In the face of dog disputes, there are six ways you should know how to make them live in peace.
1. Establish the absolute status of the owner. Please remember that we are all part of this family, whether we are dogs or people. In other words, we all belong to the same community. Therefore, the owner must master the dominant position and let the dog know who is the owner. To do this, we must first strengthen the obedience of dogs, that is, increase the owner's ability to control the owner. If you don't know how to train the dog's obedience, you can take advantage of the feeding opportunity to make the dog understand some simple commands, such as sitting or not moving, until the dog can respond to our commands immediately and correctly. If you still don't know how to train or have no time, you can also consider sending your dog to a dog school for training if the situation permits.
2. Consume the dog's extra energy and maintain emotional stability. The owner should spend more time with the dog, and taking the dog out for a walk is the best way. Because exercise, especially long-term aerobic exercise, can not only consume the dog's vigorous energy, but also be helpful for emotional stability.
3. Don't get involved in dog disputes easily. As we mentioned before, the establishment of dog dominance is very important for the stability and peace of dog groups. Sometimes there may be no obvious fighting behavior in this dominant competition, and even the owner has decided the order of status without knowing it. Therefore, unless this kind of fighting is too fierce and even in danger of injury, the owner does not need to intervene, especially if the attack only takes place for a short time, and the owner does not need to make a fuss, let alone punish the dog that launched the attack.
4. Support the dog boss's dominant position Although it is our human nature to protect the weak, we don't need special care for dogs in a weak position, whether they are old or new. Everyone is the same. In other words, don't give some special treatment to the disadvantaged groups. If we can observe which dog is stronger in the community, we can even give priority to it, such as giving food first when feeding, hugging first after entering the door and so on. Although it seems to violate our human "justice" and "conscience", it is sometimes the fastest way to promote the arrival of peace.
5. Don't leave dogs alone. If the fighting behavior between dogs is not based on dominance, but on competitive hostility (especially the fighting between bitches), if every fight is very fierce, then we must never leave dogs alone without human supervision. In this case, once the dog fights, the owner must immediately intervene (unlike what I said before, we should not intervene), and the punishment must be strong enough to stop this behavior. Furthermore, we can't give some soothing behaviors like rewards to divert the excitement of dogs, such as food and hugs. Because this will make the dog misunderstand that we are raising him, but it will make it even worse. 6. Let the dog castrate and ligate. Although orchiectomy can slow down the occurrence of this behavior, our suggestion is that it will be done by the disadvantaged party, and the effect will be better. In addition, some doctors suggested taking hormone drugs, but the effect was only temporary. Usually the purpose of taking drugs is just to facilitate us to take other behavioral treatments. As for whether the bitch can improve her fighting behavior through hysterectomy and ovariectomy, the result is even more limited.
According to the data, the behavioral psychology hall once said that there are basically two reasons why dogs can't live in peace in the same family. One is the influence of hormones, and the other is the change of social status. The influence of hormones, first of all, talk about the dog disputes caused by hormones. Hormone is an important factor affecting dog fights. Taking identical puppies as an example, they can live in peace when they are young (even fighting is just a game), but when they approach sexual maturity, their mutual endurance will gradually decrease and they will start fighting, forming a class society with a dominant and submissive relationship. This situation is particularly obvious in male dogs. According to research, mature male dogs have stronger motivation than female dogs to fight for any appearance that can show their dominant position, such as the priority of eating and the privilege of sleeping in their master's bed. However, some researchers have observed that although bitches are not eager to win the lead, the fights between bitches, especially those of the same size, are sometimes more intense than those of male dogs. What is this for? There is a saying that in the battle for dominance, the loser usually turns his stomach up to show that he has lost, and the attacker will stop attacking, just like a regular boxing match. When fighting between bitches, both sides often have strong attack motives, so once they fight, there seems to be no rules, and the loser can't stop. In order to avoid giving in, you will be hurt even more. Only by fighting back desperately, the result is that the fight is getting more and more fierce and out of control. Moreover, the struggle between bitches, because the motive is often not to win dominance, is likely to continue to hate each other, and that day will not be peaceful. Therefore, some behaviorists even suggest that if the first dog is a bitch, when raising a second dog, try to avoid raising a bitch with similar body shape to avoid such aggressive behavior between bitches. Secondly, another factor that affects dog fighting is the change of social status. Careful readers can find that we have always emphasized that dogs are "socialized" animals. In dogs, they will form a relationship of leadership and obedience to maintain peace and stability and avoid constant fighting, resulting in waste of energy and physical injury. If this relationship between leadership and obedience has not been established or broken, then dogs will compete for the dominant position of leaders in the community, thus forming a fighting scene. This situation most often occurs in the following situations:
1. The owner has a new dog.
2, originally raised together, but after being hospitalized for a long time due to illness or being taken to other places by the owner, they returned to their original families.
3. In the dog group, the dog in the "dominant" position is sick, old or dead.
4. When the puppy grows up, challenge the dominant dog.
5. Changes in the number of owners' family members, such as going to study abroad. Therefore, under the hostile state of competition, dogs will naturally have two behaviors: aggressive behavior or obedient behavior, thus establishing a stable social structure. However, the unintentional misleading of the owner often leads to the inability of dogs to live in peace. What can I say? In a family, the relationship between human owners and dogs is more or less similar to that between parents and children. When children fight, parents often think that the older ones should give way to the younger ones and tend to protect the weaker ones. The same is true of fighting between dogs. We are more or less inclined to sympathize with the so-called "weak" victims. In other words, we will punish the strong attacker, while the weak victim, based on the psychology of compensation, needs to establish a relationship of leadership and obedience in the original dog community. Because of human intervention, the vulnerable group (that is, the attacked person) thinks that they have a human ally, but they can't recognize or accept their weak position in the dog group. As for the attacker (the strong), he tried to establish his dominant position and repeatedly provoked and attacked the weak. However, the continuous intervention of human beings has delayed the establishment of a stable relationship between dog communities, making the problem more and more serious. Therefore, some animal behavior experts believe that the fight between dogs should not be excessively involved by humans unless it goes too far and is in danger of injury or death. The doctor suggested avoiding intervention and letting the dog build a stable community by himself.