dog in heat. Intact males may not be able to eat or sleep when a female dog in heat is in the same house! Jumping fences to go after a female down the street is common, even in dogs who have never roamed before.
Your 1-year-old or 2-year-old intact male dog may be acting like a neutered male in terms of being easy to live with, but chances are that if you leave even an easy-going fellow intact to the age of 3 years, you’ll see undesirable behaviors. The age of 3 is prime time for an intact male dog to be involved with a terrible tragedy, such as those dogs who have killed children. Obviously, not all intact male dogs are aggressive child-killers. But the risk is increased, and parents need to know this, as does everyone who has a large-breed male dog. If you don’t have an important reason for breeding the dog, and the right facilities to keep the dog from harming anyone, why live with this increased risk?
If you want to take your dog out and about, whether for family outings, runs at the dog park, or pursuit of dog sports such as agility, the dog will function better if neutered. Dogs are much more the victims of their own instincts than humans, less able to override impulses.
What is Sex for Dogs?
When dogs mate, they usually tie. This means they are “stuck together” due to the structures of their reproductive organs. The tie tends to last around a half hour. Dogs do sometimes mate without a tie, so the lack of one doesn’t mean the encounter can’t result in pregnancy. Behaviorally, though, this is quite a different sexual experience than that of humans.
Female dogs invite breeding only when they are in heat/estrus, which comes approximately twice a year. That interval can vary by breed and by individual dog. Dogs often have “silent heats,” which can go undetected by their human families and result in the dog not being carefully confined during estrus and therefore winding up with an accidental pregnancy. Female dogs are often forcibly mated. This is surely not natural sexuality.
Looking to the wolf pack, not all members mate. The social structure of the pack and the environmental conditions at the time exert control over which pack members will mate on any given cycle in order to avoid overpopulation and starvation. Usually there will be one litter. If times are bad, there may be no pups at all.
The phenomenon of false pregnancy that is very common in female dogs may be to provide extra parenting for the pack’s pups. Female dogs who live together tend to cycle together, putting the non-impregnated females in false pregnancy at the same time the pregnant one has pups in need of nurturing.
Estrus in the wolf pack comes about once a year, but humans have selectively bred dogs to be more productive and thus more profitable to breed. The result is that breeding is not “natural” for dogs. Dogs who are spay/neutered can actually have more active social lives with other dogs than those who are intact. Intact dogs experience stresses that spay/neutered dogs are spared.
People get confused about dogs’ sexual attitudes toward humans. For example, a woman having her menstrual period is at the lowest estrogen level of her cycle. Conversely, a female dog in heat is loaded with estrogen. So the scent of a menstruating woman would not be sexually stimulating to a male dog or antagonizing to a female dog. If a dog seems to behave differently when a woman is having her period, it would be for other reasons.
It is wise to give your puppy opportunities to play with a puppy or gentle dog of the opposite sex from time to time when young. Though this play is seldom specifically sexual, it seems to help dogs develop sexual orientation toward other dogs, rather than toward humans, pillows, etc.
Females
Female dogs, like males, have an increased risk of aggression if left intact. Estrus can cause moodiness, and hormone changes in pregnancy can make some females downright aggressive. Her attitude can change overnight. If your dog is going to have contact with children, that’s another reason to seriously consider spay/neuter.
With estrus, intact female dogs may show erratic behavior, signs of pain that may be similar to cramping in humans, and a greatly increased propensity to get out of the house or fenced yard. Some dogs stay clean, while others may leave stains around the house. You won’t be able to leave her outdoors unsupervised for even a second because the scent of her urine (she will urinate quite frequently) attracts male from a mile or so away.
When a female dog is in heat, both she and the intact males in her vicinity will show changes of behavior, and many of the spay/neutered dogs in the vicinity will, too. It is not fun managing a female dog in estrous.
Many people spay their female dogs after one cycle, because it’s so much more difficult than they expected it to be. Many more spay their females after one litter because it’s not only more work and more heartbreak than they expected, but it’s also much more expensive. Spaying the dog prior to ever getting pregnant can spare both her health and her temperament from sometimes dramatic deterioration. Also, dogs can die attempting to give birth.
Two or more female dogs in the same home will in many cases not be able to get along, especially if one or more of them are intact. Like aggression problems with male dogs, if you wait until the fighting has already begun, fighting may have become a habit that will not be changed with the relief of the hormone pressures when you spay.
