BehavioRx Case of the Month
for February 2005

Fighting Sibling Dogs

A young married couple had purchased two male German Shepherd puppies, 8 weeks of ageand, as the wife said, "about every book on raising puppies, since neither of us grew up with dogs." When they enrolled in our BehavioRx Diagnostics Service the pups were 14 months old and fighting so fiercely that they had to be kept in separate rooms when left alone or the owners couldn't constantly watch them. They estimated that at least two fights per day was not unusual. Further, they started puncturing each other regularly during their bouts. One pup, Thor, required several stitches the week before they contacted us.

In response to our email consultation questions, we learned that the pups had quite different personalities and activity levels at tome than they showed among their
litter mates. Thor was subdued in the litter and Ares was a bundle of activity. After a few hours at their new home, Thor was constantly bugging Ares to play, while Ares seemed to want to sleep most of the day. This often blossomed into serious puppy snarling.

Having read several popular dog books, Dave and Karly took to disciplining the aggressor, Thor, and Dave even applied long alpha roll-over/hold-downs and several times shook Thor by the neck, both techniques touted in some books. As the months progressed and the young dogs developed physically, Karly said she was not strong enough to get the dogs apart when they fought, so they were kept apart when Dave wasn't home. Dave then started punishing Thor, holding him down and spanking him while Ares watched.

At 8 months of age they enrolled in a basic obedience class. Dave trained Thor and Karly handled Ares. The dogs got along nicely with other classmates and each other during their training. At home, Thor behaved submissively toward Dave but started growling if Karly scolded him. Ares was submissive toward both Dave and Karly, but guarded whenever Thor approached.

With all the facts gathered relating to health history, diet, daily and special activities, we gave Karly and Dave some suggestions for further study and investigations, along with acquainting them with the nature of most of the dis-information they had read about the applied to their pups. This included the danger of scruff-shaking and brain damage; The follies of "dominance handling techniques," especially with puppies possessing "active" versus "passive" defense reflexes and, of paramount importance, understanding how dogs are affected by their tendency to "act-like and be-like" their owners, i.e., allelomimetic behavior.

Both owners read Behavior Problems in Dogs, along with the appropriate BehavioRx Instructions, investigated low- and/or no-carbohydrate, high protein diets and
responded with great insight and suggestions as to things they had to change in order to create a peace-oriented environment for the combat-prone dogs. We were able to reinforce their insights and offer further suggestions, including several sessions a week away from their home territory for "Jolly Routine" playtime activities. Within seven weeks they felt they had succeeded in leading both Thor and Ares into a new relationship. When together, Ares' guarded, defensive attitude disappeared and he and Thor even started playfully wrestling without any angry outbursts. Karly was delighted that she was able to live with both dogs alone again.

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