Is there any reasonably reliable way to tell if a dog is being fear aggressive or dominant aggressive to another dog? My two boys have decided to hate each other, and if the one who used to be submissive is now being dominant I could get him neutered, but if he is being fear aggressive it will make him worse! The one who used to be dominant and is now defending himself can't be neutered as he is a show and possible stud dog.

Hi Lucy you'd probably be better getting a behavourist they're more qualified to watch and assess the situation to see whats going wrong in they're relationship with each.  Good luck.

Warm regards Susan

We tried a dog pyschologist, and he thought the problem was that they were trying to boss US around. But they've never challenged us, just each other! Ah well.

This is 'domination theory' which is rather outdated now - http://www.acorndogtraining.co.uk/dominance.htm

It's very true Digger, especially the bit about dominance. I knew a true dominant bitch once. She rarely growled, she didn't need to. Other dogs would drop toys, back away from food, lie down, anything at all, just from a look. She was the quietest dog in the pack of 8 and she was so mentally strong she even kept humans on their toes.

It does seem to be the quickest conclusion ppl come to - he's dominant. My ex-trainer, who had every qualification under the sun, told me when my pup was 4 months old he was going to be dominant. He is the least dominant dog you could ever meet. He is so lacking in confidence he still squats and wont empty out in public. He also suffers from fear aggression. If I had listened to her, who knows the emotional damage I could have done to him.

From what you say about your two males, I would say it is not dominance aggression. But without looking at them it is really impossible to say exactly what it is. Behaviour is very hard to interpret over the internet. Good luck with them.

Edited to say:- Ah, just looked at your website. It seems you brought in a bitch puppy not long ago. Did the fighting start soon after by any chance? Bringing a bitch into a house with resident males can cause fighting between them. If she is reaching maturity it could be her that has caused the problem.

It started 2 months after she arrived, but the inital trigger was my OH taking the Yankee away for 4 days while I stayed at home with the Cavs as I had a show to go to. When they returned, neither of the boys wanted to be reunited into our 'pack'. Have just ordered that new behaviourist book often mentioned on this site, so perhaps that will give some clues!

Uh-oh. Dare I ask, which behaviourist book?

Not the Dog Listener one, I do have that but have gathered that it is thought out of date. Ooh, I remember, the Culture Clash one!

Lucy, I think your best bet woudl be to ask your vet to refer you to a member of the UKRCB or the APBC....

Neutering does not always solve dominance problems and other maturity problems if these problems have already occured. I had a boy who developed an extreme marking behaviour and after he was neutered he still marked everywhere.

Lucy, truly dominant dogs do not actually bite or fight, they don't really need to.  Generally what happens in situations where there are two dogs who do not get on is that they are often very evenly matched with no real "top dog", unless of course there is something else in the environment that is triggering the problem such as a bitch etc.  Labels are rarely useful in these cases, you need to watch the dogs, diarise the triggers for antisocial behaviour so that you can get a picture of when the behaviour occurs so that you can correctly identify why it occurs.

You may need outside professional help by a reputable, accredited, behaviourist, as opposed to self styled ones or those that belong to a franchise after "qualifying" after 6 weeks.

regards