Expert: Christine (Chris) Vassonei, APDT - 7/1/2009

Question
Hi, i had a few questions reguarding my dogs because they have been very aggressive towards eachother and i dont really know why...so i have 3 dogs, 2 louisiana catahoula leopard dogs(jade[female], buddy[male], brother/sister), and 1 mut, keeshond/lab(nala)[female] mix.  Nala has been in the family forever and she's getting pretty old, at least 8-9yrs old, the 2 others we got as puppies a few years ago.  so what im witnessing is more aggression between the female dogs [nala/jade], but it does happen every so often between them all.  

Usually jade will start to show teeth, growl, etc, then attack nala and then they get into a huge fight thats really almost impossible to break apart.  Buddy on the other hand will bark at them and will clean any wounds they might have after the fight, which usually gets him barked at by the dog he's trying to help.  

This might happen once or twice a week and i am able to stop some when im there by yelling at jade, the one that starts it.  but when im not around i dont know if its happening...today i walked out to the back and a person walking there dog went by the front of our house.  They all barked at it and then had little fights against eachother, then they would continue to bark at the dog, to me now i might know why the mail person wont come to the door, i thought yeah our dogs would bark at them, but when they fight that might scare off anyone that comes up the driveway.  

I've heard dominance has a role in these fights, i was just wondering if you had any advice to stop the fighting?  If you need any other info, just let me know because im not really sure what else you need...

Thank you very much
dustin

Answer
If you are concerned that this may be happening while you are gone, and you are fearful that a dog may actually be badly injured, you need to  keep them separate unless you are able to supervise what's going on.  Crating 2 out of the 3 is a good way, or put them in separate rooms of the house.

"They all barked at it and then had little fights against eachother"
What you describe here is an example of displacement aggression.  I am including a document that I think will be helpful.

http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/DifficultDog.pdf