Female dogs will sometimes fight each other to the death. That would not be necessary in the wild, where one of them could be driven away to form a new pack. In our homes, it’s up to us to manage the dogs so that two incompatible animals are not forced to live together. Spaying dogs before they are fully mature increases the chance of them living together in peace.
Family vs. Career
An intact dog tends to expend a lot of attention and energy in the direction of reproduction. A spay/neutered dog retains the full character of its male or female identity, but has more attention and energy to devote to other things.
What things might a dog do instead of focusing on reproduction? Guide dogs are spay/neutered to help them focus on life aiding blind people. Other assistance dogs to people with disabilities are commonly spay/neutered, too, in part because it helps the dogs focus on work. Certain pups are set aside for breeding future guide dogs when they come from bloodlines of dogs who are serving well in the work and show themselves to be good prospects as they mature.
Since dogs produce litters rather than the single babies and occasional twins born to human, it’s not necessary for a huge percentage of dogs to reproduce. Plenty of future dogs can come from the carefully selected dogs who live with people with time and talent to devote to responsible breeding. This is a high calling, and we’re all indebted to those people who do it well. They are vital to the future of dogs. If this is what you want to do, find an expert breeder to mentor you, so that you’ll be producing from the best of dogs.
Most dogs have careers as companions to humans. Through this labor of love, they enrich and even extend our lives. Spay/neuter makes it easier for us to responsibly care for dogs, and increases the enjoyable activities we and our dogs can do together.
So now you know the behavioral benefits of spay/neuter. When there is no good reason to keep a particular dog intact for breeding, spay/neuter is a great way for you and your dog to live happily ever after.
Fighting Dogs
By Kathy Diamond Davis
Article source : http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=2303&S=1
Why do dogs fight? They fight for different reasons than humans do, which to us can be extremely confusing.
With the stakes sometimes being the life or death of a dog, we have powerful reasons to try to understand. At times we are not able to understand why a fight occurs, but we can find a way to keep the dogs safe.
Why Dogs Fight
People tend to assume all dog fights are over who is going to be top dog. Sometimes this is the case, but not always. Terriers are often an exception, with a trait of gameness bred into them by humans that makes them fight…just because. Terrier experts advise that people not keep terriers of the same sex together for this reason.
Dogs of opposite sex have a good chance of living together without serious fights, if you observe certain management practices. They will often fight to the point of injury over food, valued chew items, or highly desirable toys. Include in this category the dead squirrel in the back yard and the garbage they raided. Management of any situation with more than one dog needs to prevent these competitions. Dogs need to be separated for food and toys they value highly and to be supervised outdoors; you also need to keep garbage where they cannot get to it.
Male dogs have a hierarchy within the pack and females have a separate one. If you have one male and one female, he is top male and she is top female. To keep two dogs, this is the easiest, safest, and least stressful for the dogs.
You may see a male appear to aggressively knock a female into line by pushing her back from the fence or taking toys away from her—low-value toys that neither of them cares enough about to fight over. This is typically about him protecting the pack. Watch her reaction and you’ll probably notice she is not upset and even seems reassured by his macho pose. In the wild, this would be his job.
You’ll also probably notice he urine-marks the fence line, and urinates over her urine, too. This is his way of telling her and any intruders outside that line that she is under his protection, at the cost of his own life if need be. While you always need to keep an eye out that your dogs are not injuring each other, your interference in this process could actually cause injuries. It is important not to throw off their ability to read each other’s lightning-fast body language.
Quite a few breeds have the problem of same-sex dogs not being able to live together in peace. Before adding another dog of the same sex to your home, consult breed experts about this trait in all the breeds involved. If the dogs are mixes, you need to know this about all breeds in the mix. This is a strong trait, likely to be expressed even in a mix, especially if you make any mistakes in dog-keeping.
Growing up with another dog of the same sex–whether the dogs are father-son, mother-daughter, littermates, unrelated puppies, or a puppy who grows up with an unrelated adult dog—does not mean the dogs will get along when both are adults. Instincts come online as dogs mature that tell them to form workable packs.
In nature, if the combination of dogs is not compatible, one of them leaves to join or form a new pack. In our homes, they are trapped and cannot do this. Thus it becomes our responsibility as part of the humane care of our dogs to protect them from the stress and danger of dog fights.
Male dogs have a better chance of working out a stable pack order with each other than females, but the dog forced into submission may take it hard in terms of his self-esteem and working ability. The more male dogs you have, the lower the bottom dog sinks.
