Blog · A multi-dog household
My dogs had a fight. Which one do I tell off?
Not the loudest one. The one who had somewhere else to be and stayed anyway.
The dog who had room to move away. Not the loudest one, not the biggest one, and never the dog who was tethered or cornered.
Ask one question: who could have left?
A dog with room to move away chose to engage. That is the dog who answers for it. A tethered dog had no exit and no choice, and if it got pestered while tied up, it was not advocated for. That one is not corrected. That one is owed an apology.
The silent instigator
Most owners correct the dog who made the noise. But noise tells you almost nothing about who started it. The quiet dog transmits the tension and the loud dog amplifies it, so the barker is often the amplifier, not the cause. Review who instigated, not who escalated. They are usually different dogs.
Two mechanical rules while it is happening
Never pull the tethered dog, because lead tension feeds the arousal and makes everything worse. Move the free dog instead.
And keep the correction inside the moment it belongs to. A fight that already happened gets a correction. Everything in the next section is prevention, and prevention is where nobody gets told off at all.
Prevention starts at the first look back
The moment to act is earlier than most people think. It is the pestered dog's first look back at you. That glance means do something about it. Answer it every time and your older dog learns you handle conflict. Ignore it often enough and the dog concludes, it doesn't matter what I do, you don't help me anyway. Then it starts handling conflict itself, with teeth, and everyone acts surprised.
The advocacy mechanic is boring, which is why it works. Indoor drag line on the pest, foot on the line, and the older dog gets its freedom to move away. Nobody gets told off. If the older dog then chooses to come back and engage, the foot comes off.
What not to do
Standing in the middle announcing STOP like a playground teacher. A shared "no", because if both dogs know the word, who exactly are you correcting? And swooping in to play with the pestered dog, which teaches the puppy that pestering a sibling summons the fun human.
The test for the daily wrestling
Not "is it too rough?" but "did the other dog want it?" Play is judged by consent, not volume. An unprotected dog learns, I'm going to have to fight her myself. A protected dog learns to relax, because you are on the door.
If your two dogs have started scrapping and you cannot see who starts it, that is exactly the case I take. Start with the assessment, or read the multi-dog household page first.
Common questions
Which dog do I tell off after a fight?
The one who had room to move away and stayed anyway. A dog with an exit chose to engage. The dog who was cornered or tethered had no choice, so correcting it teaches nothing except that you are not on its side.
Should I correct the dog who barked or growled?
Usually not. The loud dog is often the amplifier, not the cause. The quiet dog transmits the tension first. Work out who instigated rather than who escalated, and remember they are usually different dogs.
How do I stop the fights happening at all?
Answer the pestered dog's first look back at you, every time. Then run an indoor drag line on the pest with your foot on it, so the older dog always has room to move away. Nobody gets told off, and the fight never gets built.
