Fighting Basset hounds. What does this mean?

[Tennessean]

Hello all, my brother has a girlfriend and her female Basset hounds fight many, many times a day. They even fight when there is no food to fight over. Can someone please tell me if this is a potentially bad sign? Does it mean they live in a hostile environment? Another thing is, when you pet one you'd sure better pet the other one or else a fight will begin right there on the spot. I know that it's hard to judge just based on these facts alone, but everyone here certainly knows more than we do about dog behavior. Thanks.

Mark

 

[Renee750il]

That does seem like awfully strange behaviour for Bassets! Are they all siblings? How old are they? What kind of fighting is it, squabbling and arguing or actually ferocious where they hurt each other? And how long does it last?

Another question: how much space are they kept in?

 

[Tennessean]

They both came from the same litter, both female, about 4 y/o, and have enough room to have their own space so to say. When they go at it, it's extremely loud and they do ram into one another and bite some. Sometimes, it can go on for ten to fifteen minutes at a time.

 

[Renee750il]

Sounds like a real case of sibling rivalry there.

I'm going to move your thread to the Training forum where Emma, our Creature Teacher will see it for sure. She can give you a great deal of help with these two sisters.

My first advice, though, would be to try and break up the fights (which I'm sure you do) without getting bitten yourself, then send each of the dogs to a separate corner for a little time out separation with no attention from the humans whatsoever. They should begin to get the idea that fighting isn't acceptable behaviour.

Most of the time our dogs would rather please us than themselves, so you use that to channel their behaviour.

By the way, what part of Tennessee are you in? I'm about 40 miles southeast of Knoxville - or northeast if I'm at my house instead of Charley's farm. Bogolove is just outside Nashville. Football fan?

 

[bubbatd]

Here is again a case where 2 dogs should never be gotten from the same litter. They are still working out who's the Alpha and the owner isn't in the running. I knew a lady who had 4 dobs...2 male, 2 female....she never could leave the 2 males alone or the 2 females alone. Her home was a maze of gates !!! Once she got the wrong ones together and almost was mauled breaking them apart. It was so sad as she loved them all.