Dog Fight Referee Help

[Winter]

Well, we had a terrible incident today, and I'm at a loss as to what to do with my husky. Stark is my only dog right now, and is a typical husky in that he wants to be with other dogs 24/7 if possible. He has doggie daycare twice a week, and we go to the dog park the other three days. We tend to go hiking or such on the weekends. He does very well at the dog park, but I do have to watch him with puppies or other scared dogs. He will chase them and bully them if I don't call him off. But, all it usually takes is a stern calling him to me, and I've gotten pretty good at distracting him before he goes for the scared dogs/puppies. But, we've had a strange thing start happening with two great danes at the park. One of them is there everyday, while the other is there a couple times a week. About two weeks ago, one of them started bullying Stark - he would growl at him and push against him and lay his head on top of Stark, and if not stopped, would mount him. Stark growled back, but then just sort of froze until I, or the owner, got the dane away from him. Last week, the dane had some tree bark, which Stark wanted, and coveted from about 15 feet away, but made no move on. When the dane abandoned the bark, a saint bernard puppy went for it and Stark jumped him. I grabbed Stark by the collar and put myself between him and the puppy, and he bit my hand, but did not break the skin. Then he ran away from me and wouldn't come near me for about 20 minutes. I could not get him to come to me, but eventually someone else grabbed him until I put his lead on him. Yesterday, he was playing with other dogs and twice one of the great danes ran into him pretty hard. Stark just got up and kept running. Today, both danes were there and it was an immediate problem. Domino came after Stark twice, and so his owner put him onleash and kept him beside him, but then I had to keep calling Stark away, because he would go up to Domino and growl and harass him. When they were both distracted with other stuff, they let Domino off leash again. He immediately went after Stark who was in mid chase with another dog. This time, Stark wasn't going to be submissive, and it got very scary very fast. Naturally, I did the stupidest thing ever, and grabbed him by his collar. At the same time, Domino's owner grabbed him by his collar. This would have been the end of it, except that Stark bit my hand really bad, and was just going ballistic. I turned his collar and tried to knock him to the ground under me, and he bit my arm, at which point some other random dog jumped in and attacked Stark. I pulled Stark behind me and put myself between them, and the other dog bit my arm and leg (neither of these broke the skin though) This guy came over and lifted Stark up and then threw him down on the ground and I straddled him and held his head against the ground until he stopped fighting me. It was horrible. It was so embarrassing and so upsetting. I put his lead on him and got up and he turned away from me but just sat there. All these people came over and brought me stuff from the first aid kit onsite and talked about what happened. I just wanted to go home and take care of my wounds. But, to top it all off, an animal control person watched the whole thing from just outside and stopped me on the way out. So, I stood there crying and bleeding while she took down my info and Stark's vet info and every person in the park walked by us on their way home. Stark is now quarantined to my home for 10 days and I don't have a clue what to do with him. Yes, the great dane started it, but when his owner pulled him away, he stopped. When I pulled Stark away, he turned on me! I just don't know how to deal with this behavior. I feel like keeping him away from other dogs and the dog park is cruel, but I can't take the chance that he might bite someone else in a similar situation. Basically, I need him not to fight back, and to trust me to save him in those situations. How do I teach him that it is NEVER okay for him to attack another dog, even when he feels threatened? And that it is NEVER okay to bite a human under any circumstances?

[sutsibe]

How old is he? How old was he when you got him/when he was taken away from his mom and littermates? Basically, what I'm trying to get at, at least in part, is if he has learned bite inhibition. It sounds like he's acting like a teenager, pushing to see what the boundaries are... If he doesn't seem to respond to my suggestions below, or if you have any qualms, give serious thought to working with an experienced trainer or behaviorist!!!

I would pretty much take all privileges from him - no off lead play, make him earn attention and affection from you until he learns that all good things come from you, and without your say so, life is really boring! Look through some of these threads on Nothing in Life is Free Dog Training (http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AsYgp_5d5NsA2h5mNL8BY1SbvZx4?fr=yfp-t-435-s&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF8&p=nothing%20in%20life%20is%20free%20dog%20training). You also will need to work on bite inhibition, which is a bit harder with an older puppy/adult than a little puppy, but can be done (scroll down a bit more than half way for teaching bite inhibition to an adult dog - http://www.peaceablepaws.com/articles.php?subaction=showfull&id=1282181172&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&type=Pat)

It doesn't sound to me like he truly meant to bite you, so much as he was really wound up. In the future, if you need to grab for him, either leave a lead dragging that you can grab, or grab for his tail and pull him back by that - that gives you a little extra room to keep away from his teeth until he can calm down enough to realize what he's doing, and if you keep backing up, pulling on the tail, he can't get to you.

