Multiple dog problems
We have two corgis and an aussie who all get along pretty well and have their heirachy (sp) all figured out. It seems to be our female on top, then the aussie then our male corgi, this also happens to be the way they became part of the family. Now we have taken all, one or two, to my parents who have two dogs, my brothers where there is one dog, and my mother - in -laws where there is her older pomapoo who stays in the house and just growls and ignores them and also my brother-in-laws corgi who happens to be Taz's full sister. They have also visited us at our home and everyone seemed to get along ok, there was a couple of incidents at my mother-in-laws between KC and Chesney but nothing major. The end of last year Chesney came to stay with us for a while. There was the initial squabbles to figure out her place in the pecking order but nothing major. After Christmas my brother in law and his family moved in with us and shortly after that KC and Chesney started having a lot more fights that have gotten pretty bloody. Chesney now looks like scar face. We got where we just keep them totally separated and let them out at separate times to potty, play etc. My husband says we need to not keep them separated and let them work it out. The down side to this is that KC does tend to come out on top and Chesney is adding more scars to her collection.
My question is really: is it possible that when "her people" moved in then Chesney felt that she then got to share top billing with KC? Or is it just a two female thing? KC has had a couple of other incidents with other random dogs, nothing to the extent of her and Chesney. She hates pugs for some reason and she did try to start something with another corgi walking down the street last summer. But she has been fine at all other family members houses and when their dogs have visited ours, including other female dogs.
I am not sure how to work this problem out, and eventually we would like to add another corgi to our family, so I don't know if it will be different because it will come in as a puppy? And also my brother is going to be getting a female corgi and obviously we want family get together's to be pleasant.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. This is starting to cause hard feelings in the family and we need to figure out how to "fix it" if we can.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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I just do not allow "snarky" behavior. If there is a problem the dog drags a leash in the house and I can stop any bad behavior. Obedience training would be a huge help with your problem but google Nothing In Life is Free and start following it right away. It is especially important to be the leader in a multiple dog household!
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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I would NOT let them work it out themselves! Working it out themselves is ok if they are just getting a little bit moody, but "working it out themselves" with bloody fights could mean serious injury or death to one of the dogs.
Once they've drawn blood, my understanding is it can be difficult to get them back to getting along. When we got Maddie, our breeder mentioned she'd had a fight with her alpha female, Shadow. She said they were fine for years and then one day something set them off and they had at it. She said she kept them totally separated for about a month, then she started crating them next to each other for awhile, and then she gradually started letting them together and they were fine. However, this same breeder told me she's kept multiple dogs for years, and on occasion she's needed to place one because of irreconcilable differences.
I agree with Bev that NILIF can help. When two hate each other and keep fighting, it seems it's often two girls who view themselves as having equal status. I've read several pieces by professional trainers who also say when you have two who want to kill each other, usually it's two girls.
Good luck! You may find you need to manage it by keeping them apart.
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By the way, I've read that you can help reducing fighting by respecting the dogs' rank: always feed in the same order, pet in the same order, pay more attention to the higher-ranking dogs. This seems mean to us but is natural to the dog. I have read that we can unwittingly cause fights by trying to subconsciously elevate the rank of the lower ranking one, and yes it can often happen (again from what I hear) when one person favors one dog and another favors the other. Even though you try to be fair, my guess is that in subtle ways perhaps invisible to us, you favor your dog and your brother-in-law favors his. It's only natural. If you could all agree to treat KC as if she outranks Chesney, it might help.
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Yes, I agree with that Beth. I had a couple incidents with Sparty and Buffy (she has since passed away) where Buffy who was pretty submissive seemed to think she owned the bedroom. She attacked Sparty twice before I figured out my husband was picking her up in bed with him and playing with her and making a real fuss over her while I was getting ready for bed. When he stopped showing such favoritism to her she never did it again. Sparty was older than her and was always the dominant dog but she got possessive of our room. I always feed mine in the same order and try to be fair with the petting and playing too. Still if there are attacks I would leash them and let one drag their leash and the main trouble maker would spend some time walking around and sitting with me for a few days. They need to understand that the humans own the house and decide who gets to be there not them.
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