I have just visited two more dogs living together that on occasion fight.
Harry and Star, both terrier mixes, have always had a volatile relationship. They are both in their third year, and were adopted as puppies.
Star must have some Border Terrier in her, and Harry is mostly Tibetan Terrier (sorry about the photo – the leads and harnesses were so we could relax should anything kick off, which it didn’t).
Stress
Harry seems quite laid back. Star is an anxious and hyper little dog.
Their owner has just moved house three weeks ago. The general stress of the situation has rubbed off on the dogs and their fights have increased. Every fighting incident has been where Star’s stress has erupted and she redirects it onto Harry.
She is wound up by excitement. Harry has now begun to retaliate.
Training techniques
These dogs simply don’t have sufficient calm, authoritative guidance. They are loved dearly, but ‘love’ isn’t the issue. Various ‘training’ techniques have been tried, including punishment, and some I believe have actually made things worse. The dogs get mixed messages.
The notion that ‘give her enough exercise and it will calm Star down’ clearly has not worked and is totally wrong in my view. A dog living naturally isn’t stressed and certainly would not waste energy running around for no reason at all.
Too much stimulation merely adds stress to our simmering pressure cooker.
The owner is now going to learn how to be to be a proper dog parent! If she changes the dogs will surely change. Much of the time the two dogs are perfectly happy together and play nicely.
The name of the game is stress reduction.
All sorts of things can be translated into stress – chase games, excitement before walks, meeting other dogs, attacking the hoover or post, excited greetings, visitors and the owner’s own mood.
Keeping calm, avoiding all the little things that add stress into Star’s ‘pressure cooker’ and giving both dogs some calm and quiet rules and boundaries will make life very different for both Star and Harry – and their humans.
My job is to show them exactly how to achieve this. their job is to stick to the plan and to be consistent
