How to train
2 Dogs Not To Fight
How do I get my 2 dogs to stop fighting? (Answering a Patreon Question)
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Alpha Centauri my dog he's showing with
us today I'm dedicating some time to
answering some patreon questions and I
just came across a really good one it's
a good example of a tough question and I
thought it would be really helpful to a
lot of you your feet are so big this is
Clarissa yes she says I'm a new patreon
member this is my monthly question
I got a rescue dog a month ago my dog is
resource guarding me call it guarding
behavior call it jealousy call it
whatever she sometimes gets really
aggressive if people or dogs approach
and she goes nuts if I interact with
other people or dogs for too long or and
this is why I'm writing if I get within
5 feet of my roommates dog if I leave
the house that you seem to avoid each
other or otherwise manage the house is
safe and the dogs are in one piece when
I get home but when I get through the
front door they go crazy and when they
go crazy near the door my dog starts to
attack my roommates dog and they won't
stop until I physically drag my dog to
another room and close the door I'm at
my wit's end she can't keep attacking my
roommates dog it's becoming a daily
thing where they fight with no blood
drawn yet thankfully and fight and fight
my roommates dog is afraid all the time
and tries to hide in corners but my dog
won't let out yelling at her mid fight
in a loud deep voice will make her run
to me and look really sorry but I really
really really don't like doing that and
after about five seconds my dog will be
ready to fight again unless I distract
her and manage to bring the energy way
down quickly
I feel awful when I yell but I can't
have her hurting other dogs it's the
only way I've found to break them apart
affirm ah when it looks like she's going
in for a squabble works sometimes but
not always
I've tried praising her for staying calm
when the other dog is potentially
visible but thus far this does not
appear to have any effect the
opportunity to praise her is also a slim
slim window
that's why praise and petting a dog as a
reward or as a currency isn't usually as
effective it's not a good enough reward
for a dog it's important to have the
proper perspective on something like
this it can take a lot of time to
resolve these issues so you need to keep
your expectations realistic there but
there are some encouraging things here
that I'll talk about in a moment but
number one you have to
step back on your training and you need
to do that primarily in one huge way
which is by regaining control of the
environment so your new dog hasn't yet
earned the right to have access to the
other dog and to the house they need to
be very reliable on leash before you can
expect your dog to be reliable off leash
this is gonna take a lot of work there's
a lot of management that you're going to
have to do so I'd recommend that you
have your dog attached to you when you
are in a position to directly supervise
your dog because number one we have to
prevent the outbursts from occurring and
that's how we do that by controlling the
environment it requires significant
effort sometimes when you have another
dog but I like that you have a crate so
if you have a crate in the main area for
example you can put your dog in the
crate for short periods of time when
you're not in a position to really focus
on training perhaps secure a bedroom or
a bathroom where you can easily keep
them separate when you're not in a
position to really focus on them that's
number one
take a step back control the environment
next you need to focus on doing some
counter conditioning exercises now this
is really simple you want to start to
create positive associations around the
other dog for example when he's behaving
well in the presence of the other dog
simple praise probably isn't good enough
you need to you know have tiny bits of
chicken so you can just reward you know
two and three times wait a second you're
being a good dog
look at me yes stay good oh you're doing
great you know really interacting with
your with your dog in the presence of
your other dog and creating that real
pleasurable association with being
around the other dog what are two
sessions of this not gonna work you have
to really focus on doing this over the
next I'd say you know weeks to months
could even be longer in some cases
depending how severe it is but I don't
think your case is that severe because
what's really encouraging to me Clarissa
is you said once they start fighting you
can interrupt with a verbal correction
and your dog will come back to you and
and I like that you don't like doing
that because you're right once it gets
to that point it's really too late to
have any meaningful training our goal is
to prevent the behavior from arising in
the first place since we know the
triggers you identified them you have a
pretty good idea of when your dog is
likely to act out unfavorably in
way the fact that you're able to get
verbal control of your dog once they're
in a fight says that it's the the level
of the squabble probably isn't too
intense the other example you mentioned
when they're both at the door and then
they stand to go at it really does sound
kind of like amygdala hijack you know
and when that's where a dog is in the
state of mind where they're just in a
rage and they're not gonna listen to you
this happens with people too if you've
ever lost your temper before or if
you've ever seen someone with road rage
you can probably bet that they're not
really in a good state of mind to be
communicated with at that time you sound
extremely dedicated and you just have to
put in the time and do the right things
with your time and of course exercise
early in the day is likely to make this
training go much easier as when dogs get
that energy out there so much better
behaved excellent question thank you
Kota sir
