Dogs that fight, tend to have any or a number of the following characteristics:
·A lack of obedience training in the development stage of puppy hood.
·Are dominant in their relationship with their owners.
·Lacked exposure to other dogs during critical socialization periods.
·Over food, toys or territorial boundaries.
·Have been attacked by other aggressive dogs.
·Fight only when a neighborhood bitch is in heat.
·May have been the litter bully as a pup.
·Usually become excited when stressed.
·Are jealous because of owner favoritism.
·Same sex or littermates, Mother/daughter, Father/son.
Most fights between unacquainted dogs are related to the territorial boundaries or property (human owners in some cases) of one or both combatants. This type of aggression is easily understood but difficult to correct. Another type of aggression that is difficult for owners to understand and correct involves dogs that live in the same household. Though both dogs receive what appears to be the same treatment from their owners, they engage in savage fights. Though the causes vary, corrective methods involve the same principle. Correction centers on converting the feelings of hostility to “happy” emotional responses. This requires extreme self-control on the part of the owner, but it has proved effective when performed properly.
Territory and Property Fights
Among wild dogs and wolves, the integrity of the home territory is normally well respected by roaming loners or intruders. An especially bold or aggressive stranger may test the degree of protectiveness of a home-pack leader or other pack member, but this is rare. The usual sequence of events consists of: approach, confrontation, threat display by the established animal, and retreat by the intruder. In situations involving people, this type of behavior becomes seriously distorted, not by the dogs but by people.
Neighborhood Urine Marking
A commonly accepted myth among dog owners is that dogs, especially males, have a fundamental need to spread their urine widely in order to be emotionally well adjusted. As a result, the dog is often taken off its own property, to dutifully sprinkle up, down and across the street. In addition to methodically despoiling the area’s greenery, the owner is allowing the dog to extend its protecting feelings beyond its natural home and yard. An aggressive dog consequently begins to defend what the ignorant owner has “taught” it to consider its territory. This is especially true when the 2 dogs involved both suffer the misfortune of having equally ignorant owners. Each dog tries to protect its own extended boundaries. Each dog tries to protect its own extended boundaries. This type of defensive behavior predominates among males, but also has been noted in females.
When the forgoing facts are appreciated, one portion of a remedial program becomes rather obvious: the owner must not allow the dog to “brand” the neighborhood territory. Further, in dogs that are fighters, whenever and wherever they go off their property, it is best not to allow any urinating at all unless 5 or 6 hours have passed and the dog genuinely must urinate. This avoids one of the most common canine rituals preceding aggression: urine marking.
Freedom Frustration
Another cause of dogs fights lies in constant frustration by barriers between excitable, aggressive animals and other dogs that they find threatening. When this situation occurs as part of the fighting dog’s environment, it is best to remove the animal from the area, even if it means making major structural changes. I have seen good responses with the addition of an inner fence-within-a-fence, whereby the dog is unable to approach nearer then 6-8 feet to intruders and vice versa.
Fighting With Other Resident Dogs
Fighting between Canine members of a household usually involves dogs of the same sex, often littermates. Trigger people in the family often stimulate such fights, though sometimes food or another dog may also stimulate fighting. To avoid such fights, it is best not to obtain littermates of the same sex, particularly those that appear competitive within the litter. Also, when a new dog is adopted into the family, it is a good idea to pay more “positive” attention to the resident dog(s) than was shown before the newcomer’s arrival. Make the additional pet fun for the resident pet. Allow the new animal to fit in and adjust with less attention than is shown the older members. This will cause resident dogs to have pleasant associations with the new animal.
If a fight should erupt, never induce more hostility into the situation by shouting, screaming, scolding, hitting, kicking the heads or bodies of the fighters or pulling them apart by the heads or necks. Most serious canine quibbling I see involves owners who induce hysteria into the original battle, which, if allowed to reach its conclusion naturally (if the owners had left the scene or remained passive), more than likely would have concluded bloodlessly and with one permanently dominant and once submissive dog, The very common and quite effective way for stopping a fight requires that someone pick up the more aggressive of the warring pair by the tail, just high enough so its hind feet cannot touch the ground. If both dogs are aggressors, then both must be elevated. Lack of hindquarter traction often quickly short circuits hostility. One must, of course, use extreme caution when intervening in any dog fight so as to avoid being bitten.