Female dogs are more likely to fight to the death than males because females have a harder time working out a stable pack order. Spaying the females can help, and neutering the males can help, but plenty of dog fights in the home involve spayed or neutered dogs.
Humans want to blame or even punish the dog they perceive to be the aggressor, and this is a mistake. If one of the dogs is clearly more suited to be leader and the dogs can establish that quickly, they have a chance of getting along. The peace treaty can change later, but at least it’s a start. If you thwart these early moves, you prevent them from having the safest resolution of pack order!
Some people advise backing the pack leader in order to quickly bring the dogs to pack order resolution. That might work if we could be sure which dog is leader. Most people can’t. Some dog groups work out a pack order that shifts according to the activity they are involved in at the time! The leadership role can change as things in the group change, too. If you must intervene, focus on stopping the fight, period. Avoid any punishment or favoritism. People usually do more harm than good that way.
You will hear many dog owners claim they are the leaders of their dog packs, and no fighting occurs because of that. We humans should be leader of the dogs in our homes. But we are not dogs and the dogs know it. We need to teach them to relate to humans as trustworthy leaders. Whether we want them to or not, dogs kept together will have a hierarchy within their group.
If you want your dogs not to have a pack order, you will need to keep them apart so you can prevent them from being a pack. This has advantages worth considering, especially if you are breeding, seriously training, fostering, or boarding dogs. If you manage your dogs carefully, you may be able to give them times together and not have fights because you can separate them at the times they would otherwise find it necessary to fight over resources.
Resources are a major reason for dogs to fight. To a dog, resources include food of every conceivable kind, anything the dog likes to chew, breeding rights to a dog of the opposite sex, and YOU. You are a resource for your dogs: your attention, your time, the space around you, your touch, outings with you, and the job of protecting you. If there is not enough of “you” for the number of dogs you have, that’s a big reason for fights.
Sometimes people think “What’s one more dog?” It may seem that since you already have a dog to feed and walk and board on vacations—or two, three or four dogs—one more would barely be noticed. Don’t believe it! The dogs surely don’t. Every dog you add increases the risk of serious fighting. If it has not started earlier, it likely will at the point of adding dog number four or five. As noted already, though, even two terriers of the same sex is “too many” in terms of fighting, and quite a few other breeds have that same issue.
A mother dog with pups is hard-wired to defend them. One day she may not, and the next day the hormones that trigger the behavior kick in. Do not expose her to the stress of other dogs or people upsetting her. The nest of a mother dog with her pups needs to be a calm, well-managed setting.
A dog who has previously been housed with another dog of the same sex and involved in fights with injuries should not again be housed with a dog of the same sex. He or she will fear it happening again, and that fear makes it more likely that it will. His or her future needs to be with either no other dog, or only a dog of the opposite sex.
Dogs who have been involved in serious fights with other dogs of the same sex are not at risk of aggression toward humans as a result. If they are also aggressive toward humans, it is for other reasons. Aggression toward other dogs and aggression toward humans are two entirely different things. If a human gets hurt in a dog fight, it’s from getting between the two fighting dogs—which you should NEVER do. Never let a child do it, either.
A fight causes an adrenaline rush in both dogs, and in that state they feel less pain, sometimes none (especially terriers). That is one reason they may fight to the death. If you get between them, they may bite you without even realizing it’s you.
Pain or illness can trigger fighting between same-sex dogs in the home by causing one of the dogs to self-protect. Dogs hide their weaknesses as a survival instinct. Weak pack members are killed in the wild.
Your interference can escalate an interaction between dogs and cause it to become much worse than it would otherwise have been. Every serious fight makes it more likely the dogs will fight again in the future. So, one reason dogs fight is because they were fussing and a human got into the act and turned it into a fight.
Fighting Outside Your Home
Dogs are pack animals, and a pack has a social order. Dogs working or playing together who do not live together only need to agree on workable rules for that time, not on a permanent pack structure. For this reason, getting along with other dogs of the same sex is different at home than in a neutral setting.
Working dog handlers can take that pressure totally off the dogs by simply keeping dog attention on the job and the handler. When the dogs are not allowed to interact with each other and each feels safe from attack by the other dogs, all the dogs are much better able to do their jobs.
In a social setting the same rules can be applied if all the dog handlers cooperate. You should never let your dog try to draw another dog into interaction unless that dog’s owner agrees to it first.
