Why do dogs that have lived together for years suddenly turn on one another?

Question

I have 3 dogs (3 differnet breeds). They've lived well together for several years. Now, 2 of them have suddenly become very mean to the one. They won't let her eat and they tackle, fight and hurt her. Why would they do that and how should I handle it?

Answer 1

Your dogs consider themselves to be a pack or a family group. In a family group, each dog has a social standing or an alpha dog. An assertive or more aggressive dog becomes the alpha dog by dominating the others. He/she may take the role as the leader and begin to dominate the less aggressive or the submissive dog in the family. The passive dog eats last and gets picked on the most by the more dominate dogs and will signal his submission by exposing his/belly.

The two dogs who are attacking the third dogs consider themselves to be dominate over the third dog and it will continue to be an issue if you don't step in and put a stop to it. Don't feed all three dogs together. There is a lot of truth to the saying, It's a dog eat dog world!

Answer 2

It's probably a heirarchy issue. The one being attacked is at the bottom end of the social ladder. The two more dominant dogs are competing for her food or "putting her in her place". If a dog breaks social order within a pack the entire pack will often reprimand the offender. Eating at the same time as a higher pack member is a breech of doggie etiquette. Perhaps she made a bigger mistake along the way that you are not aware of that has put her in the bad dog books. Or your dogs might be of an age when social standing becomes important. Feed the attacked dog in another room, away from the two more dominant dogs so she can eat in peace but otherwise as hard as it is you have to let them sort it out on their own. If you interfere, they will never set their pack order properly and fights will escalate to bloodshed. And respect their social order. Dominant dogs eat first, get the best beds, the best toys and are always higher physically than the subbordinate dogs. That means don't rush over to comfort the "victim" or allow her on the furnature(if you do;-) so she recieves higher standing than the others or you may inadvertantly trigger and attack. I have four large dogs, two males and two females and my females have fought violently at times. The first few months they were best friends, testing the waters then the social fight started and the more we interfered the worse it got. Once we backed off they settled it and other than the occasional food fight or misstep on the subbordinates part they get along great. Females do tend to fight more often than males!!

Answer 3

It's a dominance thing. YOU should be the Alpha dog. Try being with the 1 dog while SHE eats first, and make the other 2 wait. You must be present when you do this. Good luck.

Answer 4

I think its pretty much the same reasons why humans, all of a sudden turn on each other and become enemies etc.

Sometimes it can be caused by one dog, that is still wanting to play , and the other dog is just starting to get past that ' wanting to play stage all the time ' and just wanting to take things easy . If the other dog keeps pestering them , it can get very irritating to the older dog.

Pretty much , if you have kids, always coming up to you , and wanting to play , and expecting you to do everything.