Sudden aggression after 1 year of peace

[briguyman]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

Hello,

I’m new here and am going through a dog crisis.

TL;DR – two rescue dogs lived happily together for 1 year, both desexed, but recently girl reached maturity, they are getting into scuffles now, with no visible or audible triggers, with extremely aggressive growling and barking but no biting yet.

HELP! PLEASE! We do NOT want to have to rehome either dog, as with their problems we don’t see a good chance of them finding a forever home. We love them to bits, and %95 of the time they get along great and play together, tug of war and wrestle.

First I’ll lay out the situation, and then give background information on the dogs.

Situation: we have two rescue dogs in a house with me (male), my fiancé (female) and her two adult daughters. One of these dogs (Tigga, 7) we got almost 3 years ago, one we got a bit over 1 year ago(Luna, a bit over 1). They existed perfectly and harmoniously for a year, while Luna was growing up. Luna is an adult now and they are getting into really serious scuffles. I would say fights, but no blood has been drawn yet. The growling is incredibly vicious and teeth are bared, Tigga is always jumping on top of Luna.

Both dogs are desexed.

Tigga is a staffy/bull terrier, very active and muscly, very focused on fetch and tug of war. He is well socialized with other dogs, and has never had an issue with another dog. He was, however, abandoned at least once by owners who had other smaller dogs. He lived on the streets for a while, we don’t know how long, and then the pound got him and a local rescue saved him the day of his execution. We got him from them.

We live across from a dog park, so he has met probably over 50 dogs. He has incredible patience, and has never started anything with other dogs. He’s jumped in when Luna started things with dogs, but he never bites. He could easily, EASILY destroy Luna with one bite and whip of his head, but he never bites her, ever. They get a lot of exercise, at least one 30 minute intense fetch play a day, sometimes two, and always a hose play in the side yard.

Luna is a 1 year, 2-3 month blue heeler/whippet/mix. She is incredibly clever, but due to having a really bad start to her life (abandoned puppy mill, dogs were skeletal and fighting over every molecule of food when found, it was apparently a real struggle to keep her alive when they found her), she doesn’t socialize predictably. She is great with most dogs, but once in a while she’ll go after a dog. She barks aggressively at every new dog she meets at the dog park, and after sniffing through the fence for a few minutes, she’s usually okay. I was visiting family for the past month, and came back and noticed she looks really different than she did before, which is weird because we thought she was done growing. Luna is hyper-vigilant and barks at sounds that sound close to the house. She gets nervous easily but she’s also a scrapper, and isn’t truly afraid of much. She has a history of being VERY submissive with Tigga, but now she isn’t always submitting when they have their problems.

We can’t keep them inside together anymore. Outside they’re fine, or if they have any problems they work it out silently and we don’t know about them.

Is Luna smart enough to challenge Tigga in an environment where she knows we will break up fights?

The fights: there is no easily visible trigger. Suddenly we will notice their body language slowly and subtly change, Tigga will tense up and start looking at Luna, and she will not submit, but she doesn’t growl audibly either. Tigga will escalate and pounce if we don’t restrain him.

Patterns: this happens most when Luna is cornered, like in her crate or under a desk. It also happens when the dogs are on the human’s level – couch, or if I’m sitting on the floor. It also happens when Luna is in her crate, and Tigga is outside of his. Lastly, Tigga goes after Luna through the screen/glass door sometimes at dinner. Both have spent time starved before they came to us so they have food security issues, we feed them separately, we aren’t too concerned about this one but it’s worth mentioning.

Changes: I left for a month. Then, one of my fiancee’s daughters left about 3 weeks into me being gone, for a month. During this time their diets changed from raw to dried pellets/kibble, and from twice a day to just once a day, at night. Also during this time, my fiancée got a job a few hours away from home, so the house is full of furniture she’s going to take to her new house. Is that worth mentioning? Could dogs sense another change coming?

My guesses are that Luna has reached maturity and is looking to become higher in the dog hierarchy, she is challenging him through refusing to submit sometimes, and Tigga doesn’t like that. The fact that they only fight inside, around us, seems to suggest they’re resource guarding us, the humans, but it isn’t consistent or predictable.

I’m the alpha male to both of them, as I take them out for exercise every day.

We can't have them inside together anymore! Please help!

 

[gypsysmum2]

So sorry to hear of your problems. If these were two bitches it would be, almost certainly, a territorial dispute. Two bitches will, often, fight to the death over territory and the problem is very difficult to cure and almost always results in one or other bitch being rehomed. It is an instinct from their wild days when the gene pool needed to be diluted so one would drive the others out.

Given their respective backgrounds it is possible that they are resource guarding. It is also possible that, given the patterns that you are noticing, that Luna is fearful when feeling trapped. She is worried by Tigga and does not like to feel trapped when he is close by. She now feels that she can defend herself and may see your intervention as back up.

You may be right that they are resource guarding their access to you. It is all a bit of a minefield given their respective backgrounds.

