This article is entitled...

Managing Multi-Dog Households

by Tam Cordingley

Many of us that love dogs would like to have more than one. As soon as there is more than one there are management issues. Who gets to sit on your lap, who gets to go out the door first, who eats first, how do they play together, how to handle aggression?

If you have one dog as your pet before you add any others the priority is easy. The first one gets the prime position. It is his house first so the newcomer will automatically defer first position, especially in the beginning. Reinforce this mini pack order. The pack leader is you, then the first dog, then the newcomer. Always think of your family as a wolf pack. This is not a socialist society, all are not equal. If the pack order is maintained there are few conflicts, the conflicts come when the order is disturbed. Then a new leader must be chosen, and the wolf method of choice is usually a fight. Even if your dogs are Italian Greyhounds or Pomeranians they are still wolves under the skin.

The first dog does everything first, the second dog, and each successive dog, is corrected if he attempts to juggle the order. It is convenient for the owner, pack leader, if this is also the order in which the dogs arrived at the house. This is not always the case. Sometimes a later arrival will assume, with or without the consent of the other pack members, a higher position than last. If all are in agreement this is fine. Very often a later arrival, usually a female, will assume the position of last in line. She will slink away at the slightest look, will submissively wet every time a dog looks at her. She has chosen the position of Omega. If you attempt to make her assume a higher, more responsible, position she is very uncomfortable. After all, it is easy to be last. There are no decisions to make, you just do what everyone tells you to do.

If you are going to maintain control of a multi dog household it is mandatory that you are the pack leader. Every dog must defer to your authority. Aggression is not tolerated from anyone. It sounds like one long battle but that is far from the truth. If you position yourself as pack leader and strongly correct an aggressor the first time he tries it, and the second, there will seldom be a third. Don’t let them maintain eye contact with each other. Almost every act of aggression is preceded by a period of direct eye contact.

We have Terriers in our household. They are famous for aggression. Not here they aren’t. At any given time there are 7-10 dogs in the house, mostly males. If one begins staring another one down he is immediately told “ don’t look” and has a fly swatter placed in front of his eyes. He is not hit or threatened with the fly swatter, it is just placed between him and the other dog. If a fly swatter isn’t handy he is told to sit, or sit up, or down, anything to break the gaze down. We don’t immediately grab either dog, they are commanded to obey their leader. Once the situation has been defused we release the dog from his command.

Another factor in aggression is food. Of course the dogs are not free fed. Every dog is given his or her food in pack order, and in the same place every night. We routinely feed 6 of the dogs loose in the kitchen nightly. We monitor. No one is allowed to switch bowls, or to growl or threaten. Again if they do they are commanded, not asked, to sit. While they are sitting no other dog is allowed to take their food. We do find that certain brands of dog food seem to cause aggression, also stool eating. We do not use these brands of food. We do find the dogs that are on a natural diet are more satisfied, therefore less quarrelsome. All of the house dogs have fresh beef bones often. They are picked up and placed in the toy box every morning, each dog happily rummages through and picks out a favorite every evening. During the evening it is a joy to see the dogs, each with a favorite bone, stretched out if front of the fire in the winter and in front of a fan in the summer.

The dogs and the people are a family. They love each other. They are not all exercised together. Mostly in pairs. But when the question is asked “ do you want to go out?” often all 10 go out to relieve themselves before bed together. When they are all together a person goes out with them to supervise.

The key to multi dog households is a strong pack leader, awareness of what the dogs are doing, and adult supervision.