my mom haveing to do with the fighting?

[Kfamr]

Is Blair mostly your mom's dog? Does he stick to her a lot?

Quite possibly Rusty notices that and is jealous?

[Genny]

It sounds like Rusty is jealous.

[Giselle]

YES! Ivy does the SAME thing. She never fights when there is no human there. But as soon as a human enters the picture, she snaps and attacks. If you think about it, a human is a very high value resource. We give love, pats, play, walks, and food. We are the beholders of everything good in their lives, so it makes perfect sense that our presence would incite scuffles amongst competing dogs.

Ivy is a number 2 dog. She's very dominant towards Lucky and Gis but extremely submissive towards me. Whenever I see her stalking Lucky (which will lead to an attack if I don't intervene correctly), I recall her and put her into a long Down-Stay. When you see Rusty about to attack, don't reach for him or Blair. If you reach for him, he will most likely attack. Instead, distract and recall him. If his recall isn't reliable enough, keep him on lead. Once you recall him, place him in a Down-Stay. It sounds like Rusty's trying to exert his dominance with unnecessary force. He probably knows you're alpha, but you need to let him know that fighting over humans/resources is not allowed. So anytime you see him getting into that 'mode' (usually head down, hard stare, stalking position), distract, recall, long Down-Stay.

That should do it. Since I figured that out, we've not had an attack between Ivy and Lucky for months now (of course, Ivy and Gis are another story ).

[cali]

I was confused about the jelousy thing though, because Rusty doesnt even LIKE my mom, thats how he became my dog in the first place. my mom was the one who wanted to keep him, not me, but when it came to deciding who's dog he would be? I said he was mine because I am the one he likes, anytime he has to spend time with my mom because I am away he completly ignores her and acts all put out about having to be supervised by my mom at all. to me it seems like if anyone outa be jelous its Blair as my mom favours Rusty over him lol

[Giselle]

What is the pack dynamic like? Is Rusty very dominant over the others? Is Blair?

[cali]

that is a tough one. before Rusty the pack dynamic was obvious and straght forward, but since we got Rusty I have been able to foger it out at all. for example Rusty will submit to Happy, yet Happy has always been the lowest in the pack, and Electra will submit to Rusty, but is Dominant over Ripley is is one place lower then Misty who is head of the pack bur Electra submits to Misty. the domiance scale doesnt make sense anymore. I know that makes no sence whatsoever lol

lets see:

Rusty submits to Happy and Misty, and Electra
Happy submits to everyone but Rusty
Electra submits to Rusty and Blair and Misty
Ripley submits to Electra and Misty
Misty submits to nobody but me.. usually
Blair submits to everyone..usually
Perky submits to everyone but Happy.. Usually
Misty sometimes submits to Perky

its a total round about that keep making us go "huh?"

before Rusty is was very straight forward it went:
Misty
Ripley
Blair
Electra
Perky
Happy

here were no exeptions, it was just permantly straight forward and obvious lol. but now its like everyone just randomly submits to random dogs, no matter where in the pack they used to be.

[Freedom]

I would just supplement what Giselle wroye by adding:

If you mom spends time alone with the dogs, then SHE needs to learn how to handle this as well. The whole distract, sit, down - stay, as Giselle said.