I have a Staff and a Bitsa (Mut). My Bitsa is 10 had him all his life, my Staff is almost 3 and came to me 18 months ago. I went out recently only for an hour, when I got back there was blood on my walls and doors. I was horrified, they both had bite wounds but superficial luckily.
I have kept them separate since but, I later found out that a persistant person kept ringing my door bell, I think that caused them to fight as the person did not ring find me out and leave. She waited for me to return on my doorstep! My dogs would have been at the door all the time. Having heard the dogs fighting she did not even tell me. Now I am a little nervous having them in the same room just incase they fight again. Can this be stopped with training or do I get rid – last in, first out? HHEELLPP!!
This is the first time the fouht.
Sounds like the repeated ringing of the door bell produced a stress reaction and one or both dogs misdirected that towards each other.
I would do desensitation training with the door bell, have them sit, not bark, and treat.
Dogs who mis direct stress or aggression need self control lessions. They just can’t go lashing out on the nearest dog that happens to be around.
Self control is taught by stay, waiting to get a treat sitting in front of them, waiting to go in and out, learning to be patient, obedience lessons.
Also, you have a Staffordshire terrier, which can be dog agressive. Staffs make wonderful loyal companions. I never trust a bully/terrier breed never to fight, so I never leave them unsupervised with another dog, certainly one that has already shown it can fight under stress or a trigger such as a door bell. I advise crating both dogs while you are not home.
Good luck.
6 Responses
2009 Oct 31
I would try keeping them seperated when you arent about if possible.
And also taking them both to training if you can.
Good luck!
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2009 Oct 31
Well.. this is an easy easy situation. First do not seperate your dogs.. unless their not supervised of course. You need to spend plenty of time to both of the dogs TOGETHER @ once.. You need to supervise them. As they get along they would get use to each other and not fight anymore.. it’s that simple; if you seperate them forever.. your going to have a hard time say if your at work/ school/ out w/ friends your gonna be worried alright.. or feel bad that they have to be crated cause they won’t get along! Definitley free them together and let them spend time. As for obident school.. yes they can fix this problem they would actually enhance it by letting the dogs play with other stranger dogs, so that’s even better! But I wouldn’t really join obident school for them just because they ‘fight’
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2009 Oct 31
Why not play it safe and simply crate one or both while you can’t supervise them? I wouldn’t take a chance since you likely won’t be able to ‘train’ them reliably at this stage of the game and why would you take a chance with their lives and safety? Crate train the dogs…
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2009 Oct 31
Training can improve the dog’s behavior while you are present. But it doesn’t sound like they are fighting or showing other signs of overt aggression while you are around, so training along would probably not be an adequate solution to your problem.
Since they now have a history of fighting I would NOT trust them alone unsupervised. I’m not sure what kind of mix a "Bitsa" is, but staffies ARE known to be more prone to animal/dog aggression than many other breeds. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t great pets or that they will turn on humans (animal aggression and human aggression are NOT related and animal aggressive dogs are often great with people). It just means that some of them may never be fully trustworthy with other dogs. This doesn’t necessarily mean getting rid of one of your dogs, but it DOES mean keeping them separated when you can’t be around to keep an eye on them. I would recommend crating one or both of the dogs or putting them in separate dog-proofed rooms while you are out.
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2009 Oct 31
Sounds like the repeated ringing of the door bell produced a stress reaction and one or both dogs misdirected that towards each other.
I would do desensitation training with the door bell, have them sit, not bark, and treat.
Dogs who mis direct stress or aggression need self control lessions. They just can’t go lashing out on the nearest dog that happens to be around.
Self control is taught by stay, waiting to get a treat sitting in front of them, waiting to go in and out, learning to be patient, obedience lessons.
Also, you have a Staffordshire terrier, which can be dog agressive. Staffs make wonderful loyal companions. I never trust a bully/terrier breed never to fight, so I never leave them unsupervised with another dog, certainly one that has already shown it can fight under stress or a trigger such as a door bell. I advise crating both dogs while you are not home.
Good luck.
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2009 Oct 31
I would keep them seperate
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