fighting etc.
Hello, I just wanted to thank everyone for these postings. Just reading them has made me feel more hopeful. We have Reznor (male almost two) and Sugar (female and aprox. four). Reznor came home as a puppy (and only dog) in Oct 2002. We rescued Sugar in Oct 2003. Reznor went thru the normal puppy training class and then the next "level" as well. I too have literally read everything I could find re: behavior, training, etc. etc BEFORE we brought Reznor home (to MAKE SURE we were ready!) and have continued to educate myself from then on. The dogs have lived together for about eight months now. At first, it was beyond perfect. They were automatic "best friends" and we could not believe how lucky we were. In the eight months, they have had about five REAL fights, where I had to use all of my strength to stop them. Each time it really seemed as though they wanted to kill eachother. Yesterday, they had their worst fight ever. It started because they were barking at someone walking by our house. I told them "quiet", but they would not stop barking and somehow that turned into the fight. It seems that each time they have one of these episodes, it is worse. I was barely able to stop this fight. The only way I did was by pushing Reznor as hard as possible with my foot and then when that separated them, I had to sit on him while holding them both apart. Mind you, the entire time they were snarling furiously and fighting so hard that their teeth seemed to be locked together while they were also "boxing". This was the first time I worried that there would be serious injuries. Luckily, all that happened was a small scratch on Sugar's nose. I apologize for the length of this e-mail, but it was one of the most terrifying things I have ever witnessed and it really looked like they were planning to fight to the "end". To help with the responses I hope that I get I will just add a few quick facts:
I have been home with them fulltime since Feb due to a neck injury. Before then, I was home by about 2pm everyday. Because of my injury, I am no longer able to walk them as much as I used to. We have a very large yard and I compensate in many other ways for their lack of twice daily walks. We do not know what Sugar's past was. We are her third family and the people we adopted her from kept her only as a backyard ornament and pretty much ignored her. Because of this, she has become very attached to me and seems fearful that the new life will be taken away. We have trained her and she listens VERY well and knows all basic commands and actually follows them. Both dogs have had recent health checks includ. blood tests to make sure this is not health related. The test came back normal with no noted problems. Reznor is VERY dominate and VERY spoiled and that is completely our fault which I fully admit. We have been working with him constantly to help this problem. Sugar has become much more dominate with him when he does not obey. That is often what will trigger a fight. If I give a command and either one of them does not follow it, the other will try to reinforce it. It is becoming very bad. Enough so, that we are sending them to a professional behaviorist/trainer and spending over $2,000 (that we do not have) to see if that can help. I look forward to your responses and will welcome and appreciate any and all suggestions. This board has helped us thru more "issues" than you can imagine. Thank you.
