Hi, I'm Lindsay from Hull, East Yorkshire and I've just joined the forum to hopefully get some advice on a potential problem between my two dogs, Smartie and Tilly. Smartie is a 9 year old x terrier and Tilly is a 5 year old x Border Collie. Up until recently there has never been a problem between them, Tilly is the dominant one of the two, but in the last couple of weeks there has been two occasions where normal play fighting has escalated into full on fighting taking two people to pull them apart. The first time Smartie ended up with a cut ear as Tilly had grabbed hold and refused to let go, the second time luckily there were no injured parties as we had them seperated seconds after the fight had broken out. Each time it was Tilly who initiated the fight. Tilly was put outside after the fight for a period of time out. When the dogs are introduced again following a fight they act normally together as if nothing has happened....even start playing again.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this may be happening? If they are dominance fighting why start after 5 years of living together? Neither dog receives preferential treatment and both are otherwise good, well behaved dogs.