my chow(riko) vs my mini-pincher (cholo)

[j3ffry]

I have three amazing dogs in my house. Different breeds. A sweet poodle, moody mini-pincher and a lovable chow-chow.

All of them off the leash inside my house. They do all kinds of stuff. running, jumping all over the place but not fighting. they fight but not serious it's more like playing. But one day, my mini pincher and chow got into a fight. a real fight. when i saw them my chow was biting my mini pincher's neck and they are growling. I immediately tried to separate them but boy! the chow's bite was so tight. It doesn't happened once but thrice already. now it's either one of them is caged or on the leash.

I do believe that the aggressor here is the mini pincher since i noticed that he has a attitude problem but i'm concerned with my chow because she might adapt the other dogs behavior. and it will be very alarming since ha has the size.

pics of them together.

[valerierichard27]

Is your pincher younger than your chow ?? I have 2 chows and Roemo who is 5 months loves to play, and Nelly who is 2 yrs old too, but the other day she gave him 2 warnings that she didnt want to play with him, and he continued, so she fought with him, biting his leg to the blood. Mabey your pincher didnt listen to the warnings.

[Victory]

Unfortuneatly dogs have no idea of their true size, in his mind the mini pin is the same size as your chow, and if he's trying to dominate her, it ain't going to work. A chow will not accept another dog trying to dominate him/her, even if the other dog is three times their size, (My 40lb Dreamdancer and my neighbor's 125lb Rottie are a perfect example)

This can be a problem, you have two things that might help, first if the Mini Pin isn't neutered, get him neutered it will cut down, (a little) on his aggression, and dominace traits. Second, you have to really exert yourself as the one and only alpha in the house. Learn thier body language, especailly the chow's, most dog fights start way before the growling does. Learn aggressive/dominant postures and stop the play when ever one of these shows. A sudden direct look from one dog to the other can start a fight, a stiffened posture, all of these are warning signs. Also don't let the male attempt to mount your female chow, many females, especially dominant females will not put up with that from another dog, if he even attempts to mount her leg, she may respond aggressively. She's just saying, "Back off, bud, I'm not interested." The problem is that she out weighs him by a lot, and she's stronger, with bigger teeth than he has.

She's not going to change her attitude because of his really, but if he annoys her too much it could be a problem.

[JasonandNat]

This is a dominance thing. We went through something similar we call the terrible 'twos' where our boy and girl (both neutered) worked out dominance between themselves and got nasty on several occasions. It is decided our little girl is boss. We helped this along by always making her first to be greeted, talked to, fed, let out, etc., this helped define the relationship. So now we have no issue, she can eat his bowl while he watches, drink from his bowl, push past to get attention first, anything without further issue. Why did we agree and help her be dominant, simply because she won every fight outright to a larger, more powerful, heavier brother. Most dogs we meet now, recognize ShenLung as an alpha instantly, but they also recognize FengHuang as the dominant alpha of the two. No more issues. The pecking order in the house is people, dogs and then our bunny (poor little fella).

Be patient, make your decision and enforce it from now on calmly with absolute authority.