WOW, I hope to never hear that much noise from the boys again!!!!

Here I sit, scratching my head, trying to figure out what caused all the commotion.  I didn't see what started the disagreement off, so of course, that is going to make it impossible to figure out completely. Here is what happened.  The doorbell rings, I put the Lance and Tucker in the living room behind the gate, so that I can let in my daughters friend, Vince.  He comes in, and walks in the house down a short hallway and I follow him to let my daughter know he is here.  Then, all heck breaks out, the boys are making a ton of noise, definately not playing noises, more like a disagreement or fight. 

 

No one was hurt, Lance had a few hairs missing from him, but nothing major thank goodness!!  What I saw when I went in the room ,was Tucker had Lance by the side of his neck, shaking him, or holding onto him, couldn't tell for sure and both were making lots of noise.  I had the gate in one hand and ended up grabbing Tuckers collar which brought it to an end.  Phew. Wow, my heart was racing. 

 

After I broke them up, all seemed to go back to normal.  From what I read, humans make more of situations than dogs do, so I tried reassuring my kids not to make a big deal about it and not to baby either Lance or Tucker.  Is that correct?  Hopefully this one incident won't lead to more.   Sure would be nice to know who initially started the disagreement or what it was even over? 

 

The reason I put them behind the gate in the first place is to control Lances overexcitement, barking issues.  It seems that he calms down faster this way, then if we dont put him behind the gate.  It also is easier for people to ignore, him initially, which also helps calm him down faster.  Tucker, I am just worried about escaping out the door as someone is coming in, still working on that since we rescued him. 

 

I have put them behind the gate before, so they are used to that and never had this problem.  They seem to be doing just fine with each other now. 

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Probably one bumped into the other and it just went from there. Most likely all is forgotten. Being excited can lead to spats.

 

It must be de ja vu as the very same thing happened at our house last night between Ziggy and Zoe. All was well outside as we were working in the yard and then BAM! It was every man(or dog as the case may be) for himself. They play all the time and occasionally get into a squabble, but this was very intense for a few minutes. I had to inspect each of them for wounds and blood, but luckily found none.

Within the next few minutes, Ziggy was kissing Zoe on the ears and all appeared forgiven. I whole heartedly agree with Karen that this behavior appears during excitement.

Allthough I am the designated worrier in our family and want everything to always be peaches and cream, I just credit it to "pack" behavior where Zoe (my older female aka "The Queen") wants to reinforce her authority, however this time Ziggy decided to stand up for himself.

P.S. I'm glad to read that Lance is doing better.

 

Thank You! :)  We are glad to see him doing better as well, now hopefully he will keep doing ok.
I had the same thing this week with Bella who is always mellow:( 2 thoughts...the excitement is most likely it and a bump could set it off. I have some of my dogs gated in different rooms because when we get home they are so excited this has happened.The other is at my house I occasionally see it if one of mine isn't feeling well also...just like with kids and short tempers if not feeling well or the dog senses this.
Chester (our lab/dane) tend to posture and get a bit hostile if we encounter another dog on a walk. Sidney doesn't like this and will essentially growl and jump at Chester's head as if to say "shut up and behave". Chester is meek around the people and dogs he knows and obeys Sid. It happens every time. Maybe Lance was getting overexcited and Tucker was correcting him. This probably surprised Lance and a tiff followed.
If one dog is over excited the other will often think they need to "attack" them. You are probably better off leashing Tucker and leaving "barky" Lance alone on the other side of the gate.

I'm surprised no one mentioned this, but corticosteroids can make some dogs (and people) edgier than normal.  Is Lance still on the steroids?  

 

Corticosteroids are not as likely to cause this as anabolic steroids (those are the ones athletes sometimes abuse), but it can still happen.

Corgis can be somewhat fractious with each other.  My old pals W&T would get into it once in a while for no reason that seemed obvious to me.  I suspect it sometimes had to do with dominance or some such doggie thing.  With a pair of dogs, one usually has to be the leader in confronting situations and if the other doesn't give way trouble starts.  Doorbell answering was sometimes a catalyst for scrapping between my two who never did come to an agreement about who the alpha dog was.

A couple of times their tiffs would escalate to an all out fight and then I'd have to physically intervene but mostly it seemed to be siblings fighting about dumb stuff the way human kids sometimes do and a sharp word from me would break it up.  As someone else noted, usually within a minute or two it was forgotten and everyone was back to playing or just ignoring each other.

Thanks for everyones responses, great to get feedback.  I usually don't leave the area when the are behind the gate and usually let them out as soon as our guests are in the door and situated.  Maybe they didn't like the fact that I walked away?  Yeah and after it was all done and over with they just went about things and were fine.  

 

Bev, that is a good suggestion, I can try that too. 

Beth, yes Lance is on steriods, has been on them only for the last week.  I do remember reading that it can make dogs cranky, hopefully it wasn't the case here. I really wish I could have seen what started it all of.  I would hate to see for that to happen, although it is a possibility. 

 

Doug, when you had to intervene, how did you go about it.  I first tried distractions, but that was not working so I knew it was time to intervene :O  First time, kinda of nerve wracking, I lighty grabbed Tuckers collar and luckily that worked. 

2 of my 3 will occasionally get into it in this way.  However, what i notice is that even if the noise escalates (and i mean HUGE, scary noises from both) but the top dog never actually touches the underdog.  he'll be ontop or in a superior postion, and snapping his mouth open and shut, showing teeth, etc. but no biting takes place.  the first time i saw this, I did separate them by grabbing hind feet of the top dog, but now I leave them alone.  It happens fast, doesn't last long and usually occurs when the underdog, the youngest, tries to steal a toy or something like that.  It's pretty amazing and I had to stop my husband from freaking out --just got him to look at the dogs. They were sort of "air fighting" like playing air guitar!
When breaking up a fight try not to get your hands in the middle of it. We have had fights break out between our boys and fosters, mainly one (lots of noise and actual fighting with blood being drawn) I was often alone which made it a little more difficult. I would remove the dog by grabbing one by the back legs to break it up. If the other continued to come after that dog I pull the dog up higher in the air. Hopefully it doesnt happen again for you but if it does, try not to grab the collar as you might get an unintentional bite yourself.

It is really scary, I understand that for sure! If no blood was drawn it was probably just a little squabble that needed a break up to calm them down though :)

I wanted to throw out there that Maddie got into a big scary not-a-real-fight once with a loose Boston Terrier while Maddie was on leash.  The terrier charged up (probably to say hi) and Maddie snarked a "dont' crowd me" snark and they both started.  There was so much noise!  But in fact they never actually touched each other and when I yelled "Girls, enough!" they both stopped.  They were both mad, but it turns out it was more a shouting match than a fight. 

 

Frequently (not always) actual fights are much quieter as the dogs are concentrating on trying to get a hold of each other. 

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