My guess is along these lines - Mostly dogs of different sexes will rub along quite nicely together. One giving in over access to one resource while the other gives in over something else. It can happen that one dog submits over everything. This is often the younger dog, particularly a puppy. We, as humans, do not like this scenario as it does not seem "fair". Dogs, on the other hand, like it that way. The underdog has no responsibilities in life and really has an easy time of it. If we humans interfere in this structure by taking toys off the dominant dog and giving them to the subordinate dog and moving the dominant dog to allow the subordinate dog access to a resource, to just give a couple of examples, it can upset the whole balance.

I notice that you mention yourself as the "dominant" male. Have you been, by any chance, promoting Luna and making Tigga submit sometimes? Has anyone else done this while you were away? It certainly looks possible that there has been a big shift in the status quo that Luna grew up in.

Bitches are often the stronger characters and will often be higher in the pecking order of a household. Would it all settle down if she were allowed to be top dog over Tigga? This, as I have said above, does not seem "fair" to us humans but is perfectly natural to dogs. Tigga, after the initial upset, may settle down and allow Luna to take charge. Dogs often just want the easy life. If they were both living on the streets there would be a huge confrontation and one would give in to the other. The option of "fleeing" would be open to the one that gave in first. Of course it would be dangerous to allow the big fight to take place in a confined space where the one who submitted could not escape and flee so you have a huge dilemma.

There is also the, completely different, scenario where a dog can become addicted to surviving a fight. The adrenaline rush is so huge that they want to experience it again. They, therefore, pick fights I order to "survive" them and feel that wonderful rush. This is quite rare.

I think your situation is so complex that you need a behaviourist to come out to the house and assess the characters of both dogs. Do choose a behaviourist who understands the emotional make up of dogs. You do not want one that still believes in the old dominance theories of dogs seeking to take over the household. Yes dogs will have a pecking order among themselves but it does not extend to us humans. Here in the uk we have organisations like COAPE and APBC to call on. I am assuming you are not in the uk?

Another point is that an increase in exercise that does not involve intense toy play might help. By this I mean a good long walk where the dogs get a chance to just be dogs and sniff and run around in a relaxed way. Do check that the food you are feeding is not "rocket fuel". I would return to feeding twice daily. Some dogs suffer from low blood sugar if fed once daily and this makes them grumpy. I have seen a huge improvement in behaviour by just using a quality dog food twice daily and increasing the relaxation of the dog by upping the exercise routine. Your case looks more complicated but it is an easy adjustment to make immediately. In the uk we have a new dog food called Breakthrough. It is made to a recipe developed by a top behaviourist, Val Strong, and increases the serotonin levels circulating in a dog's brain to make them much calmer and happier. There is a home made version if you would like me to detail it for you.

 

[marygreene13]

Absence of a 'pack leader' can cause a lot of disruption for dogs. A few years ago when my parents still lived together, our dog pack was completely harmonious, and after my dad left, our rescued and nervous parsons terrier would just attack our border collie. No warning and he would not let go so I had to intervene. It got to a point where they couldn't be left alone together. This parsons terrier now lives with me and my dad and our staffie cross. It sounds like we have quite a similar situation to you guys. Lola, our staffie is as soft as anything, she wouldn't hurt a fly, and as a pup she was very submissive to our parsons terrier (Buzz) now she is around three and for the past year she has been maturing and she isn't so submissive to him anymore. They often try and claim space and resources and us humans. The trick is to catch it soon. Lola likes to walk around Buzz and try and herd him away from us, or a toy or bed etc, as soon as she does this I intervene and send her away. They don't ever fight, its just noise and a scuff, and then its over.

It sounds like you need to remind Luna that you're the pack leader. If you have been away and nobody else has filled that space then she may have taken it upon herself, hence the problems. I would do little things like don't let them come and determine when they get fuss etc, or jump up on the furniture unless asked, just so they have some boundaries. That might stop them trying to claim you as well.

With the feeding thing, it is quite common for rescue dogs to have issues with food, a good way to tackle this is when you feed them hold the bowl and wait for them to look at your rather than fixating on the food, we did this with a food aggressive collie and after a short while i could have stuck my head in her bowl whilst she was eating and she wouldn't have bat an eyelid! I'm not sure about feeding separately etc, in a pack they'd all eat together. To some degree its ok for dogs to guard food from each other, mine occasionally have a growl if the other comes sniffing around, that kind of thing is normal as long as it doesn't escalate.

I hope I have helped x

 

[marygreene13]

Also, being the one to exercise them doesn't mean you are the alpha male. I think you're the alpha male when they respect your boundaries, which you have to set out, like your personal space etc. I am a firm believer in pack hierarchy and pack leader and that dogs can try to dominate owners, having experienced this myself but simple small things like you walking out of the door first, feeding only when they are calm and showing them their boundaries is the perfect way to do this. It doesn't sound like you're dogs are trying to dominate you, Luna is probably just trying to find her place in your pack, which I'm sure she will in no time.

 

[gypsysmum2]

The "Pack Leader" theory between dogs and people had been completely debunked I am afraid. Take a look at "Dominance, Fact or Fiction" by Barry Eaton.

Each behaviour problem has its own cause and therefore treatment of it has its own solution. Trying to class all behaviour problems as being caused by dominance is out dated now. Each one needs understanding and treating as a separate issue.

Resource guarding is treated differently to dog on dog aggression for instance.