This is one of the worst dog behavior issues a dog owner has to deal with: two beloved pets that have been friendly for weeks, months, or years suddenly fight. There’s no magic bullet, but I can give you some basics on how to get things back on track and restore peace to the home.
First of all, you must confront the fact that not all dogs can get along. This is obviously the worst-case scenario, but it is worth considering up front. I currently have three dogs, none of which get along. They rotate between inside, outside, crates, and kennels, and ALWAYS stay separate. The time may come to try to introduce them again, or it may not.
Next, after you’ve had a fight, assess the damage, treat wounds as necessary, seek veterinary or E.R. care if needed, and keep the dogs separate until all wounds are healed. You never want to try to reintroduce the dogs while one or both are still in physical pain from the last encounter. In the meantime, keep the dogs separate, slowly allowing closer distances as long as there are no outbursts (growling, etc) or body language telling you there’s still beef. The ladder might look something like this with a couple days in between each step:
- Rover is crated in the dining room, and Fido is crated in the kitchen, but they can’t see each other. Each dog only comes out of the crate on leash to go outside. Neither is ever off-leash in the house where he could interact with the other crated dog.
- The crates are moved so that now the dogs can see one another. Access is still controlled so that neither dog can go closer to the other crated dog.
- The crates are moved close together in the same room. Access is still controlled.
- More freedom is given to one dog at a time to roam, but a baby gate prevents the free dog from entering the room of the crated dog.
- The gates are removed so that now the free dog can approach and interact with the crated dog.
Note that if any adverse behavior is observed at any step, then it is immediately corrected and, if it repeats, you move back a step. This might seem like overkill, and many times it is. If Rover and Fido are Yorkies or Shih Tzus, you can just throw them in the backyard together and they’ll figure it out. But if you have big, serious dogs that can do real damage when they fight, you want to take every possible precaution to prevent another trip to the E.R.
After closing the gap and re-desensitizing the dogs to one another, the next step is to reintroduce them, and that will be the subject of Part 2.
