Have you ever observed your dog get into a spat with another dog? If you have more than one dog in a house, you’ve likely seen them get into a fight at least once.
Not all fights are dangerous—just like humans, dogs will occasionally get into disagreements and need to learn their own coping skills to politely deal with these conflicts. There are a few different ways you can teach your dogs conflict resolution which will help them resolve their spats without resorting to teeth and claws.
1. Teach your dog to walk away
This is an especially good method if your dog has anxiety or is frequently annoyed by other dogs. Training your dog to turn and walk away when he is feeling nervous is a great way to allow him to remove himself from situations where fear or anxiety might escalate into aggression. This might already be something that your dog naturally does, but you can cultivate it in a dog whose anxiety or annoyance has gotten him into fights before.
Remember that snarling and nipping and barking are usually the last signs of frustration or discomfort. Learn to recognize the earlier signs and train your dog to leave the situation when he feels them coming on.
2. Curb your dog’s dominant behavior
There’s nothing wrong, per se, with your dog having a big personality, but if you notice that he is often using it to bully younger, smaller, or less-confident dogs, it might be time for you as the owner to step in and teach your dog a few manners. Unlike in the strategy above, your dog is not necessarily getting into conflicts because he is annoyed or fearful, but rather because he is annoying or causing fear. This is a good opportunity to teach your dog to back off if another dog snarls at him.
3. Understand that not all fights are bad fights
You might have seen how an older, established dog corrects puppies if they are being rude. For example, if a puppy jumps up and bites an older dog’s ear just one too many times, you might see that older dog snarl at that younger dog.
While this might be startling for the owners involved, if the two dogs aren’t actually fighting (here, fighting means they are actually trying to hurt one another), it is usually okay for dogs to teach each other manners. Many owners are too quick to step in when another dog is barking at or trying to correct their dog, believing this behavior to be pure aggression.
Understand that sometimes that lip curl or paw on the other dog’s back means, “Hey, leave me alone, buddy. I don’t want to fight with you.”
4. Understand that bared teeth does not necessarily mean a bite is coming
When your dog bares his teeth to another dog, this very rarely means that he is going to bite that dog. More commonly, it means “Go away.” Your dog usually knows this and will back off. If he doesn’t, this is when you, as the owner, needs to step in and teach your dog that bared teeth means it’s time to walk away. It’s a mistake to align bared teeth or even correcting nips with aggression, as this is very rarely the case.
However, if your dog doesn’t know that these signals mean they need to back off, this is something they should be trained to understand.
We publish these dog training articles on our blog to help dog owners enjoy living life with their best friends, and I hope that this helps some understand conflict resolution tactics for their dogs. Cheers!
