A dog attacking another dog when excited may be a common scenario in many multi-dog households. Many times, the underlying emotional state of the dog is not readily recognized, leading to dog owners assuming that their dog is attacking another dog for no particular reason. If your dog is attacking another dog when excited, chances are that it happens during particular times of the day when there is a peak in the dog’s excitement level such as when you are coming home or when your dog notices an exciting trigger behind the fence. Tackling this issue is not easy, and will require the intervention of a behavior professional for safety and correct implementation of behavior modification.
A Case of Redirected Aggression
What is redirected aggression in dogs and what causes it exactly? Redirected aggression, as the name implies, is a term meant to depict aggression that is directed towards another dog, animal of person as a result of being in a highly excited and/or an aggressive state.
A common cliche’ is two dogs who run along the fenceline barking mad at a person walking a dog behind the fence. At some point, the barking of the dogs directed towards the trigger shifts into barking at each other.
Next thing you know, the dogs are at each other, and are now engaging in what looks like a fight. Hopefully, this is just a loud “discussion” and nobody gets hurt, but there are cases where things can get ugly and blood is shed.
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Another cliche’ is a dog owner coming home from a long day at work. Two dogs sharing the household have been patiently waiting the owner all day, and as they hear the car approaching their excitement starts building up, culminating to when the owner opens the door. As they rush to greet, the two end up having a noisy squabble. The excitement has grown so much that it flips over to aggression and gets redirected on each other.
What do these above examples have in common? They share the fact that the dogs have redirected their excitement on each other. It’s almost as if the strong emotions needs to discharge somewhere just like a bolt of lightning.
The Importance of Management
Management may seem like an obvious strategy to implement when dealing with fighting dogs, but it is often one of the most overlooked. What does management mean and what is its goal? Management simply means controlling the dog’s environment so to prevent the dog from engaging in certain behaviors.
At a first insight, management may seem like a pretty passive, almost static process, but in reality, we are accomplishing several things when adhering to a strict management protocol.
Firstly, we are preventing rehearsal of the the problematic behavior. The more dogs engage in certain troublesome behaviors, the better they get at practicing it. If dogs are allowed to rehearse the problem behavior over and over, it puts roots and becomes more difficult to eradicate.
Secondly, while it may seem that during management the dog is not learning anything, in reality the dog is potentially “learning” (although in a passive manner) to discard the problematic behavior from his behavior repertoire, especially if such problematic behavior has just started. Management works best when implemented at first signs of trouble.
So for instance, in the case of the two dogs fighting along the fenceline or nearby a window upon noticing exciting triggers, management would entail not allowing both dogs to be outside at the same time or placing visual barriers to windows through heavy curtains, venetian blinds or privacy window film. In the case of the two dogs fighting upon the owner’s return, management would entail not allowing both dogs to be together upon the owner’s return at least until they are both calmer.
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A good management plan entails use of barriers and means for safe separation. Some examples of management tools include crates, baby gates, kennels, tethers, and rotations (one dog in the yard, one dog in the house, dogs in different rooms). The most important consideration to keep in mind is safety. The crates and baby gates therefore need to be high enough and strong enough to contain the dogs.
Over reliance on the sturdiness of certain management tools should be avoided: there are countless stories of dog owners reporting fights occurring because one dogs knocking down a baby gate or dogs escaping a supposedly “inescapable crate.” It’s is always wise to have a back-up plan, (e.g a dog is crated and also kept behind a baby gate).
For mild cases, another”tier” of management may also entail close observation. Dogs owners may closely observe their dogs (hopefully through active supervision, not passive!) during their interactions so they can quickly intervene before things escalate.
Management in the case of redirected aggression in dogs therefore entails ultimately preventing access to overly stimulating situations. The main goal of management is to prevent unwanted behaviors until the dog is conditioned to behave differently.
Defusing Tension Should it Arise
Even with the best management plan, there may be sometimes instances where tension may still risk building up. Perhaps one dog managed to knock down a baby gate, or the dog owner felt more confident one day about a situation or simply assumed things were getting better and it was worthy to “try things out” and see who the dogs interacted.
In any case, it’s important in such cases to know what to do to diffuse a tense situation and prevent it from getting worse. It is wise for dog owners to prepare for these instances in advance, should an “oops” moment ever arise. While many dog owners realize how important management is, it is often exhausting to adhere to it, and unfortunately, mishaps are likely to happen at one point or another.
Although it may be tempting for dog owners to correct dogs who are about to engage in a fight, either by yelling sharply or grabbing the instigator by the collar, this can just add fuel to the fire and touching the dogs in an aroused state may even lead to a redirected bite.
Rather than adding tension to tension, a better approach is defusing it. And by defusing, it is implied that intervention is needed at the earliest signs of trouble. Learning to read impending signs of tension in dogs is paramount so to know when to intervene.
