dog who were friends now enemies

[clawzandpawz]

I have a 1.5 year old american bulldog. he was cut at 8 months old. has never displayed any dog aggression and is well socialized with people and pets. he is extremely well trained and i use him as my service dog. he has played with my sisters boxer since he was 8 weeks old. Jimmy (boxer ) is 3 years old. Ricky ( Bully) and Jimmy play everyday they rough house and run and wrestle. ricky goes on 3 mile walks in the morning and evening. on sun the dogs were playing tug of war with a rope. Ricky jumped on jimmy and pinned him down and put his mouth around his throat. I stepped in and removed ricky from jimmy. Jimmy was put in the motorhome. ) we were camping) anyway waited about 1/2 hour. brought jimmy out put ricky on a leash, when ricky saw jimmy he started growling and lunged at him. kept both dogs apart. brought ricky down to my sisters the next day for our usual play time. ricky became fixated when he saw jimmy and went to lay him out. i grabbed him and put him on a leash. we walked both dogs side by side for 3 miles. they usually will jump and play with eachother but they were both stoic. after the 3 miles they seemed to be getting back to normal. we let both off leash and they played like normal. however the next morning i brought ricky down to my sisters and once again ricky became fixated and wanted to lay him out. what are your guys opinions as to why this happened and what would you do in this situation . thanks.

[redhed73]

I'm new here...but I can't see any replies. I registered for this forum because I'm having the exact problem with my dogs. They have lived together in the yard for over a year with no issues. They are now separated. They are both almost 2 years old, one ACD and one pit bull mix. Best of friends until three weeks ago, now they seem to want to kill each other. They are fine as long as they we are out walking or running, as soon as we hit the yard and they are off leash...the fight is on. And I mean NASTY fights. Have you had any luck or good advice on this? We're working on obedience training, LOTS of exercise, and we have a professional trainer coming out next week (hopefully). I'm heartbroken right now and desperate.

[dancer]

I'm also new and having a similar problem. I have 5 dogs in the house and until recently they all were getting along fine. My 10 1/2 year old Sheltie mix (female) was the dominant dog in the house, she is also the smallest dog. She let all the dogs know once they came into the house that she was boss and they respected that. They could play together but once she was finished she just had to growl once and they would back off and let her alone. Even meal times were not a problem. Recently our 1 year old mix breed (also female) has started to attack the sheltie and the sheltie isn't fighting back. Once she starts yelping two other dogs join in the fight, a 6 year old Australian Shepherd female and a 5 year old Australian Cattledog/Lab/Rotweiller male mix (although it appears as if they are making more noise than anything else). They can be fine for days and then suddenly something sets it off and the 1 year old will attack the sheltie. We have been kenneling the 2 dogs that seem to be the most problem (male cattle dog & 1 yr old female mix) when we aren't home. However yesterday when I let them out of the kennels the male attacked the female in the kennel and then the female went after the sheltie and it became a fight again. I was able to break it up but the sheltie was slightly injured. We are trying to keep them apart and have considered getting a muzzle for the dog that seems to be starting the problem. The female that is causing the most problem is supposed to go to my daughter in the fall to live with her family with 1 male dog and 3 kids. They are now concerned this is a problem. Does anyone have any advice or experience? The problem seems to be more with the females (all but one is spayed - a purebreed Australian Shepherd and although she is in the mix she is more bark than bite), the males are all neutered. The only dog that doesn't bother with any of this is the male lab. We are planning on moving the sheltie to our daughters temporarily, until the other dog goes to my daughter. Do we need to be concerned about this behavior in the new family?

[TykoPups]

To the OP
To me it sounds like the two dogs have come of age that they are now trying to figure out their place in the pack. The holding of the neck is not a sign that they are out to kill each other. pinning another dog to the ground is in a attempt to get the other dog to submit. I would let them work out who is above who. You stepping in is only going to elevate it into an issue. if you let them work it out then it will be over and no one will be hurt.
Too many times as humans we step in too soon. Dogs use body language, mouths, and barks to communicate. two dogs that have grown up together are not suddenly going to kill each other, they will however start to form a heirachy. it may take a while for them to figure out who is above who though so they will probably keep pinning each other till one submits.