Question for those with more than one dog, fighting?

[Flatcoatluver]

I know in the past we have had fights, I know Zoey is very protective of I and the food bowl, and we have to feed them sep. but that is mainly the only fights we have at our house, I guess where lucky.

[4 Dog Mother]

Since my dogs hate water, we throw water on them. Even in the house! Depending on the dogs involved I can usually pull them apart. Taggert almost always seems to be one of the ones involved. Usually it is over food or rawhide. If I see Taggert starting to get possessive (hair raises on his back and he starts a growl), I can usually tell him to knock it off. We know feed them in their crates but that is more because Snoopy will eat everyones if he gets a chance.

[luvofallhorses]

Buster and Jenny get in fights over food. all my dogs are food aggressive, except Rocky. Buster also goes after Rocky sometimes. he doesn't hurt him, he just scares him. Buster and Ginger really don't like each other. Ginger acts like she has something and she DOESN'T and starts snarling at Buster. We have to feed them all seperately, except Rocky and Ginger eat in my parent's room since they don't have a problem with each other. and Buster eats in the kitchen and Jenny eats in the living room. We haven't had any serious fights, though..thank goodness! I hope that never happens.

[Husky_mom]

in my case everything was fine i had my three girls and my boy together and no problems at all my boy ruled them and showed the who was the boss, the bad stuff came when my boy passed then the most dominant girl tried to rule the others and they got a few really nasty fights a couple when i wasnt home so i had to be called and so i rushed to get them separated cause it was bad, blood and all, since then fights were more often and i separated them in two batches (dominant - the rest) but then the other one started fighting with the one she was with so i had to separate them too......they still hang out but theres always a fence in between to prevent fights, before they even snapped through the fence now its like nothing happened, but i take no chances since China is way to submissive and Ninja well shes the boss and could seriously hurt China as she is very petite and shy.......

glad they came buddies again, hope it never triggers again, it really is a scary situation to be in prescence with.....hugs

[Anita Cholaine]

Fights are one of the reasons I don't think it would be a good idea to get another dog... Anita is so dominant, she doesn't like adult dogs too much, especially if they are females. If someday we get another dog, it will have to be a really docile one, who doesn't mind being controled by Anita..

[Kfamr]

We've had a very scraps here and there but a firm "HEY!!!" quickly stopped it. Usually food or toy is involved and quickly taken away if anything like so happens/

[lv4dogs]

I've had very little fights with my dogs. Raustyk can be dog agressive, especially towards females. Luckily I found out just through her behavior & small scraps, nothing major. So I do my best to avoid any other dogs when she is with me. I guess I've been doing a good job at it.
I can tell a fight will happen before it happens, with body posture, vocal noises, etc.., a simple "knock it off" does the trick for me... so far... knock on wood.

I think you handled it well. And Tamara had some mighty useful information once again.

Not to be rude what so ever, but I've always wondered how you could have three females in the same house with no fights yet. You must be doing a good job at raising them.

[k9krazee]

We've had our share of fights here Mini and Shadow are the worst, and they'll start fighting for what seems like no reason. We had a scare a couple of months ago when Shadow grabbed Mini by the neck and we couldn't get them apart. My mom totally freaked out and became hysterical, we were both there when it happened so I grabbed Shadow and she grabbed Min and we eventually pulled them apart, probably not the best way to handle it! Ironically, Shadow was the one with the injuries after that one, but nothing too serious.

Another time I took all 5 dogs to a big fenced off soccer field at the school and let them run around. Everything was okay until we were about to leave, Mini charged at Shadow and they started going at it. The other three got involved and I started to panick because I was all alone. I started leashing dogs (Micki, Jack and Kyra) and tied them to the fence and finally was holding Shadow's collar in one hand and Mini in the other (with Kyra lunging at Mini from the fence), they were both growling and baring their teeth, I am so thankful I didn't get hurt! Finally got them to calm down but had to figure out a way to get them all home without a fight breaking out in the car! I eventually tied Mini to the floor in the front and Shadow in the back, it was pretty scary. It took them a couple hours to calm down enough where we could let them loose togther again.

Micki and Jack will go at it sometimes too, but a firm "Knock it off!" and they stop.