A good place to start is to train both dogs to respond fluently to a word or short phrase that will redirect their attention immediately towards the dog owner rather than on each other. To train this fluently, dog owners would need to start in contexts where both dogs are calm such as in a quiet living room. The dog owner may say something like “calm down!” as he or she rushes to the cabinet where tasty cookies are stored enticing the dogs to follow.
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It’s important to not keep the cookies or treats handy as in a pocket or treat pouch in these cases, because should a fight ever erupt, dog owners won’t have these on hand. Care is needed not to make the happening too exciting to prevent redirected aggression. As a precaution, at first, it may help to have a helper have one dog on leash while accompanying to the cabinets so to prevent any incidents. Use of a muzzle may be helpful too, but the dog would need to be trained to wear a muzzle first.
If the “instigator” dog is recognized, it would be good practice to have both dogs sit and feed the instigator first to set him for success and prevent arousal, but as he becomes calmer and better in responding, he should be be fed simultaneously and then learn to also wait his turn. This will help form positive associations with the other dog: “Every time Molly is fed, I am fed right after, I love when Molly is fed!”
After practicing a whole lot, and generalizing the cue to more distracting environments (during play, when outside), the behavior of running to the cabinet, upon hearing the cue should become almost reflexive. It can then be used should tension arise, but again, at the earliest signs. Waiting a second longer can lead to the dogs no longer being capable of paying attention and the “calm down” cue would have lost a good amount of its power. For safety and correct implementation, these exercises are best done under the guidance of a behavior professional.
On top of the above exercises, dogs should be taught to respond to several important basic obedience cues such as sit, down, leave it, stay, come, autowatch (looking at the owner upon seeing a trigger) attention heeling, targeting, and go to your mat. These may come handy in many circumstances and dogs who tend to get overly aroused need to learn how to better control their impulses. However, this would have to entail initially teaching the dogs individually.
Breaking Up Dog Fights 
Sometimes, despite all the precautions things don’t go as planned. All owners of multi-dog households should know what to do to break up eventual fights. As tempting as it may be to shout and grab the dogs, as mentioned, these methods risk only building more tension and any physical interventions increase the risks for redirected bites.
Fortunately, in many cases, “fights” are just short-lived loud discussions where no dog gets hurt. There may be barks, growls and snarls but no contact with teeth, or if there is contact with teeth, good bite inhibition prevents any wounds from occurring. At most, there may wet fur or a small scrape.
A good approach to safely break up a fight is to make a lot of noise. Clanging pots and pans may startle the dog enough, but some dog owners may swear on the effectiveness of air horns.
Another option is to toss a blanket over the dog to confuse them or to use a garden hose with strong pressure. A large object that is extended somewhat to keep arms and hands out of reach such as a folded chair or piece of plywood of the right size may be placed between fighting dogs to separate them.
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The wheelbarrow method where a dog is lifted off the ground by the hind legs above the knees (avoid below the
knees as this could cause potential) can be effective, but there are risks the dog may turn around and attempt to bite. On top of this, the other dog may attack the “wheelbarrowed dog. ”
If one dog is biting another dog and is holding on, dog owners may try to stick a high-value food reward near the nose in hopes of enticing the dog to let go, or a breaking stick may need to be used.
Once the fighting dogs have been separated, it is important to provide them with a separate area to chill down. After a fight, adrenaline levels are still high. Dog owners may need some time to chill down as well, considering how scary witnessing fights may be. It is normal to feel shaky and feel the heart racing.
Dog Attacking Another Dog When Excited: What to Do
Behavior modification for redirected aggression must take a multifaceted approach. It requires identifying the specific stimulus or situation that evokes the behavior and then actively working on systematically desensitizing the dog/dogs to it and teaching alternative behaviors.
Systematic desensitization is a behavior modification method that involves creating set-ups in a systematic way so that the stimulus or situation is presented in a way that it doesn’t evoke the troublesome behavior and dogs are under threshold. This may mean taking steps in keeping the affected dogs at a distance from the trigger and making the trigger less salient.
Teaching alternative behaviors to dogs (sit, downs, auto-watch) is important because it provides a way for the dogs to initially “discharge” their excitement/aggression in a more productive, acceptable way. The use of high value treats to reinforce these alternate behaviors is crucial so the help the dogs make good choices and voluntarily pick to perform over redirecting on each other. As training progresses, the excitement/aggression should start to wax and wane and then finally begin abate, leading to calmer displays.
When not working on behavior modification management (preventing exposure to the circumstance it which the aggression occurs, redirection at the earliest signs for mild cases) is fundamental. Exercise, training, mental stimulation and stress-reduction programs are complementary therapies that play an integral role in a successful behavior modification plan.
In instances where there is no progress after months despite the effort and compliance, the kindest thing to do is to re-home one dog to a responsible home with the full disclosure of the problem.
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