Why are my dogs fighting?

Why don't my dogs get along?! They keep fighting!

Sometimes dogs who have lived together for years can one day start to fight leaving their owners upset, confused and bewildered. What happened? Why did this happen? I don't understand?! All too often the fight seems to have started 'out of the blue' and ‘for no apparent’ reason. But if you examine the situation and the behaviour of the dogs very careful, all too often there are very clear signals that have been missed, bad attitudes that have gone unchecked, and grudges or hard feelings that have been brewing between the dogs for awhile.

I've yet to meet a dog who's acted aggressively with a family member without first giving a very clear warning signal. Not to say this doesn't happen (because believe me, it does and it can!), but what I'm saying is that in my experience I've found that the majority of dogs in question have given many clear warnings and signals that have either been ignored or simply not noticed by their owners. In multiple dog households it is more important than ever that the humans pay very close attention to the dog to dog dynamic at all times and that the humans ALWAYS acts as advocate, rule maker, boundary enforcer, and disciplinarian. If we do not educate our dogs then they will default to a system that is easy and impulsive and perfectly acceptable to dogs. In the dog's system, it is perfectly acceptable to bite, hurt, and even kill another dog over a seemingly minor infraction like stealing a toy or trespassing on another's territory. But in the human system... this is obviously and wildly unacceptable.

So if we want our dogs to follow our rules, then we have to first teach our dogs about the human rules and what behaviours are and aren't acceptable in the human world. Then once our dogs understand (by which I mean thoroughly trained and proofed) we then must always hold our dogs accountable for the choices that they make. Just as every child must go to school to get an education and live within the boundaries of the law, every dog must go through training to also get an education and live within the boundaries of acceptable behaviour.