A fight between a couple of competing alpha female dogs can be a scary sight. If you have had to break up nasty brawls between your otherwise sweet and gentle babies, you know what we’re talking about. Your adorable Robyn and Ashley might get along with the neighbor dogs, but with each other they are going for blood. You may have a dominance challenge on your hands.

Not all fighting between a couple of lady dogs is a serious matter, but it certainly can be. The alpha female in the ancestral wolf pack is the leader of the whole group. Males can be dominant as well, but the alpha female is number one in the pack. Some of that behavior has been preserved in our domesticated furry friends. So when Ashley and Robyn go at it, whether as play or for real, they are acting out a struggle for lead position.

Fight or Play?

When two naturally dominant female dogs come together, the results can be explosive. A better pairing is a submissive dog and a dominant dog. If it’s too late for that consideration and you have taken in your beloved babies only to discover they are both dominant you first need to decide if Ashley and Robyn are playing at dominance or if they are serious.

Often a fight between two girls looks and sounds fierce, but is nothing to worry about. They may be snarling, gnashing their teeth, biting each other’s faces, and butting heads in the most literal sense. If they are not drawing blood and if you can stop them without getting injured yourself then it is likely nothing to worry about. If the fighting causes injuries, you have a problem. If you are uncertain about what is going on with those two, your best bet is to have an expert such as a behaviorist observe and make a verdict. This expert can also help you figure out how to bring a stop to the fights.

Serious Dominance Issues

If you or an expert determines that Ashley and Robyn are truly at odds with each other, dealing with the situation can be very difficult. In the worst cases, neither dog will give up until the other is dead or seriously injured. If the fights are getting out of hand, the first thing you should do is get both dogs to the vet. There is a chance that there is a physical problem underlying the fights. If the dogs have been living happily together for years and this came on all of a sudden, a health problem may be the key.

Sometimes, a younger dog will only challenge the alpha female as she gets older and weaker. Some dog owners have found out their older dog had a health problem because the younger one began to challenge her. Dogs often sense these things long before we do. If the older dog is ill, the younger one may see it as her chance to get into the alpha role.

Be the Leader

Whether Robyn and Ashley are in real combat over their positions or they are simply playing at dominance struggles, you should be the one to determine how they behave. Dogs will only be serious about positioning if their human is not their true leader. If you set yourself up as the pack leader, fights will become insignificant. Becoming the leader is not necessarily easy if you have been letting the girls get away with fighting. You will want to enlist the help of an expert trainer or behaviorist to establish yourself as the alpha and bring the fighting to a halt.

Dogs bite. It is their primary defense against aggressors. In fact, more often, dog biting is not an act of aggression, but an act of self-defense. The problem with fear biting comes in when the fear and anxiety are out of control, and your dog snaps as a reflex action to imaginary threats. If Skippy snaps at you when you walk past him, or if you reach out to pet him when he’s not expecting it, he’s exaggerating danger signals, and the fear biting is at a dangerous level.

Ways to Control and Reduce Fear Biting in Dogs

Make sure you don’t accidentally heighten Skippy’s fear levels. When pets startle or show fear, a common reaction from pet owners is to coddle them, and speak in soft reassuring tones that are meant to convey “everything is okay.” Unfortunately, dogs often interpret that as there is something really scary that you have to comfort them from. The only thing this does is to heighten the fear and in turn feed whatever aggressive state Skippy is in. Instead, when Skippy is afraid or jumpy, act completely normal, and divert his attention to something else. If you find this isn’t work, you can use a firm voice that lets him know that you are in control of the situation and he doesn’t need to take control. This will relax him far more than any baby voice you use.

Once Skippy’s fear actually develops into snapping at anything in the vicinity here are a few ways to handle it:

• Wait until Skippy calms down before approaching him. Invading his personal space while he is in defense mode will probably result in a bite.
• Take him out often to places where there is a lot of commotion. If Skippy has a big problem with biting, keep him under complete control and on a leash at all times, even in places where it might otherwise be okay to let him be loose and socialize such as a dog park. Choose mildly active places to start with, and gradually increase the level of activity as he gets used to it. The logic behind this is exposure. You can’t keep him in his backyard forever and exposure to stimuli that would arouse his fear biting in situations where you are in control are a way to start teaching him.
• Don’t run up on Skippy, or approach from behind. If you are behind him, talk to him as you approach so he knows you are coming.

• Getting Out of a Dangerous Situation with Strange Dogs
• When faced with a strange dog exhibiting common signs of fear such as baring teeth, growling or shaking, stop what you are doing. Back away from the dog, but keep your eyes on him. If you have something in your hands, try to keep it between yourself and the strange dog in case he lunges at you. Do not reach out, or try to calm the dog down by petting him.

Never approach any strange dog in a vulnerable position, or reach out to pet them unless you know how they will react. Treat all strange dogs as if they will bite you, and never let small children run up to strange dogs. Even otherwise calm dogs that wouldn’t normally bite may snap at a small child darting up to them. Children can resemble small prey making them “targets” for the predatory instincts in a dog that doesn’t know them. The jerky arm movements of a child and the tendency to be rough even when they don’t mean to be may also aggravate even a mild tempered dog.

