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Who's
Top Dog?
Dealing with Sibling Rivalries
by Vanessa Tanzer
When Karen
Fashimpaur of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, brought Australian shepherd
puppy, Elsie, into her home three years ago, she was concerned
when Elsie fought with Foster, her 10-month-old male Australian
shepherd.
"Whenever
it seemed like Elsie was winning, we felt sorry for Foster,"
Fashimpaur says. "He was a little older and we thought he
ought to have some respect. So we used to step in and try
to protect him or pull Elsie away, but after we realized that
they weren't physically injuring each other, we knew we had
to back off and let them sort it out."
Fashimpaur
recognized that Elsie and Foster were only doing what comes
naturally to dogs, establishing the pack's hierarchy. But
that is easier said than done. Most owners in multiple dog
households find themselves walking a fine line between obedience
training and interfering with normal canine interactions.
As a descendant of the wolf, the domesticated dog is still
very much a pack animal with a very real need to know its
place in the pack hierarchy. While dogs naturally work out
their status, conflicts arise when owners, unsure of how to
interpret their behaviors, unknowingly punish acceptable canine
behavior.
Contrary
to popular belief, all dogs are not created equal -- at least
not from the perspective of pack dynamics, which dictates
that there can only be one dominant dog. Catherine Ulibarri,
an associate professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine
at Washington State University explains, "People tend to have
problems with the idea that dogs aren't equal. They want to
treat them like children. You wouldn't love one of your children
more than the other, you wouldn't give one child more privileges
than the other, but that is not how it works in the dog world.
People have a problem with the concept of a privileged and
less privileged dog -- the alpha and omega dog. But dogs are
either leaders or followers, and they are perfectly happy
in either situation."
Animal
behaviorists and trainers agree that one of the biggest problems
in multiple-dog households is the failure to accurately interpret
dog behavior. "Ninety-nine point nine percent of sibling dominant
dog challenges occur only when the owners are present," says
animal behavior consultant Larry Lachman, Psy.D and author
of Dogs on the Couch. "Most likely, the owners are
trying to treat the dogs equally like Cub Scouts. They're
trying to give the submissive dog dominant privileges and
sometimes treating the dominant dog submissively." If the
dogs are getting along fine, even if the owner hasn't been
making any particular effort to give the dominant dog preferential
treatment, Lachman says not to worry, "We don't need to fix
what isn't broken."
A certain
amount of playfighting and roughness is normal. Frankie Stoffer,
a dog trainer in Iowa City, Iowa, says that the best way to
monitor playfighting is to make sure they are both interested
and having fun. If not, it's time to intervene. But Nicholas
Dodman, veterinary behaviorist and author of Dogs Behaving
Badly, suggests that if owners are confident that their
dogs will not hurt each other, they should try to let them
sort out their own problems. "The one who loses the battle
will then be more respectful of the other and the top dog
has made its point," says Dodman. "If you have to get involved,
make sure you support the right dog." But how does an owner
tell which dog is dominant?
"While
there will always be exceptions to the rules, the dominant
dog will typically demonstrate authority by successfully guarding
food objects and food from the sibling dog, by taking the
sibling dog's favorite resting place, and by cutting in front
and pushing aside the sibling dog upon exiting or entering
the house," says Lachman. Posturing and eye contact are also
indicators as are humping or the T-stance behavior, in which
the dominant dog places its front legs across the other dog's
rear end in a T-position.
Dogs may
also demonstrate their superiority by placing themselves at
a higher level from the other dog. Charlene Brown of Iowa
says the dominant dog in her household is her 6-year-old Dalmatian,
Sara. "She considers the loveseat her own piece of furniture,"
says Brown laughing, "and she will not let Boodle, my 5-year-old
standard poodle, get up on it." Another indicator is when
Sara wants to nap on the loveseat. "If Boodle goes over and
tries to initiate play," she says, "Sara just raises her lips
to let her know she wants to be left alone."
