My dogs had a fight

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littlen

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How do i stop it happening again?

I have two dogs, an old gsd and a 2 year old collie.
The gsd had a history of dog aggression with strange dogs but has always been fine with collie, in fact they sleep together, eat together, play together.
They are mostly left unsupervised as they are mainly outdoor dogs, in garden during.day with access to kitchen and in living room at night a nd they have always been fine together.

So unexpectedly.tonight I heard them fighting and ran out to find submissive quiet collie attatched to my shepherd, blood everywhere. Pulled them apart and shep is okay just superficial wounds (he is red with blood so looked worse!!)

They both got wrong and then went back to sleep in beds next to eachother.

But what do I do now? Do I keep them seperate?
Can i train my collie to accept my shepherd as boss, now he has realised he can get away with it? I always feed shepherd first etc.

I have no idea why either, no food involved. They have loads of toys but a growl from either usually sends the other in retreat. Can I train them to leave eachothers stuff alone?


Bit shaken that my two lovely boys can do this to eachother.

Both are castrated so its not hormones!!
 
This happened with our 2yo and 12yo sheps, if you were not in the room and did not see what happened it can be hard to help with the trigger.

For us it was the younger dog trying to assert herself over the resident female as she matured. We actually sent the younger one away for a while (she nearly tore out the old girl's throat) so with that I can't really advise you - for now I would not leave them unsupervised, if you have to go out to work, crate one or both of them, or put in different areas of house.
Even castrated dogs can vie for position.
However don't be constantly on guard for them attacking each other as they will pick up the tension.
If you are in the room try and body block the aggressor and remove him from the room ASAP, no shouting or screaming. Try not to wade into a fight, they will do you more harm by accident than they will do to each other by intent.

TBH I don't hold with all this feeding first stuff, I feed my dogs in separate areas so they don't even see each other eating, no shared toys (which belong to me anyway, I don't leave toys lying around when they are not being played with, especially in shared spaces)

I know you say the wound is superficial but I would go to the vet to get it cleaned properly to eliminate risk of infection.
 
I would never leave toys around which could be grounds for disagreements, dog picks up toy other dog wants it and a fight breaks out.

Has anything changed at all in their management, has one been under the weather at all. Your old GSD is he at all arthritic? could he be in pain?. I think if these were my dogs I would be taking the older dog to the vet for a thorough check up because if he is in any pain or discomfort he would be less tolerant.
 
Thanks guys,

Old boy has spondulosis but is on long term pain relief and runs about more than collie, very active! He will be at vets first thing tomorrow.
Collie has no marks on him at all which makes me think it was him.

They have loads of toys as they are left for 5 hours during the day and I didnt want them bored, will remove them and hope they dont become destructive!!

They are never normally aggreasive at all, they get distressed when seperated which is why its so upsetting!
They do play alot and can be noisy but I always just left them. Should I stop this??
 
I would still let them play but step in with voice or distraction if one dog pushes their luck.
Could you keep them within sight of one another, but separated, with a glass door or stair/baby gate or something? I do of course leave a chew or a bone for a dog unattended but not when there is another dog in the space if you see what I mean!
 
I have a crate for collie although I would hate to leave him in it that long, I could certainly try and think of something!!
 
As suggested do not act nervouse around the dogs and DO NOT seperate these dogs perminantly, dog fights happen, it could have been anything, one probably had something and theother got to close, as suggested gather everything up and never lave toys/chews around to be posessed by one dog, box the toys and only give them out when you can supervise, personally I dont have scatered toys (the Serve no purpose) not in my house anyways:p
Again the whole feed first man little, you re the boss the dog are equal and answer to you. So if there is a scrap or disagreement you are the force to be reconned with not each other and generally an instability (owner inc) in a pack that causes unbalance, so remain calm and composed and be ready to reprimand quick as you like (make them scarper from sight) and over if this kind of things rears its head again.
As suggesed if you are worried re fights when you are not there then seperate, but never indefinately and never leave posessions where you are not around.
 
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