Dogs fighting

Hi, can anyone help please? I have two staffies Jess is nearly three and Meg 8 months. They've always gotten on well but today they had an horrendous fight. Jess has always been very tolerant as Meg is very playful and can be quite annoying but today it's like she just snapped. I am really worried can anyone advise me please?

when do they fight? and is it possible to seperate them .

can i also ask please if you can change your username to something more suitable like susan with the initial of your last name or something else please thankyou

It happened today. We have kept them apart all day

was it really a fght? noise doesnt mean agression. also best change your username as suggested unless you want the worlds trolls messaging you

Yes it definitely was. Injuries to both dogs. Had to put hose on to separate them. How do I change user name?

I'd suggest put them both on the lead and bring them close to each other, you can put a muzzle on both of them if you feel safer that way, when they're next to each other correct the bad behaviour and give a treat for good behaviour, bad behaviour being aggressive and when they're not being aggressive give a treat..

Do this until you feel confident in letting them be close to each other without them being on the lead but keep the muzzle on.. see how they are with each other and if any aggressive behaviour, if there is always correct it and when you correct try to give a treat when they are next to each other without aggressive behaviour..

This will teach them that they can't be aggressive and something good will come when they're not fighting.. although for a while i would not let them be together alone..

Thank you that's very helpful. When you say a while are we talking days or weeks?

Hiya. Must have been awful for you! Did you happen to see the fight start? Any idea of what could have triggered it? Have they seen eachother since the fight? If so, what was their reaction?

No disrespect to Buster, and thank you for your input, but aggression is quite a serious topic that people on the internet that don't know your dogs or anything about you couldn't effectively advise on without potentially putting you at risk. Whilst we try to help the best we can, we could only suggest management for the moment really, and would always recommended that you seek professional advise when it comes to aggression or fighting. If you would like to let us know your area perhaps we could recommend a behaviourist to help you to work out a plan of helping your dogs to interact again.

Hiya yes it was very upsetting. Don't really no what it was over I was playing ball with my grandson. We let them meet last night, kept them on leads,first time we brought them together went ok, but second time Jess,the older dog started to snarl so we left it. We are in the rainham essex area. Any advice or help much appreciated

Try Jane Williams. She's not cheap but she's very good.

http://www.athenae.co.uk/

She's based in Witham but that's not too far along the A12.

Thank you

To change your username susan click profile once in profile scroll down the pagev there should be something that says username click into this and change it and once you have finished click save at the bottom of the page thanks.

Rachel33 wrote:Hiya. Must have been awful for you! Did you happen to see the fight start? Any idea of what could have triggered it? Have they seen eachother since the fight? If so, what was their reaction?

No disrespect to Buster, and thank you for your input, but aggression is quite a serious topic that people on the internet that don't know your dogs or anything about you couldn't effectively advise on without potentially putting you at risk. Whilst we try to help the best we can, we could only suggest management for the moment really, and would always recommended that you seek professional advise when it comes to aggression or fighting. If you would like to let us know your area perhaps we could recommend a behaviourist to help you to work out a plan of helping your dogs to interact again.

I think the longer you leave it the worse it will get, specially if she keeps letting them meet and see if they're ok without doing anything about it.
What I said was safe for both the dogs and her, if they have a muzzle on all she really needs to do is just hold the dog and someone holds the other dog, let them meet and every time they have an aggressive behaviour correct it.. Obviously it's scary but it's her own dogs and she should act calm about it.

Obviously professional help is a lot better but if for the time being she can't get it for whatever reason, I wouldn't just suggest to let both dogs meet and let them have aggressive behaviour towards each other and do nothing, will only complicate things later on.

I've also read online the best thing to do when there is a dog fight is to actually let them meet straight after, obviously with professional help or a muzzle and by correcting any bad behaviour.

But hey, like I said that's my personal opinion and what I would do if this happened to me I would rather get it sorted as fast as possible than leave it be which could make things get worse.

Understand where you're coming from, but I'm assuming the dogs aren't muzzle trained? If not, this can take 2 weeks minimum, very few dogs will accept a muzzle without prior training and don't enjoy wearing them, so if they see it as a negative and it's put on whenever the other dog is near this will bring about bad feelings too.

Dogs have a baseline, like we do, it you reintroduce when still off baseline (different come down levels for each dog) they are likely to fight again. It's all so complicated and different for every dog. They're also both female, which may be something to do with it. You could get a trainer in within 24 hours if required to assess the situation safely and properly, and go forward. We know nothing about the dogs other than the minimal information offered, but a trainer will be able to see all body language and make an indepth profile not meaning to have a dig, just want to owner and dogs to be safe, as I'm sure you do also. Can see that your advise is well thought out and well meaning, just need to be careful with these things.

I know where you're coming from, Busterr, but Rachel's point about not being in there and knowing for sure what's going on is really important.

I was a remedial horse trainer and used to spend time on our association's forum, very often giving the advice 'get a trainer in' and cautioning against advice given by others because I knew (and still know!) from experience how difficult it is to understand a situation and target advice accurately and safely. More often than not, when I got to a client's I'd find that there was much more to the situation than the client herself had seen, and when these were horses that had previously been diagnosed on-line I'd find just how far off the advice was. It's well meant advice, undoubtedly, but when you have a dangerous situation like a rearing horse or a fighting dog, you don't have the luxury of getting it wrong.

This isn't meant to be super critical of you, but just to take your advice 'all she really needs to do is just hold the dog and someone holds the other dog, let them meet and every time they have an aggressive behaviour correct it', what happens if the dogs start really ripping into each other even with muzzles on - claws can cause damage too. And how do you correct it? And what about the frustration of wanting to attack the other dog but not being able to because of the muzzle? And what happens when someone takes one of the muzzles off maybe too early and that frustration causes the dog to bite the person?

See what I mean? I know in your mind you've got the scenario clear but it doesn't always work as we imagine.

Keeping the dogs separate until you get someone on the ground who can assess and advice specifically to that situation has to be the safest.

What about a vet check (separately!) up to make sure neither are in pain seeing as their behaviour has changed?

My uncle is a dog behaviorist he travels the whole country helping people with there dogs.
link to his page: http://caninecoaching.co.uk/