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[hier]

Classes start next Thursday. Oddly enough, I feel some minor excitement pushing it's way into my normally apathetic/cynical outlook. Maybe it's the classes, most likely it's the people, but all in all, I'm looking forward to seeing the campus again

Comments

[hier]

No, see, this is about dominance. Dogs run on a scale of hierarchy, which means that some are higher ranks than others. For example, I am considered the top dog in the Edie-Angel hierarchy, so Ed is used to only having to bow down to me. Since she's been raised in an area that is devoid of dogs, she doesn't know how to socialize as well with other animals.

My other dogs have their established hierarchy, "the victim"(kesha) being the top dog. All the other dogs recognize it and act accordingly(with some snaps and growls as occasional reminders), which means that Kesha gets first dibs on food, Kesha gets pet first, Kesha first period. Now since Ed doesn't know any of this, when Kesha first attacked to show her, Ed backed down and took the punishment since she didn't know what else to do. As time went on and Kesha kept having to "remind" Edie, Ed started becoming more challenging(aka trying to get higher in the ranks).

As both dogs are females, the fights aren't nearly as bad, since males are notoriously more territorial, but they're getting there.

So it's basically a fight for dominance. Using a rolled up newspaper or how you raised the dog has nothing to do with it, and punishment of any kind will not work, because it is still going to be a basic issue of dominance/rank issues. If you spank one dog more than the other, jealousy arises, and you may just cause another (worse) fight.

[flamer_ohr]

well, it's not to stop the hieracy altogether..
my dogs still fight, but not nearly as fierce as before my dad started to punish both of them where they were jumping on top of each other, growling and trying to bite the other's ear.
All they do now is give low growls and try nimble on the other's legs, but no real violence is done anymore.

if we had let the younger one do what Ed is doing, it would've ended with the older dog dying from injuries (10years, getting far too old to heal properly in a short time) we separate them before feeding, so eating doesn't get out of scale.
it's just a way to keep the violence down to a minimum.

[hier]

There's no way to stop hierarchy. It's just not possible since dogs are pack animals.

But I think you misunderstand if you think we "let" Ed do anything. We don't sit and watch them tear and rip at each other, we break it apart and
give a good yelling/whacking to each dog.

This has only happened twice and after this second time, we separated the dogs completely(as it looked to be getting completely out of hand). So it's not that we're idly watching them fight, it's that Ed just suddenly realized that she's got the advantage and has decided to use it. We didn't separate them the first time because Kesha had growled/nipped at Edie before and nothing came out of it, so we thought that if we were more careful, we could avoid it in the future--no such luck. We're not willing to risk Kesha OR Ed's health any further.

The real problem is keeping them separated since we only have one house/one area in the backyard. This is why I'm relieved about heading home and bringing Ed back to her recognized environment.