Some Advice Plz - Dogs starting to fight!! help

Hi everyone haven't posted in a long while so for people that don't know i have Jessie my newfoundland who has just turned 1 and Kai my small japanese shiba inu male who is 6 yrs old.

Kai and jess have got on fine together over the last year but as jess has turned 1 the other day things have just turned bad.

It started over "prize food" (a bit of cheese found on the floor in the kitchen) they obviously both wanted it and before i could pick it up they went into a serious fight, i grabbed jess (newfie) and pulled her away and managed to stop it before it went anyware.

Anyway this situation has gradually got worse, jess seems to be staring out kai and if he doesn't back down it then leads to growling where i interviene.

Last night i bought 2 bones, kai took his upstairs (this is where jess does not ever go) and jess had hers in the living room. After about an hour kai wanted to go out in the garden so i closed the doors so he had no access to where her bone was and let him down. He walked through the hall to go outside and all hell broke loose. Again i grabbed jess and managed to stop it. I find it quite frightening as i am always concerned because i have children (although they are told never ever to get near if anything ever started and they are in the same room, but previously never had this problem with them).

I got rid of the bones and made sure both dogs individually saw me put them in the bin outside.

Hours later i held jess and let kai into the same room and jess eyes him up which i sternly told her off for. After the food had gone they acted like normal again.

This morning they mixed as normall, ate their breakfasts in seperate rooms and i had no trouble afterwards. Then hours later they started to have a growl which i then told them again sternly no and split them up.

What do you think i should do........


I think they want to see who is the more dominant but they are both strong willed dogs. Any suggestions please

Has Jess had a season and if so when was it?
Becky

Yes, about 7 weeks ago.

We also moved house 3 weeks ago, and things have escalated in this time.

Any thoughts or advice on this please. Tonight they have been in the same room and had no growling or fighting but i have been watching like a hawk and jess seems to want to put her face into kai's all the time which i have told her "no" and moved her face away.

Well judging from what you say I would think this is a double effect of hormonal changes of Jessie and the stress of a new environment. That means that, once those factors are removed or diminished then they should settle back to normal.
What I would do is make sure that there is nothing that could cause arguements such as toys and food and keep things as calm and stress free as possible. Consider putting them on some herbal calmers to help get them through this patch or consider using a DAP diffuser.
If you see Jessie trying to stare at your other one then try to diffuse the situation by gaining her attention in a pleasant manner, rather than shouting at her, and work on that basis.
Becky

Having this trouble with both my males.What i did was got a squirty bottle filled it with water,when the dogs started i squirted both dogs,so far it is working.You can shout all day long and they will carry on.

The trouble with using the squirty bottle on this sort of behaviour, is you may be adding fuel to the fire.

Using a negative correction on a negative action, may make the dog you are squirting (jesse ) the one who is attacking th other ,worse, she may start to associate the negative correction with the other dog....hence giving her more cause to attack.

I think, for now never leave them alone, remove all toys /bones, anything that you may feel will cause a reaction. feed them away from each other, when Jesse gives the other "the look" distract her away,

But you may need to get professional help to help solve this.

thanks for the replies, just to say that since the post they have been perfect together. I have been watching like a hawk and jess has been quite happy playing with kai etc.

They are always seperated at bed time and when i go out anyway and for now there will be no bones or fancy treats.

Thanks again for the advice, maybe jess was having some off time. But i will keep alert.