fighting within the pack


my male shiba bit my female shiba so hard, she has a bit of hair loss in the wound site and bled out for a bit and limped.


what the hell???

Comments

  • edited November -1
    That doesn't sound good. :-( As I understand things, that type of biting should not occur within a pack. A little nick here or there is a common side effect of playing. But bleeding, limping, and hair loss sounds like it went too far.
  • edited November -1
    Wow.  Ouch.  Poor pup.  Thats a bit too far.
  • edited November -1
    I'm quite interesting in what everyone has to say. Errik's mom's dogs are in a similar situation.
  • edited November -1
    i know! Kitsune ever shows that kind of aggression - we've had him for 2.5 months now so I'm a little afraid.. i want to nip this thing before it gets worse
  • edited April 2008


    The only maybe I could give you (and please don't put any weight on it) is that he's getting more comfortable with his surroundings and is challenging Tsuki for dominance? Though I agree with Romi and Dave that blood is a little too far.


    Off the topic, random question - Why don't you give Tsuki and Kitsune their own dogster pages instead of sharing one for both? Maybe he's jealous he has to share? Lol.

  • edited November -1
    What led to this?  Do you know why he bit her?
  • edited November -1


    When my girls get too aggressive when playing (still have to get video) and one squels, yelps or what not (usually Niko) the other backs off ASAP!  As everyone says I think it was too far and possibly deliberate, or at least not an accident.


    I think Rina hit the nail on the head, it is totally because of dogster...Wink

  • edited November -1
    I'm wondering also, what led to the bite.  What stimulus was possibly around?  Toy, food, favorite spot? 
  • edited April 2008


    The scariest part is that there seems to be NO stimulus, I don't
    give them bones unless I can monitor Tsuki because she gets b*tchy (see
    funny shiba noises post). There were toys on the ground, at least 3
    toys so if Tsuki has one, Kitsune can have another. The only thing we
    could think of is their food bowl. We have a community food bowl that
    always has some food left over in it. The ONLY thing we could think of
    is if Kitsune was eating and Tsuki was intrusive he let her have it
    because it started with them locked together growling on two legs in
    the kitchen then ensued in front of me with them taking jabs at each
    other necks then screaming them real growling then Tsuki crying out
    loud, I separated them and Kitsune backing off then Tsuki limping and
    not putting pressure on her arm with the gash. But that never happened
    before - in fact sometimes they both have their head in the community
    bowl eating at the same time!!


    It healed just
    fine already, but at the time i saw loose tufts of hair and it was
    bleeding. 2 minutes later they were acting like nothing happened!!


    I'm
    just hoping that Kitsune doesn't try to turn the dominance table to
    favor him. He's been with us 2 months - about how long does it take for
    his desire to surpass her to become evident?


     


    **um,
    dogster my toosh! but eventually when i remember to do it, i might
    seperate them on it, but they have so many 'pals' together! 

  • edited November -1


    I would start feeding in seperate bowls.  If they don't finish at meal time, the bowls get picked up and they can get fed again later in the day.  If food possibly was the stimulus, you don't want it to continue to be so.  I'm not a fan of food being left out all day to be grazed on, or communal food bowls.  I know it works for some people, but it doesn't work for Nemo.  If they don't eat it all right away, they can be hungry until dinner time.


    Also dogs forgive and forget in no time.  Crazy and fierce one moment, sleeping on the couch together the next.

  • edited November -1


    the only reason we started the communal bowl is we have fosters in
    an out most of the time but now that we might be deciding to stop
    fostering, i think we'll have to take it away. I would hate to change
    the feeding pattern we set for them, but if its becoming a problem, we
    will have to! trial and error until we figure out the stimulus.


    thanks for all the imput!  

  • edited November -1


    I think separate bowls is the way to go....