If you want the best chance of preserving your dog’s ability to work around other dogs, choose playmates with extreme care. Provide the dogs with a safe place to play. Complete the play session in a positive manner before the dogs get tired.
The gold standard of professionals when it comes to dog behavior is the veterinary behavior specialist. This a veterinarian who is board certified in the specialty of behavior. In order to maintain a veterinary license, insurance and a viable practice, this professional must observe a high standard of ethics. The educational qualifications are also quite high. You won’t go wrong by consulting a veterinary behavior specialist. If your dog’s problem is aggression or fear, this is where you need to start.
Trainers and other behavior specialists may or may not belong to professional organizations, may or may not have insurance, may or may not have education in the field, and ethics can range widely. Some are great at what they do, while some are just great at selling you on buying their services. Licensing is not required for these jobs. To use these types of professionals, get recommendations from highly qualified professionals—such as a veterinary behavior specialist who has assessed your dog, or your veterinarian—and go first without your dog to observe the person working with dogs. If what you see makes you uncomfortable or if the person won’t let you observe any sessions, don’t use that person’s services for your dog.
Don’t leave your dog for someone to train in your absence. Always be there. The benefits of training come from you learning to handle the dog, anyway. If you are not there, you’re not learning anything and you are not looking out for your dog.
Dogs do not need dog park play to live happy lives, and some dogs are unsuited for it. Forcing the issue will cause behavior problems that spill into other situations not as easy to eliminate from your dog’s life. For example, if you live in an apartment or condo and need to walk your dog around other dogs for elimination needs, aggression or paralyzing fear concerning other dogs is going to give you serious problems. Dog sports, dog jobs, and travel with your dog might be impossible.
If you’re going to try the dog park thing, do it with the right help for the best chance at experiences that will keep your dog safe and sane. At the first sign of problems, get expert help. Even if you decide to stop the dog park play, once there is a problem you need to start rehabilitation immediately. The longer you wait, the poorer the dog’s chances are of being successfully rehabilitated, and the problem may get much worse.
If you take a dog to visit a friend or relative’s house where a dog resides, be sure to go there equipped to keep the dogs completely separated. If by mutual consent the dog owners decide to try play sessions and it works, count your blessings. Even then, it’s wisest to keep the dogs separated whenever they’re not under skilled adult supervision.
The host dog should have the house freedom. The guest dog should spend more time in confinement. One thing this does is keep the dogs from thinking they have to work out a permanent pack order. It takes stress off them and reduces the risk of fighting.
Similarly, if you foster a dog or keep a dog for someone else, maintain differences between that dog and your own that help them realize the new dog is not a member of the pack. Otherwise you may put terrible stress on your own dog and make it impossible to ever safely have a dog visit again.
Tie outs increase dog aggression by putting the tied dog in the position of being trapped and going on the defensive. Being on leash can do the same thing. It’s made worse if the restraint is taut. Walking a dog on leash is not a good time to let dogs sniff each other. This is how a lot of people cause their dogs to become aggressive to other dogs on walks. Protect your dog from having to deal with other dogs when on leash.
Stopping a Dog Fight
Be careful not to put your focus on learning how to break up dog fights. If you have dogs who are fighting, the fights need to be immediately stopped by management and possibly remedial training. You don’t want one more fight to happen.
Punishment escalates fights and teaches the dogs nothing at all. So don’t punish either dog. Hitting or even yelling while dogs are fighting (or just fussing) can escalate it. Sometimes the best thing to do is step back, stay quiet, and wait. If it’s over in 10 seconds with no injuries, that’s a fuss, not a fight. There may be a lot of hope for remedial training.
Keep your hands off fighting dogs. Grabbing them is how people get bitten. Perhaps you are willing to take that risk for yourself in order to protect the dogs. But it’s worse for the dogs if you get bitten, too! Here’s why:
1. You are very likely to escalate the fight and set the stage for worse fights.
2. Your injury gets the dogs in more legal trouble, as well as more disfavor with other members of your family who will play a role in deciding the dogs’ fate.
3. If you are injured, you may not be able to take care of the dogs. If it’s bad enough, you may not even be able to go to work to earn the money to feed them and pay for their medical care. Dog bites can put you in the hospital, from infection as well as damage.
