Cannot find exactly what I was looking for. I have it somewhere, but where

Might be of interest:


"Rank related aggression

This is more frequently seen in males, dogs that are also pushy with their owners, dogs that make a characteristically cautious approach with a number of ritualised advertisements of status, such as exaggerated tail carriage, dogs that inflict the worst sort of bites on their combatants, and dogs that behave the same regardless of the presence of their owners or the use of a lead. Such dogs often indulge in frequent urination and scentmarking.

Treatment. This will be effective only if it can be applied by a human who is perceived as a leader by the dog. The first step is the introduction of a rank-reduction program. Then the dog can be obedience trained to perform a stay in the presence of other dogs, which will send submissive signals to the would-be protagonist. Castration is also known to help in these dogs (this may be because the reduced testosterone not only makes the dog less aggressive in itself but that other dogs perceive him as being less of a threat). However, spaying a bitch who shows rank-related aggression is unlikely to have this effect" IN:http://animalbehaviour.net/JudithKBl.../Chapter7b.htm

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"G. Aggression Between Dogs in Home (Inter-Dog Aggression)

1. Signalment
1. Typically inter-male or inter-female—rarely between sexes
2. No breed predilection
3. Age: possibly young adults, vs. old adult dog
2. Circumstances
1. Fights can be severe and cause injury or death, esp. inter-female
2. Involve dominance or fear
3. Often in owner's presence: greeting, playing (competitiveness, excitement?)
4. Doorways
5. Critical resources
6. Tense owners give "cues"
7. Other dogs may be attacked outside from a distance (nonselective), outside after investigation (selective), or fights may occur between dogs in home (commonly females).
3. Prognosis
1. Interfemale aggression in home may be difficult to treat
4. Treatment
1. Castrate males
2. Spay females if aggression associated with estrus/pregnancy/whelping (Spaying females can sometimes make situation worse, not better)
3. Separate dogs when unsupervised
4. Avoid circumstances that elicit aggression
1. Downplay greetings
2. Don't give bones/rawhide when uncontrolled
3. Leash aggressive dog outdoors
5. Muzzle
6. Drugs - See your vet! .
7. Halter (for desensitization exercises) - might not work!
8. Desensitization and counter-conditioning"
IN: http://www.cbrrescue.org/articles/peppertree2.htm

Thanks for your help - I will be asking vet for advice today on the spaying issue.

so far so good - today we have had peace, I did some research on the net, and found a site that said basically we had to reinforce the dominant bitch's position, so we have done that, and in the process realised that we were inadvertantly paying much more attention to Airen as she was so timid - trying to make her feel at ease with us which to us was the right thing to do, but as far as the dogs are concerned made things much worse and probably made Suki feel that she had to prove her dominance. The dogs have all been together all day (with supervision) and we let them sniff/walk round each other etc and once seperated them although I think they were playing but i didnt want to take any chances. I imagine this will take time but hopefully we will be able to sort it - however i know its REALLY early days.

Thanks to everyone that contributed
Debbi