Aggression Between Dogs In The Same Household

[Salukifan]

Saw this on FB and thought I'd ask about it.

Link to Article

Aggression between Dogs in the Same Household

What causes conflict between dogs living in the same home? Published on April 22, 2014 by Stanley Coren, Ph.D., F.R.S.C. in Canine Corner 2

inShareMy home typically contains two or more dogs, and research has shown that having more than one dog is typical for nearly one third of dog owning households in North America. In a multiple dog home probably one of the most disturbing situations is when there are aggressive incidents between the dogs. These are not only disturbing for the peace and happiness of the humans living there, but it can also be quite dangerous for the dogs and for the people who try to intervene and break up the fight. A scientific report published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association* looked at this issue, specifically assessing the characteristics of the dogs involved and what can be done to help eliminate the problem of fighting among dogs living together.Researchers Kathryn Wrubel, Alice Moon-Fanelli, Louise Maranda, and Nicholas Dodman, recruited 38 pairs of dogs that came to the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton, Massachusetts specifically because they were involved in aggressive incidents with their housemates. The research team then conducted in-depth interviews and administered a number of questionnaires in order to determine the characteristics of dogs which had been involved in such situations. Later on they would prescribe a treatment method for the problem.

The first thing that might be surprising to most people is that female dogs are more often involved in such fights then are males. Only 32% of the aggressive incidents involved conflict between two males, while in the remaining 68% females were active participants. This is consistent with some previous research which has shown that when females get into an aggressive situation injuries are apt to be more severe and the fight tends to be longer and more furious.

If we look at the overall characteristics of the dogs involved, we find that the instigators of the aggression are usually the dog who has been most recently brought into the household (70%). Furthermore in 74% of the cases it is the younger dog that starts the fight. These fights are often a surprise to the owners, since 39% of them claim that the dogs usually get along with one another most of the time. The conflicts can be quite intense which is proven by the fact that 50% of them required veterinary care for the dogs and 10% of them required medical attention for the owners who tried to intervene. The reason that the owners were placing themselves in jeopardy was because 54% of them felt that the fight would not stop unless they separated the dogs physically, and only 8% of them successfully separated the dogs using learned obedience commands.

What tends to trigger a fight among housemates? The actions of the owner, such as paying attention to one dog rather than the other, are a trigger for 46% of the pairs. Simple excitement, usually involving the owner's arrival or other activities was involved in 31%. Conflict over food was involved in 46% of the pairs while found items or toys are triggers in 26%.

There appear to be a number of risk factors which the study isolated for one or both of the dogs. Among the pairs of dogs involved in aggressive incidents 41% had at least one member who had lived in multiple households. When at least one of the dogs in the pair was 12 weeks of age or older when adopted the rate of conflict was 39%, dogs adopted from a shelter were involved in 33% of the cases and dogs from pet shops in 16%.

There is some evidence that dogs involved in aggressive situations with the dogs that they live with do have a tendency to show aggression in other situations. For example, 40% have shown aggression to other dogs, 27% have shown aggression toward humans living in the household, and 27% toward human strangers, but most distressingly 20% have shown aggression toward their owner.

Aggression may not be their only problem since 50% of the pairs of dogs involved in conflicts had at least one member with noticeable separation anxiety, and 30% had phobias, fearfulness, and other forms of anxiety.

The good news is that aggression between housemates does appear to be treatable using behavioral techniques that owners can institute at home. The first of these is the technique that Nicholas Dodman calls "nothing-in-life-is-free". This simply requires the dogs to respond to some simple learned command (such as "sit", "down", "come" etc.) before they get any resource that they want (their meal, a treat, petting, attention and so forth). The second of these involves "supporting" one of the dogs, meaning that the chosen dog gets everything first (food, treats, attention etc.). Here the problem is which dog to select, and a pragmatic way of doing this is to choose the dog that is larger, stronger, healthier, more active and so forth. An alternate way (which seems to fit with human notions of priority, deference and respect, is to select the "senior" dog, where here the word "senior" means the dog which was in the household first, and has lived for the owner the longest. Both of these methods work, but not instantaneously since on average the data shows that noticeable improvement does not occur until more than five weeks after the process starts. The "nothing-in-life-is-free" technique produced improvement in 89% of the pairs, while the "senior support technique" produced improvement in 67% of the pairs. The researchers suggest that these techniques work for two reasons. First, because the dogs must act in a controlled manner, this takes some of the excitement and arousal out the situation. Secondly, because events occur in a predictable order, and the dogs learn that each of them will eventually get what they want and no conflict is needed.

