PICTURE THE BEHAVIOR, PACK LEADERSHIP, AND TWO FIGHTING DOGS

Dear Jubilee,
I have several dogs, and sometimes things can get nasty. I don’t know what to do. For example, I went out back this morning to throw the ball for Gloria, Kyrie and Sanctus. Gloria chases the ball and brings it back. Kyrie runs after the ball and most of the time looses the race to the ball. Sanctus just runs after Gloria. Exercise! Exercise!

This morning after a couple of throws, Kyrie got the ball and Gloria went after her. For a few minutes I thought, I'll just let them work it out, but then blood appeared. So I called for help and got the dogs separated even though they were locked together. I was so angry that I didn’t even want to look at the dogs. When I finally looked at them, I discovered that Kyrie needed wounds cleaned up and Gloria needed stitches under her jaw bone.

This is NOT fun. I read your article on Picture the Behavior. How do I visualize my dogs NOT fighting?

Anxious in Arizona



Dear Anxious,
Visualizing a negative is impossible. You have to visualize a positive. For example, if you shout at a child, “Don't slam the door,” they seem to only hear, “Slam the door,” and you hear the door slam. Telling a child to close the door quietly is more apt to get the result you want.

It’s the same for visualization. In order to visualize your dogs not fighting, you would have to visualize them fighting and then stopping, but then damage is done: the fighting is in the mix. You don't want this. So, you visualize the dogs playing well together.

But if you have two dogs fighting, then you may have two dogs that are not getting enough exercise.

I received a terrific testimonial from a woman who went to one of Caesar Millan's seminars in west Texas: her two female Airedales were really fighting badly. After meeting Cesar, she started taking them together on long, heavy exercise walks every day for 45 minutes.

That was last August. Today, the dogs are getting along fine, and she is still walking them every day. She is very proud of what she did. And I suspect that the two dogs are as happy as she is.


Jubilee

Several months later: Update

Dear Jubilee,
I may be invoking the Teddy Principle, but I haven't had any dog fights at my house for quite some time. I think the reason may be that I changed my energy. Instead of being afraid of dog fights, I visualized beating them all to a pulp if they started to fight. I switched internally from fear to anger. I had a problem with Gloria and Blue one day as well. Instead of separating them, I made them lie down about 2 feet from each other and towered over them. When I released them, Gloria made one quick slash at Blue and I came down on her like a ton of bricks. Well, actually, I had a riding crop in my hand and I wacked her once and then continued to tower over only Gloria.

As Gloria has been maturing, she was trying to take over the alpha female position from the two older ladies and by towering over her, I "told" her that the alpha position was mine. Blue, who I think never trusted me before to be the alpha, saw me step up and take the position, and she stepped down with relief.

We almost had a problem a couple of months ago and I stood tall in my anger, and they threw their hands up in surrender (metaphorically speaking). I now watch body language constantly when the dogs are together, and when I can't be there to monitor, every dog gets separated.

Thank you for taking the time to share with me and God bless Cesar Millan for his message of pack hierarchy or I'd still be having problems.

No Longer Anxious