Advice on neutering and agression

Hi, Im after some advise from all you wise doggy folk. I have two bulldogs one American 3years one british 9months. Suddenly play fighting has turned into something more sinister with the larger breed attacking the pup frequently. I am correcting him, however he soon becomes possesive again and the fight will reoccure. Last night resulted in me having to take the smaller one to the vets. They are now seperated, and I have booked them in to have the 'chop'....will this help with the agression. Any advise is greatly welcome especially those with an American Bulldog.
Thanks

Personally I would not neuter in this situation - at least not yet!

Unless you are sure that this is a problem directly driven by hormones then there is no point.

If you describe the incidents exactly as they occur then we may be able to offer some insight into the cause and potential solutions. But it sounds to me like something that needs far more understanding before surgery is concluded as a viable solution.

Good Luck. Denise Mcleod

Thank you denise.
OK, well mainly it is happening around me, not so much my husband.
Last night Cheech the American Bulldog had a chewwy which he was enjoying, Bruno the British Bully seemed cowardly in his presence. There was another chewwy on the floor as Bruno went to get the other chew cheech jumped up and knocked Bruno out of the way he then started attacking Bruno. This was a serious attack.

Sounds like this could be a resource guarding problem. If so then I wouldn't think neutering would make the slightest difference.

Does it usually happen over things like food, toys, human attention?

Yes sarah exactly, food, toys, treats and mums attention

Then neutering won't solve the problem you're having I'm afraid. With my resource guarding dog we tended to manage the issue. He was only really possessive over food so we just fed the dogs seperately, made sure they were seperated if they had chews or bones and things like that. Same with toys to some extent because although Shadow wouldn't attack Wolf over them the way he would over food he'd intimidate him if Wolf picked up a toy.

I'm not really sure how you'd deal with the possessiveness over yourself so I'll wait for someone with more experience to advise you on that.

Agree with the above.

There is a good book by Jean Donaldson called "mine" which covers this kind of behaviour.

Ill try to come back to this thread when I have more time..... unless anyone else covers it whilst I'm gone.
Denise Mcleod

If these were my dogs then, I would feed seperately (be that a cube of cheese or a buffalo bone) I would also not leave toys or anything else of high value "lying around" and would play/interact with the dogs on a one to one basis (ie when on is having buffalo bone, the other gets some cuddles and a ball thrown)

hope that makes sense

(fiwiw I would also not leave them alone when you cannot supervise. seperate rooms or both crated)

I have a staffie x and a american bulldog. they have fought a few times over treats and food. this is resource guarding (as some have already said). Coleman (staffie x) always starts the fights and Buster (AB) just defends himself. the staffie has needed vet treatment twice. Therefore they are now separated when it comes to treats and food.

If your dogs are resource guarding I would strongly advise you to separate them. neutering will not solve this problem as my staffie was done last year and he still resource guards.

This is the reason I would not encourage play fighting or rough play between the dogs at all, it looks brilliant when they're young and looks innocent but its really setting goals and proving one to be stronger than the other, It's gonna take time to sort out as you've allowed the play to progress to this, your gonna have to be on the ball with them now and use a water spray or something any time you think they're about to start playing especially in and around the home, they'll not be so likely to do it out on walks as other things can take their attention most of the time