I have three SCWTs, one female, Bailey, two years of age, one alpha male, Dudley, also two years of age, and a younger brother of the male, Clancy, 8 months old. The males are neutered and to date have gotten alone quite well. My wife and I have brought home a new baby daughter three days ago and Dudley has become very protective of her. All of a sudden he shakes when the younger male approaches and makes direct eye contact in an aggressive mode. All three dogs got into a fight near our daughter and when I thought the fight was over I grabbed Dudley, then younger male, Clancy leapt back and instead of grabbing Dudley, accidentally tore through my hand.  So beside being with my wife in the hospital for three days, I was back one day then returned to get my hand stiched-up.

I have seperated the two males, but this is not the long term solution.  In their fights, I have intervened to seperate the dogs. Very little blood (other than mine) has been spilled. It is one of those frenzy fights that has all the makings of a serious injury to one of the males.  I'm not sure what to do or if this is typical behavior of two males regardless of having a new addition. Does anyone have similiar experience and advice.

Dave B

At 8 months the younger dog is entering puberty, so the arrivel of your new 'bundle of joy' has been bad timing :(  I expect he's sensed a disruption in the normal way of things and has spied a chance to try and increase his position in the doggie part of your 'pack'.  This could go one of three ways - either Bailey will bow down and clancy will become 'alpha', Clancy will realise he's bashing his head against a brick wall and back down, or, because they are brothers, they may have similar feelings about what is important and will continue to have these set toos.  It's a shame they are both neutered, as this would give you some room for manipulation (by leaving the potential 'alpha' uneutered you can accentuate the differences).  I'd say give it a week or two to allow them to sort out their differences (unless one or both dogs needs vet treatment you can't really count it as a proper 'fight', and terriers do make a lot of noise when fighting - but this incident didn't lead to any injury (apart from that to yourself).  Dudley should be discouraged from protecting by ensuring he doesn't get into a position to gaurd, encourage him to remain on his bed, or his special place while moving around the house. SCWT are very smart, and usually pick up on this sort of training very quickly - at the same time it's a good excuse the spend one to one time with him......

If you have any further problems - ask your vet to refer you to a behaviourist (preferably APBC or UKRCB registered, or an APDT trainer with an interest in behaviour)

Thank-you for the information.

I was guessing it was bad timing having never dealt with this unique situation of bring a baby into my dog house. I have a behaviorist I've used in the past. He is on holiday for the week. We originally acquired our first SCWT, Dudley, after researching the best dog for our family and lifestyle. We agreed with the breeder to neuter him since we were not going into show. The second, Bailey (our bitch), was a return to a different breeder. She had behavior issues from being taunted by little kids and I've had experience with correcting these problems. No one wanted to take her on so I convinced my wife to let us take a go. This is were I contacted a Behaviourist, which was a godsend. She was turned from the dark side in about three months. The younger male was not planned. I asked the breeder of Dudley that when she decided to retire the Dame and Sire, I would like to acquire a pup. I figured this would be in three to five years. Little did I know she would be going into an early retirement. Then my wife and I, both in our mid-fourties, had an additional surprise with the baby. We acquired the SCWT's after our kids were grown-up since we both agreed that babies, toddlers and dogs do not ofter mix well.

As for the fighting, the three have demonstrated the terrior play fighting in the past. My wife and I had to travel and we left the Dudley and Bailey with a local border. He is very proud of his facility and shows it off at 3:00PM each day to prospective clients. He had my two dogs in the play pen with his assistent. They started their play figthng, which has all the appearances of a death roll, and the prospective clients thought he was promoting dog fights. They all asked to leave and he follow suit by asking me not to bring them back.

Thank-you again for the information.