Rather than using your body, separate fighting dogs with physical barriers. Different things work for different dogs. Some things to try include:
1. Water spray from a hose—or maybe drop the hose between them.
2. Slam a door or make another noise as loud as you can. Try not to break the door.
3. Get a closed door between the dogs (good reason not to break the door when you slam it).
4. Pop open a large, automatic umbrella and get it between them.
5. Block them from each other with a folding chair or anything else you can use without getting your body between them.
6. Spray them with whatever your veterinarian recommends for the purpose.
7. Get a fence between the dogs, or get at least one of them into a crate or dog exercise pen.
8. If you know how and have help, you might need to pry the jaws of a clamped-on dog open. A sturdy wooden stick on each side may make it possible to do this without injuring the dog. In one case, the people separating the dog’s jaws from a smaller dog broke a broomstick and used the two halves.
Infection from bite wounds that can look minor is a risk. After any fight, a dog with injury needs to be checked by a veterinarian, even if injuries don’t look serious.
Management
Management starts with puppy experiences. Being frightened by other dogs as a puppy can set the little one up for fighting later. A pup’s instincts for proper dog social behavior are not ready until at least four months of age for the pup to be left alone with an adult dog. That’s a minimum—some cannot be safely left together until later, or ever.
Prior to this age, the puppy has a special scent that tends to inhibit aggression by adult dogs. It doesn’t work on all dogs, though, and puppy behavior toward other dogs can be truly outrageous. So supervise all your puppy’s dog-to-dog interactions.
Don’t leave dogs of any age together without skilled adult supervision until you’re sure that nothing would induce them to fight with each other. Obviously this time will never come with some dogs.
A lot of serious fights have happened when a relative or friend was left in charge of the dogs. Dog people may not be aware of the handling they just naturally do that helps prevent fights, such as how you administer treats and even how you come in the door.
One option is to board the dogs where they will be in separate runs. Another option would be to board one dog, though that imbalance can trigger fighting when the boarded dog is brought home. In fact, just your absence can disturb a shaky balance of power between same-sex dogs and tip it into fighting when they get back together, no matter how you provide for their care.
Other changes in the home that can trigger fighting between same-sex dogs include:
1. Adding a dog to the family.
2. A female dog in the household—or even a neighbor dog—going into heat.
3. A dog leaving or returning from illness, dog show, etc.
4. The death of a dog.
5. A dog becoming ill, injured, or impaired by age.
The pack is permanently changed by a dog having been there, even after that dog has gone. Two dogs who got along fine before you brought the other dog into the group may continue fighting they had begun while the dog was there, or begin fighting after that dog is removed.
Dog play serves the purpose of helping them work out their relationships with less or no fighting. If they can run together and push and shove each other, they demonstrate who is faster and stronger and bolder without violence. Space greatly helps this process, though spaces that are too large can increase the risk of injuries such as torn ligaments.
Fights and injuries become more likely when dogs get tired, so avoid overlong play sessions. Playing on ice or snow also increases these risks.
If you have a fenced yard and the dogs get along there, a few minutes of running together when you return home with a dog who has just been out with you can greatly relieve tension. It also gives all of them a chance to eliminate.
Close confinement together can make the dogs more likely to fight. Work with them as they pass through doorways and other small spaces to keep their attention off each other.
Use routines and structured activities that let the dogs know you do have time and resources for all of them. Give each of them separate times with you away from the house and away from the other dogs, on a schedule so that they realize each gets a turn. If you keep dogs separated, rotate them so that each gets equal time in the preferred area(s). If one dog earns treats, include the others. When one dog gets groomed, groom the others. If one needs to eat and the others don’t, give them a tiny bit in their dishes anyway.
In the case of two dogs who have seriously fought and now need to be kept permanently separated, carefully consider whether or not your household can handle this responsibility. Are there people in the family who cannot resist trying, when you are not around to stop them, putting the dogs together “just this once to see what happens”? This will destroy the dogs’ trust in the humans to keep them safe.
Accidents happen, and you want a margin of safety to give you time to calmly separate the dogs again. Careless handling can take away that margin. Sometimes the best thing for everyone, especially the dog at most risk of dying, is to place the most adoptable dog or the one you are least bonded with in a different home. That would be nature’s way.
Remedial Training
There are some things you can do through training to improve dogs’ chances of getting along, but please don’t take false hope from this information. This is risky stuff, and the dogs stand to suffer greatly when people don’t step up and handle the problem before it plays out. Too often the end result is one dog dead or injured, and the other put to sleep because people can’t resist applying human moral standards to dog behavior.
