Cross Breeds

Dog aggression (a specific scenario) ?

My aunt in China has 3 dogs in her house (a Tibetan Mastiff, A German Shepard, and one other breed, can't remember the name, she's the smallest one of all. We'll call her Dudu). So Dudu came first to the family. Several years later the Mastiff and German Shepard joined the family. At first everything was harmonic until one day... Ok... so when my uncle comes home everyday he greets the 3 dogs in order and he always picks up Dudu first. However, one day he came home a little drunk and greeted the German Shepard first (the shepard somehow got in front of Dudu. Dudu was jealous and bit the German Shepard. That angered the German Shepard and she first bit my uncle and then all 3 dogs plus 2 people (my aunt and uncle) got into a fight (yea, picture that). So ever since then every time the German Shepard sees Dudu she will attack and bit Dudu like crazy. Poor Dudu now has wounds everywhere. My aunt has no other choice but to separate the two (Dudu inside the house, Shepard outside). I wonder, for all the animal behavior experts out there... can the Shepard's behavior be corrected? I know that they are not willing to give up neither of them. But can they live happily ever again? This is why I only have a Bengal cat in the family. No dog fights. =P Thanks! I think it's 100% jealousy. My uncle goes on business trips a lot so when he is not home my aunt is the only one breaking off the fight. According to her the fights are pretty intense. Therefore I don't think a water gun will solve the problem. I'll def ask her to try though (but I think she's too scared to let the 2 dogs meet each other again now). All 3 dogs are female.

Public Comments

1. It could just be jealousy. Try to give them equal amounts of attention.
2. German Shepards are naturally territorial. Especially if they aren't fixed. You can try corrective actions like, when the shepard bites Dudu, scold him and put him in a crate or scold him and spray water at him...are all the dogs male? because that also feeds into aggression
3. he needs to kick the crap out of the dog in the neck . trust me he will either snap it or he will stop
4. It doesn't matter if a dog is territorial or jealous, at the root of the problem is that the dog has stepped up into a leadership role and taken charge. I've seen this happen in a lot of cases I deal with. Little by little, the dog begins to accumulate what I call leadership points. When the dog gets enough points, the dog sees himself in charge rather than the owner. Some people try to manage the situation by trying to push the dog back into his place. This can get owners bit, because the dog decides to take on that challenge and maintain the status the dog has worked to earn. The best solution I have found is to erode the dog's leadership status by doing specific training that puts the owner in charge. The training in my book tell just how to do that. There is a case study in the last chapter which tells how that kind of leadership training reformed a dog who, like the German Shepherd, had decided to attack another in the household. If your aunt finds she can't execute this kind or reform training on her own, she needs to seek professional help. This issue will only become worst when not resolved. Peggy Swager APDT-Behaviorist author of Training the Hard to Train Dog www.peggyswager.com
5. It is best just to keep them separated or re-home one of them. Eventually the shepherd will kill the smaller one and it would be too bad, because it can be prevented.