A common underlying cause of persistent fighting is owner hysteria when such fights break out. Most owners of multiple dogs who do not have such problems did not become hysterical when fights or hostilities initially erupted.
In more than 95% of sibling-type fighting, the dogs never fought unless the owners were present. A good percentage of them were boarded together in the same run without hostile signs. This brings us to one type of remedial program that is often successful: boarding the dogs together on neutral territory, there to be visited by the family under controlled conditions after a week or so. If no fight ensues, a daily series of visits, followed by rides in the family car to other neutral areas, will often help if the plan spans 1-6 weeks. After this, a daily trip home can be included.
Dogs fighting for any reason must be taught to respond to simple commands to come, sit, and stay when the owners directs. All fondling, coddling or solicitous behavior toward the pet must be avoided. This helps the owner assume dominance over the dogs involved and is prerequisite to all procedures recommended.
Elements necessary to rehabilitate these dogs include:
·Anti-aggression training. ·Instant command response at least to Heel, Come, Down, Sit and Stay. ·Total avoidance of solicitousness toward the dog(s) by family members. ·The owner’s ability to act jolly when stimuli triggering hostility appear, plus the dog’s tendency to respond with tail wagging or other pleasant behavioral reactions. ·Discontinuance of all territorial urine marking ·Where freedom frustration is a factor, the physical environment must be modified so as to alleviate the animals’ proximity to frustrating stimuli. ·Avoidance of emotional displays or threatening handling by the owner in the even fighting occurs. ·Removing the involved dogs from the home territory (in the case of sibling fighting), combined with increasingly frequent visits by the owner before field trips, concluding with a return to the original situation.
Correction of Fighting
The Jolly Routine: This method of rehabilitating fighting dogs in all categories requires owners who possess a sense of humor and some theatrical ability, plus a dog that tends to wag its tail or otherwise show the signs of canine joy when hearing its owners laugh. Fortunately, this is the case in most of the situation is encounter. When I meet a Grimm Jim or Gripey Jane owner with an equally sullen fighting dog, I flatly tell them that to succeed they will have to figure out some way of laughing a lot during their time with their scrapper. Then, when the pet begins showing signs of a more pleasant disposition, we can offer assistance.
The Jolly Routine requires precise timing to achieve an emotional change from defensive feelings to predominantly pleasant ones. Whatever the trigger mechanism (stimulus) that normally creates the very first outward sign of fighting, it must be accompanied by the owners’ laughter and movements or activities that have happy meaning to the offender. For example, if the mere sight of another dog creates aggression, the other dogs must be brought into view. AS soon as the fighter perceives them, the Jolly Routine must be initiated and continued until the upset animal is imbued with happiness. If the simple odor of sibling through a door creates hostile reactions, the aggressive dog must be exposed to the odor and the Jolly Routine undertaken by the owners.
Depending on the dogs involved and the degree of success with the early attempts using the Jolly Routine, the potential antagonists should be brought closer more often. In some cases this occurs on the very first day, often within an hour. In seriously ingrained cases, it may take up to 6 weeks of conditioning to achieve success.
I have seen good results when the dogs involved have been handled on leashes in conjunction with this routine. We find that a sharp sound distraction used at the instant the trigger stimulus appears, followed by the Jolly Routine, makes the task considerably quicker and easier than with any other training aid.
Territorial Aggression
Territorial aggression is directed at intruders; human, pet or wild. Both male and female dogs guard territory. Territorial aggression is intended to drive trespassers away from the home and food supply. Territorial behavior sometimes includes chasing a victim. Territorial aggression is most commonly directed toward strangers. A subtype of territorial aggression is possessive aggression, in which a dog is guarding a specific toy, food, or even a person.