  • edited November -1
    I would never consider using a common bowl, but of course, I don't want any fighting.  I want peace and hormony, everybody get along please, play nice even :-)  I just don't have what Brada does.
  • edited November -1
    our fighting just started 2 months after kitsune got here and 8 months after we started the community bowl. what does Brad do?
  • edited November -1


    Isn't he the one who showed a video of the dogs sharing a food bowl?  I get confused sometimes.  What I do remember is the fact that he has a brewers six pack or just over a six pack of dogs who appear to get along.


     

  • edited November -1
    he does have all those crazy japanese dogs that all get along!! i can't even determine what to do about two small ones!
  • edited November -1


    LOLOLOLOLO.  I'm gonna stick with my one and try and make it work lolololololol

  • edited November -1


    I am going to echo the no community food bowl thing.  Even if I had fosters (actually, especially if I had fosters) I'd feed them once a day just like I do all the other pets.  They learn quite quickly that the food is only available at a certain time and even if they go a day with not much food while they get used to it, it's not harmful.  


    Anyway, I'm pretty sure it was sujewel who showed the dogs sharing the bowl.  Brad once showed a picture of all six bowls lined up at dinner time, so I'm fairly certain he does timed feedings.  


    Also, I think it's a good sign that they were acting normal afterwards.  I think if you control their environment and the resources (don't give them anything to fight over), they should get through things fine.  It can take a while for dogs to really settle in and figure everything out.  

  • edited November -1


    hondru - who came first? Tojo or Rakka?


    Did they have any new issues a couple months after introduction?  

  • edited November -1


    When I got Ninja, he totally dominated Portia right away.  When it came to feeding time, they could not be fed in the same room because Ninja would block Portia from eating (even though they have separate bowls).  After a while, Portia would just wait until Ninja was done eating, regardless if she was in the same room or not.  She would wait for him to finish and then she would eat.


    I would set up a food schedule.  I always left out food for Portia.  But after I got Ninja, I put them on a strict food schedule.  once in the morning and once at night.  If they don't eat their food within 30 minutes of me putting it out, I pick it up and they have to wait til their dinner or the next morning.  Sometimes they don't even touch their morning food (just kibble), i feel bad, but they should know better by now, so they don't get anything until dinner.   I also think that it might be that they are just waiting for the good stuff, at dinner. 

  • edited November -1
    Tojo came first. They took quite a long time before there were no more scuffles or anything. First, I had to have them in the living together with no problems, then we expanded to other parts of the house, then that the same rules applied outside, then they learned to be respectful when toys were present... anyway, it's only been this past month or two (I introduced Rakka in September) that I feel like I can leave them alone together and not worry. I still seperate them when I go into town without them, but for a while, I wouldn't even go to the bathroom without taking one with me.
  • edited November -1


    you know whats funny - we haven't crated them while we go out for 4 hours or so in about 3 weeks and I'm not really scared to do so even with that major fight. I figure they can sort it out, but when i see it happening i'm more worried. I dunno.

  • edited November -1


    That's a pretty serious fight. I, personally, wouldn't feel comfortable leaving them out of the crated and unsupervised. Too much can happen in just 20 minutes, let alone 4 hours. As everyone mentioned, it could take some time getting them really used to one another. How is your male when you're paying attention to your female?


    We didn't have any problems with the dogs. Mika was always dominant, but never jealous of Keigo. We actually went to the rescue with a pure white male akita in mind, but Cody and Mika hated each other at first sniff - from 10 feet away. When Keigo and Mika met, they just fell in love. They chased each other, drank from the same bowl, rested together. It was perfect! 

  • edited November -1
    Our male is not in the least jealous when we give Tsuki attention!
  • edited November -1
    Hmm, strange. Why would he just up and bite her?
  • edited November -1


    i guess thats what i'm trying to figure out. we ruled out every stimulus except their community bowl of food.


    our female is a bit nippy with him but its mostly play unless he just had enough of it? she will get his scruff of his neck and pull with her teeth but i just assumed that to be play?

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