It is important to note that the sex of the dogs not only makes a difference in the likelihood of conflict but also in the likelihood of improvement with behavioral treatment. As we noted in the beginning of this article, female dogs are more likely to engage in conflicts with their housemates and their fights are apt to be more serious. This is consistent with the fact that the improvement with behavioral treatment is found to be less pronounced, although still significant, in female pairs. In the male-male pairs, conflict was reduced in 72%, of the cases while for male-female pairs the reduction was 75%. In the female-female pairs the reduction was for only 57%, which, although not as large as in the other pairings is still a reasonable improvement rate, and well worth the effort.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Haredown Whippets

[Salukifan]

With six dogs at home, there have been incidents. Most are sound and fury and there has been the odd tooth scrape. There has been one vet visit for a more serious bite. Single puncture wound, no other damage.

I have very controlled feeding times and I think the worst scrap was over a dropped treat.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Haredown Whippets

[Steph M]

I'm not at all surprised most incidents involve females.

Our male doesn't give a toss about much, but the female is bitch by name and nature! Haha.

[Diva]

Your poll doesn't work, I can't vote no without answering the second part, and there is no 'no aggression' option in the second part.

[Salukifan]

Your poll doesn't work, I can't vote no without answering the second part, and there is no 'no aggression' option in the second part.

Try it now.

[Kavik]

There is the odd blow up, mostly when arousal levels get higher. Amazingly, considering that Zoe was dog aggressive, they are almost all noise, with the odd tooth scrape, never had any serious injuries.

[Dame Aussie]

Very rarely here. I think we've only had two times when their faux fighting turned real. Even then it was all just sound and fury. I think one was over a bone and the other started from play that got too rough. One was broken up when they were told stop and the other ended with me flinging a pillow at them

They can both be grumpy though and give the occasional "out of my way, you're annoying me" type snarl

Edited April 24, 2014 by Dame Aussie

[Salukifan]

One thing I've noticed with the Whippets as opposed to the poodles, is that while triggering them to stoush takes more, they are less inclined to pull their punches.

The one more serious incident I had related to a change in pack order.. younger male moving up, alpha wannabe male not wanting to give way. That issue has been resolved. Senior dog still rules but there's no question who No. 2 is.

Its a bit funny when you are a multiple dog household. A minor squabble that you think nothing of makes can make single dog owner horrified. Same as kids I suppose

Edited April 24, 2014 by Haredown Whippets

[pie]

Mine have never had a scuffle that I have witnessed (surprisingly because they are both quite insane and the older is quite mental and reactive). The only thing was when the younger was a puppy she got snapped at and had a scratch on her nose. Older dog can get a bit OTT while wrestling and gets told to calm down by me, but it's always noise and they move on instantly. My boy is often lucky that my girl who is bigger and faster is quite easy going and submissive with him. I think it is harder and more complex with more than two though, and I know when other family dogs come over the dynamic totally changes and my brother's dog (oldest, and a bitch) makes it known to my eldest boy that she is in charge, and he is happy to be submissive to her.

[Leah82]

I said no, Sarah has given Collie a telling off for being too exuberant here and there but nothing I would call aggression (more assertiveness)

Other than that they luuurrve each other and fret a bit if the other is taken away from home

[tdierikx]

2 of mine are permanently separated due to the fact that if they are inclined to fight, it will be to the death. Both desexed bitches - both I've had from very young pups - 6 year age difference between the two.

Funnily enough, the 2 rescue foster failures are less inclined to scrap with anyone... but Pickles is top dog around here regardless.

T.

[Vehs]

Resource (me) guarding is very strong in the little one who isn't even my dog!

He loves to keep my dog away from me.. even sleeping on the floor on my side of the bed instead of in his own bed, sitting right outside the bathroom door etc

He's also very posessive of 'his' areas, his food bowl, his kids couch, his toys.. but he will happily sit on my dogs bed and play with his toys. little turd.

I always feed, pet, greet my dog first and wonder if this adds to the problem if the little dog is seen as further up in the hierachy than my dog??

[bianca.a]

Just last week was the first ever fight between my two. In my efforts to pull them apart my arm was nailed (not sure by which one) with puncture wounds. Dogs were ok thankfully. Cooper instigated it which shocked me but I think it could have been pain related (he is soon to have his second total hip replacement).

It scared the heck out of me

[tdierikx]

3 policemen, 2.5 cans of capsicum spray, boots, and batons - were no use when attempting to get my 2 bitches to stop their last fight... so I've decided that permanent separation is my best course of action to make sure it NEVER happens again.

