A couple of weeks ago, I had a virtual appointment with a new client. She was devastated that her previously peaceful home was being turned upside down by aggression between her two dogs. The instigator was the youngish (she's probably between 1 and 2 years of age) female shepherd mix that the owner rescued back in April. The recipient of the aggression was the dog she'd had for 5 years since that dog was a puppy, a very sweet Golden Retriever. The fights began in late May/early June and have been getting worse. While they seemed to be about food at first, now the fights were occurring almost daily and the owner couldn't figure out what was triggering these fights given that she's been controlling food and feeding time so that the dogs don't interact at all when there is food involved. It was getting harder to break up the dogs and she was scared that she might get bit at some point as well. After the most recent trip to the vet to stitch up puncture wounds on her Golden Retriever, the veterinarian suggested speaking with me. What we are dealing with here is a case of intra-household, inter-dog aggression and the prognosis is sobering.
In a recently published study in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the researchers looked at 217 pairs of dogs presented for inter-dog aggression in their households, examining the causes for the aggression as well as determining the long term outcomes for the dogs in those homes. Resource guarding was found to be the most obvious trigger of aggression between dogs in a household. In addition, there were several risk factors that were significant among the pairs of dogs:
1. The dogs were of the same sex, particularly two female dogs
2. There was a bite serious enough to puncture the recipient dog's skin
3. The aggressor dog was 2 years or more younger than the recipient dog.
4. The aggressor dog came into the household after the recipient dog.
5. The aggressor dog was heavier than the recipient dog.
6. The aggression was triggered by the sight of the recipient dog, even in the absence of other triggers.
7. The owner used positive punishment/negative reinforcement training techniques. (What this means: Positive punishment is an attempt to influence behavior by adding something unpleasant, while negative reinforcement is an attempt to influence behavior by taking away something unpleasant. Both methods serve to influence behavior, but the goal of positive punishment is to remove or decrease a “bad” behavior while the goal of negative reinforcement is to encourage or increase a “good” behavior).
In the case of my client's dogs, six out of 7 of these risk factors applied (the only one that didn't was size of the dogs; these two dogs were roughly the same size/weight). With regard to risk factor #7, she had been using a broom, hose, and an air horn to separate the dogs which all classify as positive punishment, by definition.
In the study, 55 dog pairs (25.3%) had poor outcomes including 23 pairs that had to be completely separated, 24 pairs where one dog was euthanized, and 8 pairs where at least one of the dogs was rehomed. Of the remaining 162 pairs who had a better outcome in the study, 100 pairs or 61.7% had improved behavior following behavioral modification, 32 pairs needed to continue to be separated during triggers, 21 pairs were kept separated anytime there were triggers or the dogs were unsupervised, and 9 pairs were kept muzzled when they were together and supervised.
I reviewed all of this current research with my client before we did our in-person, socially distanced meeting. For this senior, continuing to try to manage her two dogs didn't feel like something she could safely do. While she understood how to control resources, she also knew that with respect to her new dog, those resources worth guarding could (and did) change almost on a daily basis making that dog's behavior hard to predict. While my client loved her new dog, she didn't want to do muzzle training and felt it was in the dog's best interest to go to a new home, where she could be an only dog. Fortunately for this dog and owner, there was a family member who had been looking for a young dog and didn't have any other pets. My client's hard work on the basic training and leash skills with this new dog meant that her family member who has taken the dog is off to a great start. When I followed up with my client she indicated that while she felt a bit guilty about how relieved she was now, she did feel she'd made the right decision for herself and for her Golden Retriever. Within a few days of being the only dog in the house, this dog had started to relax again, seek out her owner for attention, and enjoy her walks and play time. It's hard when your dogs don't get along. I've been so fortunate that other than a few minor squabbles over the years, my dogs have always gotten along quite well with one another and with dogs visiting our home. Treating inter-dog aggression in your own home isn't easy, but it is worth doing, While not every dog pair will have a happy ending together, it is possible to find the solution that benefits everyone in the long term.
As always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me. And if you'd like to read the research study yourself, here's a link:
https://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.256.3.349
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