Sudden Aggression in Dog

StompToWork

I have a bit of a troubling issue which has arisen. My dog, Deefor, is a 2yo LabX. My parent's dog, Val, is a 5yo male Cocker Spaniel.

Whenever we visit my parents, we have always brought Deefor, and he and Val have always got on fine. They play-acted around, and while there never seemed to be very prominent dominance stances, Val always seemed to be more dominant over Deefor.

Last night, however, out of the blue, and with no provocation that I saw, Deefor started to growl and bark at Val, and before I could run over to see what was going on, they were going at each other pretty good! I separated them, but since then they can't be indoors together as it all kicks off, and when they are outside, Deefor simply lords over Val.

Any comments/suggestions? Please ask for more info.

Thanks all.

STW

Whispered

That must have given you a fright!

Firstly I'd forget about dominance as things like that. In this case simply because thinking in those terms will cloud the issue. Many people put issues down to dominance or pack hierarchy and so never solve the underlying problem.

You say that it happened out of the blue, can you think back and remember exactly what happened. Something triggered it, and triggers can be incredibly easy to miss. As can early warning signals such as freezing, avoidance etc. So see if you can describe what happened in as much detail as you can and something might click for you. Who was in the room, where were they and what were they doing, what was each dog doing when the first fight occurred, what else was on the floor, has anythin recenty changed in the room or for either dog. Describe absolutely everything you can and see if anything sticks out to you.

You say val has always been the more "dominant" dog. Can you explain a bit more about their relationship before the incident.

It's very important in my opinion to ensure both dogs are feeling ok. Any out of character behaviours without a clear cause should be checked by a vet. Something like an eat infection for example can be easily missed by an owner but can make a dog cranky.

How have you been handling interactions between them since? As much as this forum is great for general advice, where aggression is involved itight be a good idea to get a pro in who can look at what is going on and make a give informed guidelines.