[lizbud]

I guess I'm lucky in that Smokey & Maggie have never had a fight
over anything.If there's ever any toy or bone in contention, all it takes
is for Maggie to whine at Smokey & he walks away from the toy.He's a
total cream puff.

[Pembroke_Corgi]

Another time I took all 5 dogs to a big fenced off soccer field at the school and let them run around. Everything was okay until we were about to leave, Mini charged at Shadow and they started going at it. The other three got involved and I started to panick because I was all alone. I started leashing dogs (Micki, Jack and Kyra) and tied them to the fence and finally was holding Shadow's collar in one hand and Mini in the other (with Kyra lunging at Mini from the fence), they were both growling and baring their teeth, I am so thankful I didn't get hurt! Finally got them to calm down but had to figure out a way to get them all home without a fight breaking out in the car! I eventually tied Mini to the floor in the front and Shadow in the back, it was pretty scary. It took them a couple hours to calm down enough where we could let them loose togther again.

Wow, that must have been scary! Good thing you were able to handle it so well.

[wolfsoul]

With Visa all I have to do is yell "Hey!" and she'll stop. She never starts a fight, but she'll definatly finish one.

As far as Belgians go, you don't have to wrry too much about fighting. They have a VERY strong pack order that never goes off balance. Being at Marla's house is funny because you get to see the pack order in action. First there is Visa's grandmother, Isis. Then Visa's mother (who is no longer with Marla, but anyways), Spirit. Then Loki, the puppy. Then Visa. Then the poodle (who thinks she's a Belgian). Then Jaguar. No matter what, Jaguar is always on the bottom. It never changes. Even the 8 week old puppy was instantly above her. The dogs never argue about it, they just accept it. That's what I love about Belgians.

When my mom was a teenager, they had a dog fight that could not be broken up. Her and my aunt tried everything; they kicked the dogs, hit them, screamed at them, but these dogs were stuck at eachother's throats, killing eachother. So my mom pushed on one end, my aunt pulled on the other, until they got the dogs to the doorway. They slammed the door on their heads. Fight over!

[Pam]

No fights between my two. I can even feed them side by side and have been doing so ever since I brought Ripley home. They often eat out of the same bowl too, which totally amazes me since my last two poodles had to be separated to eat.

I think if Ripley had been here first he would have taken more of an Alpha role. As it stands now they are pretty evenly matched. When my granddog, Harlee, comes over and when her predecessor, Dale, came over Ripley would occasionally *show teeth* at them when he was on my lap and they would approach. I think he recognizes that Bella was here first and respects that. That, combined with her very loving/accepting personality, has made for a very good combination.

[ParNone]

With my 3 males, I haven't had any real fights. If Gull and Murph are irritated at each other, they'll bark back and forth at each other, which doesn't last long, since I get annoyed and tell'em to knock it off.

Gull can be kind of prissy with Oz though, over food, toys and attention. He'll shove him and nip at him. Oz is submissive, so no actual fight starts. But I'll usually grab Gull by the collar (probably something I wouldn't do if I had a different type breed), pull him away from Oz and tell him to "Be Nice to Oz". Then I make both sit and be calm, then they'll get rewarded. This type of occurance is rarer now, I guess since he knows it's the sitting and being calm that's rewarded and the snippiness is getting him the collar grab.

When I had Maddie though, she would get so cranky with Murph. He could just be laying asleep at the foot of the bed, no instigation on his part at all, and out of nowhere she'd go after him. It sounded really ferocious, but the most she ever did was yank some hair out.

I got to where I could tell when she was gonna strike. We'd all be laying on the bed, with me watching TV or surfing the web. I'd catch her body language change out of the corner of my eye and without even looking over, I'd swing my leg over in between her and Murph. She'd then charge and put her front feet on leg. There she'd be hanging off my leg, spewing doggie curse words at Murph, but she wouldn't go past my leg. Murph got to where he didn't even look up anymore, when she charged. He trusted I'd get my leg up in time. I uh wouldn't recommend this technique for most dogs or situations though or the collar grabbing technique. With my dogs it works, with others you might end up getting bitten.

Par...