The following training methods are for dogs who have not had injuries, or for working with all safety precautions under the supervision of a veterinary behavior specialist.
Teach eye contact to each dog. Practice on your individual outings. When you have reached the point of being able to get eye contact quickly and quietly anytime you ask for it, you can communicate with one dog without overexciting another.
Reward both dogs for every move away from fighting or antagonizing each other. Watch for them to make these choices, and praise at that exact moment, using the dog’s name. Try to find a good action to praise the other dog for at the same time. Give treats if you can do so without overexciting them. This praise and reward needs to be at just the right level to make them feel appreciated for their choices but not to trigger a fight.
Train each dog individually to the level of highly reliable off-leash control. This is one reason to thoroughly train the last dog before adding another to the household. Then with a skilled handler helping, work them on-leash in each other’s presence. If you’ve had fight injuries, work the dogs on head halters so the leashes won’t trigger them to launch at each other.
When you want to separate two dogs to end an interaction, call them to you in a cheerful voice. Keep working with them at other times so they will eventually be reliable to come no matter what is happening. You need verbal control to avoid interfering with their body language to each other by touching them.
Prognosis Guarded
Having a dog who is aggressive toward other dogs can greatly complicate a dog owner’s life, but keep in mind that this is the normal temperament for quite a few breeds. It’s not a tragedy if you protect your dog from his or her own instincts by good management and training. This instinct does not mean the dog is “vicious.”
Dogs with this basic temperament can make fine working dogs if they are properly handled so that they do not act on the behavior. You teach them to ignore other dogs in public, and you don’t keep them together at home with other dogs of the same sex. These are the responsibilities of owning certain dogs.
We need to protect all our dogs from bad experiences with other dogs, because these experiences change what the dog believes about other dogs and about you as a reliable leader. Your dog needs to feel that you will keep him or her safe. A dog who feels the need for self-defense can become emotionally quite disabled.
On the other hand, a dog who believes other dogs are not going to attack will feel more confident, be safer around other dogs, and will give the owner more options. Keeping a dog “innocent” can be the best choice. Sometimes the adage that “what we don’t know can’t hurt us” is true. Fear hurts dogs. When we spare them that fear, we stop a potentially deadly problem before it even starts.
Breeding Terms
There is a custom of trade whereby bitches are placed on breeding terms. This is a system where a brood bitch is placed out without charge or a reduced price and, in part or full payment; some of her progeny go to the original owner.
Too many breeders are now placing bitches out on breeding terms are greedy and exploit the person who badly wants a brood bitch and cannot afford the initial outlay. Those who consider taking a bitch on terms should:
1. Never take a bitch over 3 years old, for remember almost half of her breeding life is already past, and the bitch has to be housed and fed in her retirement.
2. Never accept terms whereby you have to give up more than 50 percent of the first litter and 30 percent of the next litter. Certainly after two litters all your obligation should be cleared.
Douglas Appleton (The Dog Business Book)
Selection of the brood bitch
The brood bitch represents the most important capital asset of the breeding kennel. The essentials of a good brood are:
1. Correct breed type, as few faults in appearance as possible, and with an impeccable pedigree.
2. Sound temperament
3. A good, easy feeder
4. Fertility
I put fertility last, as unless you have approached essential 1, 2 and 3, it does not matter whether the bitch is fertile anyway, for she should not be bred from. There have occasionally been matrons that were ugly duckling but who produced high flyers, but such bitches represent too great for them to be worth a while. Good brood bitches are scarce and valuable, but you cannot afford to let the standard of your choice sink too low. A saving factor in the matter of breeding is that the best stud dogs can be used for a reasonable amount.
When a breed is on the upgrade and in the public eye, a heavy demand for puppies results. Irresponsible breeders try jump on the band wagon, buy any available bitch and mate her to the nearest stud dog, trying to catch a quick profit. This is the appalling state if thing. It works for a litter or two but strangely, does not pay dividends. Only sincere breeding policy can do that. As the kennel grows, sentiment should be put aside, and the broods culled. This should be done not only from the financial aspect, but also with a view to increase the quality of stock subsequently produced.
It is a great help to record such points as type of whelping, how many puppies, and what sort of mother bitches from given families make, as the breeding is strong factor in these points, and if a particular strain produces bad whelping, small litters or unthrifty puppies, it should not be kept in the kennel.