What Causes Canine Sibling Rivalry?
Many things can spark this type of inter-dog aggression, lets briefly have a look at the most common causes: • Instability in the dominance hierarchy between the dogs – could be that a younger dog reaches social maturity and begins to challenge the status of the older dog. Or possibly it may just be that the older dog perceives that he/she is being challenged. • Normal competitiveness and fighting over resources such as food, toys and attention from human housemates (you). • Lack of early puppy socialization, which may include poor bite inhibition which leads to rough play. • It’s a common problem when two dogs of the same sex and age live together. • Often dogs fight time and time again to correct our human interference. In many cases they will work their differences out much quicker if left to do so without our interference.
