Two Puppies Fight For Alpha Dog

[Christina]

Any pups I breed don't leave here until 10 to 12 weeks.

It is a normal thing for pups to play/fight roughly to a degree. They all do it. My tiny ones too. Dogs are a pack animal & this is how they sort out who is boss.

As long as no real damage is done & they learn to stop when you, the boss, order it I consider this is natural & will sort itself out soon.

Allow a certain amount of it however if it looks to be getting too rough order them to stop by the same verbal command each time & clap hands/ blow whistle/bang or something to draw their attention & then seperate briefly.

On the rare occasions when a couple of my adults start I clap & say enough. That does it.

2 litter mates or 2 from different litters may act the same anyway. You have them now so have to deal with it however this is not abnormal behaviour for puppies.

Train & be a strong leader.

[Alfie&Maya]

Thanks again for everyone's reply.

They grow up pretty quick. at 12 weeks, male is 7.4kg and female is 6kg. I had enrolled them into 3 different puppy schools till now for continue education..lol.... and I found a way of control them fighting with each other after discuss with trainers and behaviorists. we can see the improvements already but we have our ups and downs (not their fault as we are not around them all day. I can only correct their behavior when we are with them). they are constantly challenging me as well.

Cannot wait till their third vaccination to kick in to take them for walks.

[Horsegal98]

Best of luck on the journey ahead. I don't know about the breed, but you see a lot in pounds and being given away so I guess they are a breed that needs a committed, firm, consistent owner.

[Jumabaar]

Thanks again for everyone's reply.

They grow up pretty quick. at 12 weeks, male is 7.4kg and female is 6kg. I had enrolled them into 3 different puppy schools till now for continue education..lol.... and I found a way of control them fighting with each other after discuss with trainers and behaviorists. we can see the improvements already but we have our ups and downs (not their fault as we are not around them all day. I can only correct their behavior when we are with them). they are constantly challenging me as well.

Cannot wait till their third vaccination to kick in to take them for walks.

Perhaps do some research on youtube for ways to tire their minds rather than bodies. At this age pups don't really need to be walked and excessive walking can damage their joints.

[Alfie&Maya]

Thanks again for everyone's reply.

They grow up pretty quick. at 12 weeks, male is 7.4kg and female is 6kg. I had enrolled them into 3 different puppy schools till now for continue education..lol.... and I found a way of control them fighting with each other after discuss with trainers and behaviorists. we can see the improvements already but we have our ups and downs (not their fault as we are not around them all day. I can only correct their behavior when we are with them). they are constantly challenging me as well.

Cannot wait till their third vaccination to kick in to take them for walks.

Perhaps do some research on youtube for ways to tire their minds rather than bodies. At this age pups don't really need to be walked and excessive walking can damage their joints.

Ohh, ok.. Thanks for the suggestion. I will do some research about that. :D

[Esky the husky]

Good luck.

Plenty of people do raise husky littermates, but most I know have intentions of racing etc.

Trick training is a great way to tire out the brain of a sibe.

Or toys like kongs, treat balls etc to keep them busy.

We got our first husky before 8 weeks, and sadly she came with a few issues I look back on now and wonder how I missed. ( Was my first time with my own pet)

Sadly she left us far too you.

One thing I will stress with you and your puppies. Spend individual time with them.

And practice recall.

Recall recall recall.

It will save their lives one day.

[Alfie&Maya]

Good luck.

Plenty of people do raise husky littermates, but most I know have intentions of racing etc.

Trick training is a great way to tire out the brain of a sibe.

Or toys like kongs, treat balls etc to keep them busy.

We got our first husky before 8 weeks, and sadly she came with a few issues I look back on now and wonder how I missed. ( Was my first time with my own pet)

Sadly she left us far too you.

One thing I will stress with you and your puppies. Spend individual time with them.

And practice recall.

Recall recall recall.

It will save their lives one day.

Thanks for the advice.

we are doing the trick training now. It is quite slow... without treat they can sit, lie down, high five/shake hand. with treat they can spin, circle me and turn. I found roll over is very difficult for them must be some problem with my technique.... will keep going with the training, but it is not easy...

With Kong, I found the original kong biscuit does not interest them at all. however, if I put normal dry food and a piece of treat in and cover with peanut butter, they will wake up from sleep and start looking for it. haha....

Lately I found them not interest in their food too much and very easily get distracted by some noise or other things, especially the female.

