Dogs at war:

[jrittenhouse]

For the last few weeks, we’ve had a huge number (at least two a day) bit I’ll-Rip-Your-Throat-Out dog fights between the three dogs, one of which sent me and Susan to the ER to fix up some nasty puncture wounds from a dog bite in her forearm.

Normally, these fights happens when everyone’s home, and in particular when Mere and Susan walk out or in

Comments

[interactiveleaf]

Aaagh! I wish you luck, and I'm really glad you're already in touch with a trainer.

[tdanaher]

Is there a correlation between the increase in this behavior, and parallel instances of the human family not being home as much as when the dogs imprinted on everyone? Who is the alpha human among you the dogs respect and maybe now need to fight over for what they might see as decreasing opportunities for attention? (I'm kind of thinking, frankly, that maybe Susan and Mere being out of the house for skating lessons and competitions, and/or your various hospital stays, might be a factor.)

[jrittenhouse]

That, more or less, (attention issues) is Susan's thoughts on the matter. She is the Alpha, but the dogs will quiet for me better than Susan. Susan was home looking after her mom from June until her Mom died at Christmas, and then was home till mid-March recovering and trying to pick up the pieces. Now, she's gone during the week, and as you pointed out, Mere's VERY VERY busy with her school stuff and skating and whatnot. And I'm in the basement office 90% of the time.

[lonotter]

Keeping in mind that we have huskies, which definitely do the pack hierarchy thing, it sounds to me like a status/dominance issue. You being sick, Mere growing up, and Susan's Mom passing away would all feed into it.

My solution would be to reinforce that all humans are dominant over all dogs (strictly enforce food & other manners, no dogs on the couch for a while, yadda yadda, adapt for your pack). When a squabble is likely to start the Alpha (Ron) or The Enforcer (me) stands up, looms over the dogs, and in a loud cranky voice reminds them who's boss.

[jrittenhouse]

When the dogs get into a fight, it usually blows up pretty quickly. Terriers are VERY stubborn and do not back down from a fight; they don't usually look for one, but they're not wimps. Yelling at them in the middle of things doesn't have any effect...too focused on the rip and tear.