Thoughts on dog fighting

Marley and Stevie started fighting in January. With the exception of one time, it was always over space, and always in front of me. At first I thought they should work it out, but it quickly became obvious that that approach would result in injury or worse. Marley does not give in, even when Stevie repeatedly offers him opportunity to back away.

Interestingly Stevie is the one who was twice injured with significant punctures. Marley was sore, and his skin abraded, but Stevie never broke his skin even when thrashing him and holding him by the neck. He seemed frustrated, like he just wanted Marley to STOP. I also thought it seemed a lot like two kids thrashing each other.

We used the wheelbarrowing technique (from Leerburg.com) to split them up. The final (I hope) fight was in the yard, and I was alone. After contemplating a 2x8 (seriously), running into the house several times to get leashes and caribiners to tie them each to the fence, and finally deciding to go with a bottle of lime juice to avoid owner inflicted injury. It actually worked and kept them apart so we could make a safe transition to crates in the house.

The downside of the lime is that Stevie now won't play tug with me, but we're working on recovering from that.

I did have to juice them twice more at later dates to interrupt some posturing.

Neil Sattin and Kevin Behan both suggest looking at your home when dogs are fighting. What is going on among the humans? The dogs are our mirrors. After entertaining several possibilities, it occurred to me that their behavior was a fairly accurate mirror of my 11 and 13 year old daughters who have been struggling with space and privacy issues in just the past few months, and at times have gotten downright nasty with each other. They are otherwise best friends and have a very cooperative relationship.

Once we talked about this, the girls themselves suggested the dogs were mirroring their behavior. My older daughter said "she won't leave me alone and I just want to explode and make her stop!" Much to the delight of the younger one, she pointed out that Stevie must be her sister.

My house is peaceful. I will still not leave the dogs alone uncrated while we are not home for now, but it feels like we have an understanding of what has transpired, and my kids know that unspoken and unresolved feelings carry weight and have a bearing on ALL of us.