Question:

I have two bulldogs one male Pudge (3yrs) and one female Ella (2yrs). Now Ella is the sweetest dog in the world to people and interacts well with other dogs at the park but for some reason she is extremely aggressive towards Pudge. She will just start growling at him for no reason at all and sometimes he’ll be asleep and she will full on attack him! Blood has been drawn. He now lives in fear of her and is afraid to be near her but she will seek him out just to beat up on him. When she goes for him when we are around we put her in the garage for a time out but we are not always there. We have a good size house and yard so space isn’t the issue. We’ve tried taking them for several separate walks thinking it was boredom but nothing seems to help. Note: She has never ever, ever been this way towards people! Some people even think we are making it up because she is so sweet….they have no idea! HELP!

ANSWER:

Let me share with you my formula for fixing aggression:

• You must have a very high level of obedience. Obedience, first and foremost, is functional. She can’t attack Pudge if she is sitting calmly at your side. She can’t let growling escalate to biting if she comes when called.

Obedience is also great for your relationship, though. The more she learns to listen to your commands the more she sees you as the leader. When dogs have a strong leader at home they are much less likely to show aggression.

• You need to control the environment around Ella as best you can. This means that these dogs shouldn’t be left alone together. When you are home with the dogs Ella should be supervised and often under command from you or another family member. Teach her to go to a place and stay so that she can be in the same room with Pudge but in a calm frame of mind. Make sure she comes when called so that as you see her posturing towards Pudge that you can get her right to your side. These are just a few suggestions for how to control the environment as it changes. Whatever the occasion may be, when you see that the environment is changing and she is ready to escalate to a level of aggression you need to step in and control the environment. Obedience is the best form of controlling her environment.

This also goes for Pudge. He needs to be at a high level of obedience in order to maintain calmness and structure in the house. Structure is the opposite of aggression. When you supply the structure for the house everyone is more calm and aggression can’t exist like it currently does.

• Correct the aggression when it shows itself. Everyone understands that they need to correct aggression when it comes out but few people do it correctly. Sending her off to another part of the house does nothing to show her that aggression is wrong.

What I recommend is that for the short term you keep her on a leash and training collar in the house. As she goes to show aggression you can give her a few firm corrections (tug on the leash) as you move in the opposite direction of Pudge. This will give a deterrent for the bad behavior and will put distance between the two.

These issues you are dealing with are very tough to handle. If you are going to fix them it is going to require a strong commitment to a great deal of training. Good luck.

Ty Brown is an expert dog trainer, author, and speaker who specializes in obedience training, behavior modification, protection dog training, and narcotics dogs. To learn more about Ty and the dog training services he offers, visit www.dogbehavioronline.com