Why Do My Puppies Fight?

When you observe a litter of puppies, or perhaps your older puppies that you have introduced into your home, you may notice the troubling habit of fighting between the pups. The reasons they fight are varied. By learning the reasons behind the behavior, you will be better equipped to train the dogs to demonstrate more acceptable behavior.

  1. Play Fighting

    • Puppies interact with each other in a variety of ways to socialize themselves within the pack. Play fighting is a way the dogs can hone their reflexes and coordination, and this sparring is a fun way they can develop their natural defensive skills. This can also teach them how to control their bite by the play they indulge with their litter mates and their mother. They will test these play-fighting bite reflexes on you as well, and you must curb the biting immediately to set the boundary of acceptable behavior.

    Leader of the Pack

    • Dogs are pack animals and understand, expect and accept a certain hierarchy within their social circle. Humans may believe they are their dogs ultimate alpha, but dogs recognize that humans are not dogs, and, as such, they figure out their own pecking order. In nature, incompatible dogs can separate themselves and find new homes before things deteriorate to a fight. Domestic dogs do not have this luxury. You must keep an eye on the animals to ensure incompatible dogs are removed from this volatile environment.

    Socialization

    • Dogs must be properly socialized when introduced into the home. This makes the dog easier to train and thus better behaved than those dogs that are not properly socialized. The dog will be less fearful and likely to bite, and it will better understand its placement within the pack. Ideally, you should socialize just one puppy at a time, introducing it into a home where the other dogs are older, more mature and already trained. If you currently have more than one puppy under three months, you will face the challenge of socializing the two properly.

    Human Intervention

    • Because of the natural way puppies will establish a pack order, having multiple puppies of the same sex can introduce more aggressive tendencies. Left alone without human intervention, male dogs can establish a working order better than females by negotiating their own type of peace treaties. Females have a tendency to fight to the death. Your job is not to establish their order for them by punishing one and rewarding another; your job is to stop any fights that could lead to injury.