recent problems with fighting

My boys are 7 and 8 yrs old and have always been inseparable. The older dog (Angus) had a stroke last fall and has recovered fairly well, but is still a bit of a "3-legged dog". This winter he started attacking the younger one (Axl) for no apparent reason and with little to no warning. Once provoked, Axl went into attack mode which is totally uncharacteristic of his behavior. Amazing that Angus continued to pick fights when Axl always had the upper hand. This went on sporadically for a couple of months and then stopped for ~4 months until last night. I suspect that Angus, who has always been the more dominant one, is feeling inferior as a result of his injury. My question is not so much the cause, but rather i am seeking advice on how to remedy the problem. It has been suggested that we remove their canine teeth so that even if they do get into a fight, they will not do much if any damage. Seeking alternative advice before taking any action.

 

Dog to dog agression is almost impossible to stop at this extent, a bit of 'snapping' is one thing but this has been going on too long. I think your exactly right in your thoughts on why its happening, Angus is trying to keep his dominant position but physically he is not able to do so anymore and its natural for another dog to take over. A lot of fights dont result in injury, they are more vocal, pinning down and hopefully one will give in but its risky letting them fight it out because theres no gaurantees it wont escalate. Other than keeping them seperated when your not with them and keeping it under control when you are with them there isnt much that you can do. Having the canines taken out or having a pulpotomy (think thats the right word...where the canines are cut down to make them level witht he other teeth) would help a little but it wont stop damage being done, just lessen it. Might be a bit risky though with Angus (anaesthesia).

 

In my experienced fights are very serious, my dogs are hardly ever vocal though, they are usually locked onto one another very tightly and only release or move when trying to get a better hold they don't merely, snap, growl or pen one another. They are very serious and mean business although the damage usually isn't serious because I'm right there to seperate them.

Maybe dominance aggressive dogs would, and if you believe thats the case (which I agree with you and DeLauk it probably is) you need to take control and be the alpha. First don't let them unsupervised together and when you are their you are the alpha. If you see warning signs that Angus want to pick on the other dog, or that he is wanting to dominate the other dog you step in and direct them. I have only dealt with a little jealousy/dominance type thing with my female Boxer and APBT, and nothing ever happened and they were able to live peaceful, but at this point I'm not sure if even having them together suprervised can be option you have to decide this by the degree of their fights and how frequent they have been, its likely that by this point they will always try to fight at one point or another even if you are the dominant alpha over them they may still fight for their own rank especially with Angus having been the more dominant of the 2 and then injured as you say. The way to best prevent fights and hostility is to prevent the first altercation, after the first fight and then others taking place it will be very hard if at all possible to stop them from never fighting again. With mine they were both trying to find crumbs under the cabinet and my Boxer was the one who growled first and I yelled her at (yelled her name in a scolding tone) then told her to go to her bed. Then the APBT was on the Boxers bed and they always slept together but for some reason she didn't want the Boxer to lay on her and she made a fuss and got up, it wasn't really a warning growl or anything that seemed to aggressive and I'm not sure why she was upset that the Boxer was laying on her/the bed we can't know everything that goes on, maybe she just wasn't feeling good or didn't want to be smothered usually she layed on the Boxer as she was smaller. But I didn't want to take any chances. I just told her to get off, come here and then the Boxer layed down but of course had to get up since I had called the APBT she didn't to miss anything shortly after they were playing and laying on the bed chewing and playing with their toys. Only once more did the Boxer growl in the kitchen at her over some crumbs or whatever they were smelling and I did the same thing with her as the last time.

Sometimes there is little warning before fights and not much way to prevent it, I'm also not certain how much it would have took to escalade into a fight even the growl the 2nd time they were still sniffing together but the Boxer kept pushing the APBTs face trying to smell only where she was smelling but they weren't being aggressive after the growl I still had to let my Boxer know that I don't except her doing that. It could mean her life if she upset my other dog. It is very hard to keep dogs getting along all the time, they are pack animals and will want a pack rank and might challenge eachother from time to time (this happens with non APBTs as well) so you have to see how far they will take it and if it is worth them being together or do they need to be kept seperated most of the time or all of the time or just the time when you are not there.

Again sometimes fight happen to quick, no warning signs or not enough time to stop them sometimes my dogs go deaf and don't care. Dogs know whats going on but sometimes people don't, dogs seem to attack for no apparent reason but to them their is a good reason. I had one fight, my most recent that I saw coming and could do little to stop it. I had my 2 house pits inside, they are small females. I had Santana sleeping upstairs on her bed and Lacey sleeping in a crate downstairs, well Lacey is a bad dog that has decided to chew and eat everything-crates, dog houses, you name it and is very cat/small animal aggressive but upon introducing her to Santana they seemed to hit it off okay and not challenge eachother or want to fight, but that didn't last. I was coming downstairs of course I had no idea Lacey wasn't in her crate. I was coming down with Santana right with me and then I made it down the steps to the kitchen and Santana just stopped as Lacey ran in, they looked eachother dead in the eye and I knew what was about to happen. But I couldn't do anything, I reached as quickly as I could to pick Santana up and turn around and put her in the hall way (that leads up to the steps) and close the door but that was pretty much useless as all this happened within seconds and I was picking up a dog who had another dog hanging off its face and it took me forever to get them apart and it was terrible! I was so warn out after that, dirty, hairy, bloodly, scratched up. I also don't think removing or filin down the teeth with help, they still have other teeth and its their pressure that does so much more damage then their teeth, Lacey has some of the most blunt and dullest teeth but she can bite hard, she killed my cat near instantly with no blood or breaking of the skin, she didn't break any of Santana's skin but she still had swelling I'm so lucky that her teeth are all dull as she grabbed Santana's nose and shoke the hold and I thought for sure the worst, feared the worse but she had bearly a scratch on her nose I was so relieved as nose injuries or the worse and can cause severe permanent damage you always have to deal with. But if only Lacey's canine's were dull and not all her teeth she would have done a lot more damage to Santana instead of just the bruising, scratch on her nose and small cuts/bad bruising in her mouth.