Helping a Pair of Former Dog Pals Become Friends Again
By: David Codr
Published Date: January 13, 2020
For this Omaha dog training session we worked with a pair of dogs who have started to fight; 11 month old French Bulldog Dozer and 4 year-old Pug Trixie. The dog they aren’t fighting with 6 year-old King Charles Cavalier mix Sassy.
Dozer the French puppy contracted a nasty Swine related sickness that is now affecting dogs. It was during or after catching this that the dog fighting problems started. When you have dogs who start fighting after being friends, as a dog behaviorist I always ask if there were any changes for the dog or in the home around that time. If people are stressed out, fighting or the dog gets ill, these things commonly cause changes in dog behavior. Catching this sickness most certainly qualifies for Dozer.
But since the dogs are still sometimes fighting, the family has kept them separated which is a good form of maintenance. While it keeps the dogs safe, it doesn’t help the dogs stop fighting with one another. I handed my apprentice Taylor my phone so I could share some tips to help dogs stop fighting.
Stopping dogs from fighting isn’t an overnight fix. Fortunately in this case, the dog fights were only when one of the guardians was around or if they are over excited. By increasing their exercise prior to using the secrets to stopping dogs fights that I outlined in the above free positive dog training video, the humans should be able to start building up some good experiences between these two former buddy dogs. With practice at positive experiences together, hopefully they will be able to become friends again.
I asked the guardians to let me know how things go over the next week or two or sooner if they have any questions. Im hoping we don’t need to set up a follow up session, but there is nothing wrong with that if its needed. It would be great to hear they are dog pals again.
I shared a number of other tips that will be helpful. So the humans can remember everything covered in this in home Omaha dog training session, we recorded a roadmap to success summary video that you can check out below.
Categorized in: Dog Behavior