Corgi's Fighting
Buddy & Bandit are Male Corgi brothers, from the same litter; they will be 1 year old next week.
They have played fought many times over the past year; but nothing that we couldn't stop by clapping loudly or yelling their names and telling them to stop.
This weekend something changed and they had 3 fights that progressively got worse.
It was not provoked by food or toys, or even one of us - it seemed like their fights started out of nowhere and they were fighting in such an agressive way that I refused to get involved. I tried spraying them with water, even hitting them with my shoe - nothing stopped them until they finally got tired. They both had injuries, cuts on their noses etc.
They were separated for a few hours, and once they were let back in the same room again they did ok for a couple hours and again, a fight - even more agressive than the 1st one.
I went to the pet store and got muzzles; I figured that at least would prevent injuries.
The last fight started with their muzzles on - again, didnt seem provoked by anything and within minutes they fought and got each others muzzles off and this time I was so scared I did get involved and tried to pick one up - the other one wouldn't let go of his latch on the others face. It ended as another bloody mess.
The dogs have been separated and wont see each other again until we can at least attempt to figure out what is going on.
Are they fighting for alpha male position? They have never showed signs of aggression like this before - not with me, my fiance or my kids.
Neither are neutered; however one is going to get neutered in about 2 weeks.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what might be going on - - I am literally worried sick and hate that they are fighting like this, it just breaks my heart!
ANy help/info/ideas is appreciated
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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Rachael, interesting that you say 9 out of 10 of the fights were started by your female. Spaying seems to have no effect whatsoever in curbing dog aggressiveness in females (usually towards other females, but very aggressive females will fight with males as well). There is a better chance of success with neutering two males, if the neutering is done soon enough, so the fighting instinct is not reinforced by too many fights. Living with dogs who are spoiling for a fight is like siting on a powder keg and the greatest danger is in getting in between, as you point out. This becomes especially dangerous when there are also children involved.
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Permalink Reply by Amy Wilcoxen Richard on
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Thank you so much - - we did introduce them but with both of them being held by other adult males that both dogs recgonize as being their masters, so I think that helped the dogs with being reintroduced.
We don't leave them alone at ALL and we are always within arm reach of them. When my fiance or son aren't home the dogs get seperated - - the fighting happened over a weekend when I was home alone because my fiance & son were on a overnight hike; so with the 'guys" back home I think the dogs aren't fighting for top spot as much.
I could be totally wrong!
We aren't sweeping it under the rug; we are neutering one and a few weeks later we will have a trainer working with us to retrain them using different techniques.
Thanks for your concern & post
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We do intend on keeping both dogs and doing anything and everything we have to do to make things safe for everyone involved.
We are going to be working with a trainer & I am so hopeful that helps!!
Thanks for your post
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Thank you everyone for your advice & thoughts on this :)
Update is this: We kept the dogs apart for several days we decided to reintroduce them but only with both of them being held; so my fiance held one and my son (he is 18 years old) held the other as they put them near each others faces, they both seemed scared of the other one, a little shaky - - we slowly allowed a little more freedom until they were once again running around the house playing with each other. They have not had any more fights since being allowed to be back together (it has been 3 days).
We are still getting 1 neutered; he goes in next week.
My son doesn't want his neutered; so we assume his Corgi will take Alpha male status as soon as ours comes back from his appt.
I have also talked with a trainer, and she suggested a few things that we wouldn't have thought to do - for instance she said never let them play fight (which we usually do because it has been, up until last week, innocent enough and no one ever got hurt) and she also said to NOT feed them seperately - that they need to eat near each other, as well as see the other dog get love & attention from us when he isn't - and vice cersa; basically retrain them so they know the other dog gets his own "space" ie food dish; and time and attention as well. Not sure how that will work but we will probably pay for the trainer to come to the home when we try to do this - but we will also wait until a few weeks after our dog's neutering so we have our testosterone all figured out with the dogs!
Also - our breeder sold us 2 males but when we got the dogs my son wasn't living with me, so the dogs weren't going to be in the same home, that situation changed about 2 weeks after we got the dogs.
The trainer I talked to also said it is totally normal for this behavior to happen around this age from 2 males from the same litter and it will just take some retraining and she thinks they will be fine again
Thanks again for everyones help
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Permalink Reply by Rachel Givens on
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Sounds like you have plan. Good luck and keep us posted. :)
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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Sounds like you do have some plans and are doing what you can. In May I broke up a fight between my females(one was going into heat and some jealousy issues also) and now have a plate,6 pins and 3 fingers that are still healing(no bites just breaks). I am used to a several dog household but this got out of hand out due to my goats!
I am opening my mouth as I have a hard time keeping it shut....so sorry if you don't want to hear this BUT you son moved back into your house and doesn't want to get his dog fixed then maybe he needs to get him fixed or move out...it's not fair to you or your dog!!!!!!!!!!! I think you are doing what you can BUT he needs to be part of this if he is living in your house.
It will still take some time before the hormones go down and the plans sound good but do keep them leashed(both) when feeding them and at other times for now in the house and out so you can intervene. Keeping them seperate like you planned is also a must when you are gone. Good luck...I know what you are going through and it's not easy!
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