If your dog barks to protect your yard and home, you probably don't consider this a problem but allowing your dog to bark non stop at passersby or wildlife is not going to protect you and it will annoy your neighbors. Territorial aggression causes problems when dogs threaten people or get into dog fights. In some cases, a dog will guard you as his territory, making it difficult to take the dog to public places. Even behavior you find acceptable, should stop on your command. If you are having difficulty with this, obedience training will give you the control and leadership to accomplish this.
Steps to correct Territorial Aggression
You can successfully reduce territorial aggression by desensitizing, or building up the tolerance of your dogs’ reaction to strange dogs or people. The dog can not be unattended in the area where the aggression occurs because you must be able to properly correct him for his acts of aggression consistently. Require the dog to wear a leash indoors (whenever you are home to supervise) so that he can be managed at a moment's notice. Do not punish your dog in the presence of the targets of his aggression (no yelling or grabbing) and do not physically restrain the dog. With leash in hand, correct him for his negative behavior, and make him lie down or sit calmly.
To desensitize your dog to strangers at the door, have family members ring your doorbell and knock on walls for no reason to help your dog stop focusing on these sounds as signals for aggression. The more often that he hears these common sounds, the more comfortable he will become, and the dog will begin to understand that these common place actions have no negative behavior associated with it. Arrange for friends your dog has not met who are confident around barking dogs to come by at prearranged times.
Be waiting with your dog on a leash or remote collar. When the dog starts to bark at the distraction correct the dog by either a firm correction on the leash and telling the dog no, or using your remote control collar to alleviate any confrontation between your dog and the distraction. Have the stranger go out and come back in without knocking while you appear not to notice. Praise your dog for being relaxed up to the moment that he notices the stranger. Offering praise for sitting quietly is appropriate. At the first glance or move of the dog toward the stranger, all praise must stop or you might accidentally reward the dog for alerting to the stranger which is the opposite of what you want. Hand the stranger the leash and have the stranger walk the dog around until the dog start to get comfortable. Make sure the stranger only socializes with your dog while it is on the leash to avoid giving the dog the opportunity to bite or bark without a correction. Have them interact for a minute or so, then go back outside. With short sessions the dog will gradually become more comfortable and his tension alleviates. Long sessions my cause the dog to become uncomfortable and then aggressive. Be careful not to have the stranger leave BECAUSE the dog is aggressive. This will reinforce the behavior more than your rewards will encourage any other behavior. Gradually increase the length of interaction with your dog and the strangers but take your time. This won’t fix overnight! Multiple repetitions are required for this problem to be corrected. At the first sign of aggression, say “no” and correct the dog. Don’t stop at this point, just slow down a bit more and continue. Stopping will give the dog power and show him he can control the situation. Most dogs are aggressive because they are fearful, or have not been shown how to properly deal with the current situation. Do not force the dog into anything; take your time to allow the dog to relax. Forcing the dog will cause stress, and while stressed the dog may bite. All you are teaching your dog is that strangers who come in the door while you are home are not a threat. Your dog will still bark when you are not home and when strangers are not invited in by you.
To manage a territorial dog when out walking, do not pull on the leash while he or she strains to reach another dog. Straining against the leash mimics a threatening posture and may cause another dog to fight. Correct the dog and continue walking, acting as if nothing at all is the matter. If the other dog is not leashed, avoid running or turning your back on the unleashed dog. Move perpendicularly to the other dog steadily away. Do not yell at either dog.
For desensitizing a dog to other dogs, enlist a trainer to help desensitize your dog using trained dogs. Training sessions are set up to decrease the distance at which your dog acts in a threatening manner through a series of exposures with supervision. It is important that you consistently reward the behavior you want (the dog appears relaxed) as well as that you correct the behavior you don't want (any ATTENTION toward strangers or dogs by saying "no"). The key is that the other dogs must be trained to prevent them from reacting to your dog's aggression.