[persephona]

Unfortunately, it is difficult to teach a dog not to fight other dogs. If the wrong dogs are there, these things happen. It may be that it was just luck that the other owner managed to drag their dog away without getting bitten. In these cases, the dogs don't really think. They don't even realize that it is you grabbing them, they will just bite automatically thinking they are attacked. I wouldn't take my chances by getting my hands in there - sure way to get bitten.

In the future, I would avoid going to the dog park if the danes are there. Really, after this happened, there is not much you can do but avoid them.

Regarding the other issues, he does seem to be testing the boundaries a bit. Whenever he misbehaves at the dog park, I would immediately take him away from there (At least for a while and then come back).

Also I noticed that he seems to be very fussy about his collar, both instances he bit you he was grabbed by the collar. I suggest doing some work on this and try to make him associate being grabbed by the collar with good things. Also, don't grab his collar in "negative" circumstances, like for example dragging him away, which will make him dislike being grabbed by the collar and continue such behaviours when somebody touches his collar.

[Laine]

My suggestion would be to get him a harness so that if you do have to grab him, you can grab the harness instead of his collar (thus preventing him from thinking you're going for his neck). But as for the rest, I agree with Gigi; try a NILF approach to things. Work with him, too, on learning that you are awesome and from you awesome things happen.

[mike_p]

In my opinion... Stark and the great Dane have some unfinished business. The Dane has been using some dominance moves on Stark. Eventually, Stark has said enough is enough. Unfortunately at this point you guys have intervened. While Stark in unconstrained, he's safe and able to control the situation. As soon as you grab him he's totally vulnerable: he can't afford to let you hold him because he's no longer able to manoeuvre. So, being a wilful Husky, he lets you know in no uncertain terms not to grab him. If the dogs were left to themselves to finish their communication it would be over in no time at all without any blood letting. Just a bit of 'handbags at dawn'. I think Stark and the Dane need to be allowed to establish their own relationship. Once they've done that they'll be fine together.

My Bailey used to grab my arm if I tried grabbing his collar while there were other dogs around. But if I picked him up he wouldn't complain at all.

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

sorry to hear uve had some problems - i would do everything suggested above tho

n dont worry he didnt mean to bite u , he was being attacked n then was suddenly grabbed from behind n lashed out not knowing it was you

hope ur all ok n this doesnt have any negative effect on how stark sees other dogs

u need to get him re-socialised so he knows not all dogs need to end up in a fight

[shadow01]

As others have said, during a dog fight never ever be tempted to grab the collar. Always go for the furthest away point. I go for the grab the back hips approach and keep dragging untill A, your away from the action and B, the dog realises its you doing it not some other dog.

[Removed #5]

I'm a bit different in my approach, as usual; Misty will get aggressive with other smaller dogs but anything approaching her size she just wants to play - and does the front end bow so it's obvious, never had this problem with her.

The mixed breed lab (Kalah) I had was generally relaxed but when pushed, she pushed back and got into a couple of squabbles. When it looked like it was getting out of hand, I'd get in but it was me being very vocal - she knew before I grabbed anyone that it was me. Then I'd grab collar and back her out - so that she was facing the aggressor; if the aggressor didn't either back off or stop from my noise he was real apt to get a kick in the ribs to convince him that it was now two against one. Never had anyone want to take it any further.

The last time I got bit, I was something like 13 and it was a rat <something>. Little bitty noisemaker who came out onto the road to tell me he didn't like me, I kept walking and the idiot grabbed my ankle and drew blood - and yep, he got kicked for his pleasure!

[Elyse]

I like the first post that Gigi posted; it definitely sounds as if Stark as dominance issues. Do the NILF method on him (Gigi/Sutsibe posted links in her post) - it worked wonders for my boy.