How to stop 2 dogs from fighting

idunnoshur

During the week I bought a collie whippet bitch, she's about 8 months old. She was getting along fine with the other 3 dogs until last night when the old collie dog attacked her, he had her pinned down by the throat and looked like he was going to kill her so I gave him a slap of the brush, I know that I shouldn't have hit him but I had to get him off her quickly. The older collie then ran off to his usual spot inside the back door of the house while the other 3 dogs stayed by me. I brought the collie whippet over to the older one and he didn't seem to mind her.

This morning I went for my usual Saturday morning walk to inspect all the crops, the 4 dogs came with me and they were all getting along grand but out of no where the older collie grabbed the younger one and again it looked like he was going to kill her, I dragged him off her and sent him back to the yard. The poor collie whippet now has a big cut along her nose and she's nervous of the other 2 dogs even though they never did anything to her. She also wouldn't go into her pen even after I put food in there for her.

Do any of you have any suggestions on how to stop them from fighting? The 2 lurchers are kept inside a shed with seperate pens while the alsation and the old collie are kept up by the house if that makes any difference.


Thanks
ids

Cherry Blossom

Sounds like it didn't occur to you that can't just throw a new dog into the midst of an established group without doing any preparations or proper introductions.

It doesn't sound like all your dogs have been well socialised to be honest and I'm not sure it's possible to back track and start over but I suppose it's worth a try.

You should have started by introducing the newcomer to most agreeable of your established dogs on neutral ground at first, and kept these two well separate from the others until 100% sure those two dogs completely accept each other. This takes longer than a few days. Repeat with the second most agreeable dog and so on. The next step is repeating all of the first part by putting the newcomer with every combination of pairs of the other dogs, then trios etc.

It may not be impossible to now fix the problem between the two dogs in question as how they are introduced the first few times is vital to how they will get on in general. In saying this you should still start over with all of the other dogs, I wouldn't even attempt to advice on what to do with the pair you are having problems with and neither should anyone else unless they are there with the dogs and have very advanced understanding of canine behaviour and body language.

Cherry Blossom

Just to add:

Whichever dog you are currently introducing the newcomer to can be put back with the others and will carry the scent of the new dog which becomes familiar to others as a result before their own formal introductions which is why you start with the most agreeable and work your way through.

idunnoshur

Thanks for that, what's the best way to introduce 2 dogs to one another?

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

It doesn't sound like all your dogs have been well socialised to be honest

What do you mean by this?

Cherry Blossom

Socialised/ allowed interaction with other peoples dogs in lots of different sorts of situations. How your own dogs interact with each other generally is no indication that they will interact with a new dog the same way. This is why dogs should meet lots of other peoples dogs, they learn how to read different body language and what it means.

Take the two dogs off your own property separately if possible and to somewhere they haven't been before, walk them on a lead (one person to each dog) and let them have a run/play together. Then (only if it has gone well with no problems) take them home together and let them get used to each other at home away from the other dogs, ideally try and reach the point where you can leave down food and both are happy to eat their own and ignore the others (this might never be possible though). Then move on to the next dog.

<ETA> Some common sense is needed, if one is not happy with the other when both on leads, don't let them off the leads, try again the next day, it will take a lot longer with some of them than others.