Teaching your dog tricks can be an integral part of the bonding process and, most importantly of all, with the right investment of your time and energy, it can be extremely enjoyable and rewarding for you both.

It could be argued that teaching your canine tricks isn’t as important as obedience training; however, it can in fact have the same benefits. Teaching tricks allow you and your dog to get to know each other, just as you would do when spending time with any of your companions, and you gradually learn to communicate and become more in-tune with each other.

If your dog is shy, trick training can help bring him out of his shell; while on the other hand, it is also perfect for confident dogs who simply love being playful and showing-off. In addition, teaching your pooch tricks is a great way to burn off some of his excess energy if he is prone to getting himself into mischief and has the added benefit of being constructive and enjoyable. Dog tricks are a great tool to use for troublesome dogs when they are behaving badly. For example, a simple “play dead” trick can come in handy if your pooch tends to pester new visitors to your home upon entry by redirecting his behaviour.

So, you may be asking yourself “How do I teach my dog new tricks?” A great place to start is by investing in a clicker – sometimes referred to as a “conditioned reinforcer”. This is probably the only essential tool you will ever need and it works by making a clicking sound when you want to draw attention to a particular point in your dog’s behaviour. It can help communicate that he has done a good job and deserves a treat, for example. Treats are a great tool for teaching your dog tricks and when using the clicker, can be used as positive reinforcement for your dog, which will hopefully keep him repeating his good behaviour. In addition, target sticks are handy for guiding your dog into the positions you want him to be in – this process is called targeting.

Through the dog trick training process, owners become the best of friends with their pets and this special development should be protected. Be sure to keep your loveable friend healthy and waggy-tailed by looking after him properly and taking out one of the cheap dog insurance quotes from Pets at Home to safeguard your dog in the event of accidents and illness.

Your French Bulldog ‘Scooby’ is a big, sweet and sloppy dog. Therefore, when he smells bad, it is big, not-so-sweet and sloppy odor. Scooby, like all dogs, seems to have this obsession with rolling in the stinkiest things – dead animals, feces, mysteriously murky mud and water, you name it. If it smells bad, he wants to rub himself all over it until he is not only thoroughly smelly, but also a bit slimy or your favorite – sticky.

This is a problem, not only because of the smell that makes you want to gag, but because of the potential dangers of whatever diseases that the dead thing might carry, or the germs in the feces or the mud. Also, it is darn hard to give such a big dog a bath. Why on earth does Scooby – and other dogs too for that matter – insist on this disgusting practice, and is there anything that you can do to stop him?

Why Do They Do It?

Turns out, the answer to the mystery of why dogs roll in smelly, gross things is as elusive as those solved by the gang after which your French Bulldog is named. Apparently, there are not enough “meddling kids” in your neighborhood making a common practice of interfering with dogs rolling in bad smells. There are two theories floating around, each, or even a combination of both are pretty plausible.

Theory 1

The first theory has to do with the dog’s hunting instincts. Way back when their meals came in the form of prey, rather than kibble, which doesn’t exactly run away, many breeds of dogs were hunters. They had to be the very embodiment of stealth – and this means, covering their scent. If the prey was downwind, and caught the smell of a dog approaching, they would bolt. But if they were downwind and smell a mud puddle, or a dead thing, or even poop, they would have no reason to flee. It is possible that the instinct to mask their own scent has survived, even though they no longer need to stalk and kill prey to ensure that they eat.

Theory 2

The other theory is likely to get you a bit steamed. The second theory is that what smells bad to us smells good to them, and so they do it because the want to. Just like a person who wins a million dollar jackpot might roll in their pile of bills, a dog rolls in the dead bird he found, because to him, it smells like a million bucks.

Stopping it

Stopping it is a little harder, because you have to catch Scooby in the act. Punishing him after the fact will just confuse and depress him. If you really feel you must squash this habit, then you need to spray him with a hose, or walk up to him and pull him away from it while he is in the act so that he understands what exactly he is being punished for. Do not rub his nose in it. He will enjoy that.

There are manufacturers who make collars with remotes that you can use to train your dog not to roll in things. It is not a shock collar, rather it is a collar that upon your pressing a button, releases a spritz of citronella, a harmless but unpleasant smell to doggies. This collar is a bit spendy, but may be worth it if you are having lots of trouble with Scooby.

The most important thing to remember is that it is ultimately not Scooby’s fault. He is not doing it to make you mad or because he understands that you don’t like the smell – he doesn’t. So be sure, even when you are frustrated not to be mean. If bathing him is the problem, perhaps build an outdoor crate that he can stay in, or put a dog bed in the garage so that on days when he gets smelly he has a place to be inside without stinking up your house. Then you can bath him the next day or later the same day when you have time. It is likely that he is going to roll in things occasionally, even if you mostly break him of the habit. The important thing is to find a way to handle it that doesn’t result in the both of you getting upset.