On the upside, my vets declared that last fight to be a "draw" - they charged the same amount for each dog to be patched up afterwards... *sigh*

T.

[sheena]

When my guy gets over excited & the girl is carrying on like a pork chop, he will sometimes grab her by the tail & pull out a bit of hair...she takes no notice, but sometimes if he is over aroused by a smell or a strange dog, he will take it out on Bindi...can be a bit scary but no damage is ever done.

[Brandiandwe]

We've had two incidents, one which resulted in stitches and a $700 vet bill the week before Christmas. That one was between my two girls, who had lived together without incident for two years previous. That, I think, was over a lizard in the yard, but was related to Hermon's arrival about three months earlier. I think things were still settling. Brandi nailed Paige who needed stitches in her throat and beneath her eye. Millimetres in any direction would have resulted in a punctured jugular or a loss of an eye. The Voice Of God stopped the fight immediately so it was more of a scuffle. Hurrah for greyhound skin!

The second, Hermon shoved his nose into Brandi's food bowl. Know idea why he was there, as they are fed separately and Boo usually finishes first. That was a nice deep puncture wound just in front of the ear. VOG stopped things immediately and he's kept his nose in his own bowl since.

Brandi is firmly at the bottom of the pecking order and we're very strict about orders of feeding, leashing up and so on. But there are regular growls and grumbles which are just communication. They're all pretty good now that Hermon is integrated as top dog.

[Little Gifts]

We have had only one serious incident which was also (surprisingly) a draw and required me to urgently transport bloody dogs to the vet in pj's and no shoes. Both dogs were female and the trigger seems to have been a snake in the yard which got one dog very over excited. The second dog got nosy, a tussle started and the second dog seems to have gotten backed into a corner so had to fight back when she couldn't flee. She did pretty good for a dog who has never shown any ability to defend herself before. The damage was far worse than it should have been simply because I wasn't well and had gone back to bed. Based on the noise I thought they were rough housing so it was all going on for quite a while before I fully woke up and realised the noises were something more sinister. They were exhausted by that time and as soon as they saw me one collapsed on the ground and the other ran in to her crate in my room. I still feel terrible I didn't intervene earlier.

We were already doing the nothing in life is free thing so had to stop all over-stimulation from toys, play, (snakes, possums, mice!), visitors and we changed the order we fed and rewarded all the dogs so the two involved in the fight had their status at the bottom of the pack reinforced. We continue to do both these things as the fight was less than a year ago and I don't feel I should ever let my guard down with them again. I think it was six or so months before I felt they were ready to rough play under supervision with each other again but we will continue to keep the stimulation levels down on the one who started the barney.

The strangest part of the fight was that once they were both home from surgery in their cones of shame and drains they both wanted to be with each other, like they were sorry it happened. There seemed to be no residual distrust or dislike between them. They'd always been quite good friends and the one who started it cared for and nurtured the younger one from when she first arrived here as a foster pup. She has continued to be a supportive big sister (under our supervision). But it is like she has this crazy switch though when she gets over stimulated and she loses all sensibility. I can see it in her eyes.

We've been very lucky

[Salukifan]

3 policemen, 2.5 cans of capsicum spray, boots, and batons - were no use when attempting to get my 2 bitches to stop their last fight... so I've decided that permanent separation is my best course of action to make sure it NEVER happens again.

On the upside, my vets declared that last fight to be a "draw" - they charged the same amount for each dog to be patched up afterwards... *sigh*

T.

I can see why you've opted for permanent separation.

[tdierikx]

3 policemen, 2.5 cans of capsicum spray, boots, and batons - were no use when attempting to get my 2 bitches to stop their last fight... so I've decided that permanent separation is my best course of action to make sure it NEVER happens again.

On the upside, my vets declared that last fight to be a "draw" - they charged the same amount for each dog to be patched up afterwards... *sigh*

T.

I can see why you've opted for permanent separation.

Well - if the policemen had grabbed a pair of back legs and pulled like I asked, it all may have been over a lot faster and with less injury to either dog... I already had hold of the back end of the better fighter of the two so she couldn't get enough purchase to go in for the kill. But the policeman decided that capsicum spray was the way to go... wrong!!!

My girls recuperated side by side in their crates, and are still lovey towards each other (one always crated when the other is loose in the house), but I'm not about to ever let them get into a fight again... it's just not worth them getting hurt when I CAN prevent it.

T.

[persephone]

Happens here .... mostly the boys . one in particular tends to fight first/ask questions later .

The bitches only fight very rarely ..but on one occasion have had one end in death by fighting for one , and death by human for the survivor.