Peace in the home is preserved when the subordinate dog acknowledges
the dominance of the other. It may do this in several different
ways. Lachman says that submissive pack members will look
away, break eye contact, bow the head, put their ears back
and also back away from food and food objects. An even more
direct sign is when the submissive dog rolls over and lifts
a leg or bares its neck.
Owners
help preserve the peace by recognizing the dominant dog. Bobbie
Schneider of Coralville, Iowa, says she does this by feeding
and playing with her 5-year-old Australian shepherd, Cash,
first before doing the same for her 3-year-old Border collie,
Nikki.
But recognizing
which dog is top dog isn't always easy, and sometimes owners
unintentionally send the dogs the wrong signals. A common
mistake occurs when bringing a puppy into the home. "The owner
doesn't want the puppy to be dominant over the older dog,"
says Ulibarri, "but they do a bunch of things that gives the
puppy the illusion that it should be the dominant dog. For
example, when the puppy is unruly at dinner time, they feed
it first. Or when it's in the biggest hurry to get out the
door, they let the it outside first. All these things make
statements to the puppy that it's the more important of the
two dogs." Stoffer says another common problem is that our
culture tends to favor the underdog. "If we see one dog that's
always being picked on," she says, "we want to coddle it,
but that's backwards and makes things worse."
The best
advice is to pay attention to the dogs' behaviors and interactions.
That's what Kate Cowles and husband Brendan Holly of Iowa
City, Iowa did two years ago when they adopted Kiri, an 8-month-old
female Rottweiler mix, from the local shelter adding to their
existing pack -- Mickey, an 11-year-old Airedale mix and Donald,
a 10-year-old shepherd mix. The pack had been well-established
-- Mickey was their first dog and was clearly the leader of
the two, says Cowles. Donald was a stray they had taken in
when Mickey was a year old. He was the smaller and weaker
of the two and was content being number two. But when Kiri
entered the scene, the pack dynamics changed. Although she
had behaved submissively around Mickey during their visits
to her at the shelter, the tables were turned when they brought
her home. It was soon apparent that Kiri was the dominant
dog, teasing the other two into chasing her, and while Donald
accepted this readily and willingly participated in the games,
Mickey was slower to accept the change and relinquish his
role. But eventually he began to accept the new order.
While
learning to read their dogs' behaviors, owners must never
forget the most important rule in dog training, and that is
that they are the ultimate alpha leaders. Lachman says, "Make
them earn everything. Before looking at, petting, feeding,
letting in and out, playing or exercising, the dogs need to
obey the owner." Wayne Hunthausen, a veterinarian and animal
behavior specialist in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, stresses that
the most important role that owners enforce is their own.
"Establish a strong leadership role for the dogs," he says,"by
bumping all the dogs down the hierarchy and teach them who
is really in charge."
Expanding
your Pack
When expanding
the pack, the best way to minimize conflict is to choose a
dog of the opposite sex. Same-sex dogs that are similar in
size and age are more likely to fight, and fighting between
spayed female pairs tends to be the most difficult to resolve.
Choose from a breed that is not known for dominance, fighting
or guarding. Select as a puppy so that it will not threaten
the resident dominant dog.
When
introducing the two dogs, experts stress the following
- Meet
on neutral territory, not at home. Remember the resident
dog's territory includes all areas that it frequents on
a regular basis.
- Plan
a few fun activities for the dogs. Wayne Hunthausen, DVM,
Shawnee Mission, Kansas, recommends the dogs should be allowed
to sniff each other briefly, then walked, followed by more
brief sniffing. The point is to get the dogs to focus on
the environment more than on each other. Let them just have
a good time just being with each other.
- Don't
leave toys and rawhides laying around. The resident dog
may be very possessive about these things.
- Feed
the dogs separately. Have them sleep separately. It's important
to watch how the two animals get along before just letting
them loose on each other whether in the house or outdoors.
- Review
obedience training with the resident dog and also with the
new dog. This reinforces the owner's dominant status over
all dogs.
Vanessa
Tanzer is a freelance writer in Kansas City, Missouri, whose
pack, Walden, a golden retriever and Alfredo, a chow mix,
were the inspiration for this article.
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