Dogs Training Blog

Ok here’s the situation: my roomate and I have two Siberian huskies. One is a year old and neutered and the other is 4.5 months old and going to get neutered in about 2 weeks. They have been fighting more and more lately. I’m not talking play fighting either. It’s full out teeth, growling, and going for the throat. They usually stop after a few moments, but if the fight is over a chew toy they get really bad. Tonight, we let the dogs fight it out to see if it would work itself out or not. The 4 month old dog bit the older one in the nose so hard that it bled, and the older dog was bitting at the puppy’s neck like he was trying to tear it out. I know it will get a little better after the puppy gets neutered and this is a dominance issue, but I’m still worried. They didn’t appear as if they were going to stop either. They fought for a good while and it only seemed to get worse. I couldn’t take it anymore so I finally split them up.Now here’s my position: I don’t think they should be allowed to fight at all. I break up the fights when I catch them. I think that behavior is unacceptable and that if they act that way towards each other they’ll probably act that way towards other dogs and maybe even people. The point of having a pet is to teach it to be civil and not to just be some brute creature.Here’s his position: He says that dogs fighting is normal and no big deal. Now I know them fighting is normal but isn’t the point of training your dog to get it to act civil? He thinks that they should be allowed to fight because they’re dogs, and that’s what dogs do. He said he doesnt want to change his dog’s behavior because his dog is “bad” and that’s the way he likes his dog to be–mischievious. I don’t understand why he would think that seeing as how his dog now has a bloody scratch on his nose.What do you think? Should they be allowed to fight it out, or am I right in splitting them up and trying to teach them not to fight?

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