Do you have any suggestion what's likely to be the favorite favorite food/treats please based on your experience with sibes? I am train with them with the recall now. They have been pretty good. I use the whistle. so my next step is hide in one room and whistle till they come and find me and reward them the best treat so that they can remember "forever".

when you mention "Spend individual time with them" could you please explain a bit more with that idea? when I take them to school, that's my time along with one as I took them to different school. but at home it is not that easy to spend individual time with one.

sorry for the questionnaire...

Thanks,

[minimax]

when you mention "Spend individual time with them" could you please explain a bit more with that idea? when I take them to school, that's my time along with one as I took them to different school. but at home it is not that easy to spend individual time with one.

sorry for the questionnaire...

Thanks,

Put one in a crate with a treat, and play with the other. Or spend time training, or grooming, or whatever. Just spend one on one time with it, while the other is elsewhere. Not just once a week at school, but regularly.

[Esky the husky]

Good luck.

Plenty of people do raise husky littermates, but most I know have intentions of racing etc.

Trick training is a great way to tire out the brain of a sibe.

Or toys like kongs, treat balls etc to keep them busy.

We got our first husky before 8 weeks, and sadly she came with a few issues I look back on now and wonder how I missed. ( Was my first time with my own pet)

Sadly she left us far too you.

One thing I will stress with you and your puppies. Spend individual time with them.

And practice recall.

Recall recall recall.

It will save their lives one day.

Thanks for the advice.

we are doing the trick training now. It is quite slow... without treat they can sit, lie down, high five/shake hand. with treat they can spin, circle me and turn. I found roll over is very difficult for them must be some problem with my technique.... will keep going with the training, but it is not easy...

With Kong, I found the original kong biscuit does not interest them at all. however, if I put normal dry food and a piece of treat in and cover with peanut butter, they will wake up from sleep and start looking for it. haha....

Lately I found them not interest in their food too much and very easily get distracted by some noise or other things, especially the female.

Do you have any suggestion what's likely to be the favorite favorite food/treats please based on your experience with sibes? I am train with them with the recall now. They have been pretty good. I use the whistle. so my next step is hide in one room and whistle till they come and find me and reward them the best treat so that they can remember "forever".

when you mention "Spend individual time with them" could you please explain a bit more with that idea? when I take them to school, that's my time along with one as I took them to different school. but at home it is not that easy to spend individual time with one.

sorry for the questionnaire...

Thanks,

Don't be sorry. I've been in almost this situation before.

I thought I knew what I was in for, but raising a stubborn breed like a sibe can be tough.

As far as training goes, it might seem a bit of a strict thing to do, but I make my dog work for any food they get. Especially as a puppy!

I will portion out the meals that she is due to be fed (if it's only kibble then I'd add some interesting things like some cut up chicken or steak) That way I can keep track of how much I feed while I train.

If they don't earn food directly from me, by doing tricks, then I put it into a treat toy, like a treatball/ kong wobbler/ frozen in a block/ a cut up milk carton and she will earn her food from the toy. I like to train with a dog that's a bit hungry so that it really wants to work for that food. I only do short training sessions, no more than 5 mins at a time for a pup. You could just do a few sits during add breaks of a tv show

I've found in my experience that my sibe responds well to a training style known as 'shaping' or 'free shaping'. I'm not having a very good time trying to explain how it works, but if you're interested am I'm not confusing you too much I can find you a link that better explaing it.

Essentially the dog has to work out what you want from it, so it is good for wearing out the evil genius brains that sibes have :laugh: I taught Esky to fetch by putting a toy on the ground. Anytime she went near the toy she got a reward, then I reward her when she decided to touch it, then I only reward when she touches it with her mouth and on it goes :)

My first sibe didn't like kongs much, but Esky only likes toys that give food, but if you're having issues with them fighting I probably would only give these kind of toys when the dogs are alone. Most people will rotate toys around, and only have a few out at a time, stops the dog getting bored of one particular toy.

Good idea with the recall. Esky's is nowhere near what I'd like, but it has saved her life, so I'm very glad we've spent so much time working on it! I'd be practicing that in lots of different places too, on a long line, so that the dog learns to recall anywhere.

As far as spending time with them individually, you really want to make sure you have a bond with each pup, so you need to spend time bonding with each one on its own. You could put one in a pen/crate/ other room as has been suggested and do training with one, then change them over. Or maybe do some lead training with a short walk to the end of the street and back. Otherwise the pups will just end up bonded to each other and may not listen to you when you ask them things.