DOG FIGHTS (need help)

[dville_gt]

First of all, none of the dogs are pit bulls!

Sarah and I have 3 dogs, we both had one dog that we brought into the relationship, and just recently we got the third dog (stray). The two we each brought to the relationship have never liked each other, but with the addition of this third dog their fights have begun to occur more often and severe then before.

They only fight when we are around, we have a "dog room" (which has a dog door into a partitioned portion of the yard) that they all three stay in while we are at work and there is no evidence that they fight. This leads me to obviously believe that their fights are spurred by either protectiveness of us or jealousy when we are around.

They are all small dogs, but when I say they are severe fights I mean it, I have literally picked up one of the dogs by the hind legs and the other one comes with it latched to the dogs face! My dog just recently had her eye damaged in a fight. Sarah hurt her shoulder trying to get them separated and this morning one of them got my finger pretty bad and I got scratched up. It is insane.

I see people recommend spraying with water (just means they fight wet), grabbing them by their hind legs (just makes that dog vunerable), etc. I can't see any way to get these dogs to chill out and I really think they will kill each other if we just "let them fight it out".

Anyone ever experienced something like this before when bringing in a new dog? Any possible solutions?

[forbes]

when i took in my buddies great dane, my pit/dane mix jacked it the hell up pretty bad. after the vet visit etc... he learned to leave her alone (he is also the oldest and a male she is female.) whatever the dominant dog is. you need to feed him first, let him be the first in or out of the house. it will help set the domination thing.

[71chevellejohn]

A BBQ would help them all get along better. You should take off tomorrow and throw a GTG for your dogs.

[dville_gt]

a bbq would help them all get along better. You should take off tomorrow and throw a gtg for your dogs.

lmao

[TexasT]

Water with some addative to discourage this behavior. They obviously aren't getting you don't want them to fight. My kids graduated up from the palm of disapline to a belt when the palm was no longer effective. The means need to escalate to get your point across. Pepper, Tabasco, other addatives. They will get the hint. A squirt bottle might need to become a super soaker.

[dville_gt]

Water with some addative to discourage this behavior. They obviously aren't getting you don't want them to fight. My kids graduated up from the palm of disapline to a belt when the palm was no longer effective. The means need to escalate to get your point across. Pepper, Tabasco, other addatives. They will get the hint. A squirt bottle might need to become a super soaker.

not a bad idea, how do you administer this fast enough though, their fights are literally out of nowhere, one second everyone is cool, we are just hanging out, next they are killing each other!

[talisman]

A BBQ would help them all get along better. You should take off tomorrow and throw a GTG for your dogs.

Lmgdao!

[TexasT]

not a bad idea, how do you administer this fast enough though, their fights are literally out of nowhere, one second everyone is cool, we are just hanging out, next they are killing each other!

We keep a squirt bottle on the end table to administer cat disapline at a moments notice. She has a pretty good idea to cease activities when the water hits her. At first it took a little more possibly getting up and moving in for a good squirt or two to the face, but now we rarely have to administer any.

If you go to the pepper or something and get it in their eyes, I'm willing to bet they get the message pretty quick.

[dumpycapri85]

Pepper spray FTMFW !

[Up0n0ne]

Had the same problem. We had 2 dogs, 1 died, went to Operation Kindness and adopted a pit/lab mix. So we have a boston/corgi mix and a pit/lab mix.

They would get after each other pretty bad, what was recommended to us by O.K. and it worked for the most part. We're thankful the pit/lab mix is a bad aim in the biting category, she always got the short end of the stick. Except I did put my hand in the middle of one fight and she latched on to my thumb inbetween the thumb and index finger. Took me about 15sec. to get her to let go.

Here's what we did:
Introducing them to each another on nuetral ground was highly advised as well before all this.
1. Put all the toys up.
2. Remove all dogs from the home, not just outside, leave. I took one dog in the truck, she took one in her truck.
3 Bring one in the house and walk it through every room of the house even bathrooms.
Once one is walked through take that dog out and bring another in and repeat. This will get each dogs scent on/in everyroom. Kind of helps with the I was here first territory of the dogs.
4. Bring them home and walk them around the block together and bring them in the house together.

Sound kind of alot, but it definitely helped. We did watch them closely for a few weeks. Our Boston/mix acted sad for a few months, now they play and love each other, like bro and sis.
We kept up all toys for atleast 2 months.

[Ruffdaddy]

Go apeshit on them. Loud noises, smacking, make them way more scared of you than they are of each other. After they all fight, put them on lockdown hardcore.

[Randy]

First of all, none of the dogs are pit bulls!

Sarah and I have 3 dogs, we both had one dog that we brought into the relationship, and just recently we got the third dog (stray). The two we each brought to the relationship have never liked each other, but with the addition of this third dog their fights have begun to occur more often and severe then before.

They only fight when we are around, we have a "dog room" (which has a dog door into a partitioned portion of the yard) that they all three stay in while we are at work and there is no evidence that they fight. This leads me to obviously believe that their fights are spurred by either protectiveness of us or jealousy when we are around.

They are all small dogs, but when I say they are severe fights I mean it, I have literally picked up one of the dogs by the hind legs and the other one comes with it latched to the dogs face! My dog just recently had her eye damaged in a fight. Sarah hurt her shoulder trying to get them separated and this morning one of them got my finger pretty bad and I got scratched up. It is insane.

I see people recommend spraying with water (just means they fight wet), grabbing them by their hind legs (just makes that dog vunerable), etc. I can't see any way to get these dogs to chill out and I really think they will kill each other if we just "let them fight it out".

Anyone ever experienced something like this before when bringing in a new dog? Any possible solutions?

make sure not to leave that stray dog alone with your baby.

[03shadow4v]

Lol @ tag

[dville_gt]

make sure not to leave that stray dog alone with your baby.

no babies

Lol @ tag

LOL, sam will be in here shortly to tell me how if he were tuning these dogs they'd purr like kittens.

[BajaBob]

Go apeshit on them. Loud noises, smacking, make them way more scared of you than they are of each other. After they all fight, put them on lockdown hardcore.

This is what I do. I did the whole introductory thing, and it worked for a while. But when my dominant female gets upset she lays into my other one pretty bad. Instill in them that if you ever have to intervene it is a bad thing for all involved. I can yell loud as shit, and when I do my pups know to quit dicking around. My largest, only a 55lb catahoula has tried to stand her ground against me, I just crawl in her crate with her (her safe area), and make it known that I don't abide by her rules.

If you aren't crate training you should consider it. That way while you are gone everyone is in their own space. Each crate should belong to each respected dog. That way while they sleep or while you are gone they aren't consistently in each other business. Alone time is pretty important IMO. When I let my dogs out of their crates they get acquainted with each other like they haven't seen each other in years... yet they are only a couple feet apart when locked up. When one acts up, put them in their crate. Let them know they don't get to join the pack when they are bad.