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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Off topic but need some advise...
| Sorry this is off topic, but this is the most supportive dog owning forum I know and I need some advice. Two of my dogs got into a really nasty fight this morning and I got badly bitten separating them, spent the morning getting my finger put back together. The stupid thing is that neither of them are really agressive, this is just a very occasional thing, maybe once every few months, but when they do go for it they REALLY mean it! Once I manage to separate them they're best buddies again in 5 minutes, but does anyone know any methods for separating them that don't involve getting badly injured in the process? |
| Sue Northants UK |
| Small air horn powered by canned presurized gas. Nothing does any good unless you have it with you. How far does the fight progress if you don't intervene? Do the dogs hurt each other? |
| RonB San Mateo |
| Sue, Oh dear this is a difficult thing to happen to you. I am so sorry. It is well known in dog forums with families that have more than one dog that the dogs develop a hierarcy in their own community. They generally sort it out without too much disagreement. One dog becomes top dog and everyone else is in some pecking order underneath. When a dog that is fairly high up on the pecking order becomes ill, somehow the other dogs in the pack understand this and may see it as an opportunity to rise a bit higher in the group. Thus, these sudden out of the blue attacks occur, leaving owners totally befuddled as to what caused it! At this point experts begin sorting the dogs according to who can be out of their crates together and who cannot. It's quite a shuffle. I know many people who have had this happen in their homes and live with the shuffle. The issue seems to be illness, if one of these dogs has been ill? I would highly suggest that you begin to crate one or the other and keep them separated. They will not stop trying to sort out who is top dog. Most experienced owners will not allow them to sort this out on their own, but will enforce the way they want it to be.... Other owners let them duke it out. A visit to a dog trainer might give you some solutions. Never put your hands anywhere near the front of dogs engaged in this attack. They will bite you. Some people try taking the handle end of a leashs and getting it hooked around one back leg of each dog (this requires two people) so that they cannot manuever easily. But your safety is most important. patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
| Ron Thanks for the comment about the air horn. Have ordered one this morning. As I said this is a very occasional problem, only happens once every few months but if I didn't intervene I have absolutely no doubt that they would seriously hurt each other. Little Ernie is ALWAYS the one who starts it, but he doesn't take into account that Loki is 3 times his size and could do him serious damage. Patrice I don't actually think this is about illness, it's always happened even before Ernie was ill. He can sometimes get very possessive about things and it's usually over food or his favourite toy at that moment. Very often if we see him getting grumpy he can be distracted before it gets nasty, but if he actually gets as far as attacking Loki then obviously she's going to defend herself. On this occasion Ernie ended up with a tiny bite on his ear, and I ended up with a big chunk of finger missing. All because he was convinced that Loki looked at his food! |
| Sue Northants UK |
This thread was discussed between 19/05/2008 and 20/05/2008
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