a suggestion
since the dogs' behavior all began changing after one of the dogs passed, id suggest looking into the wolf pack theroy a bit. the dogs fighting amongst themselves is their way of trying to establish a new "leader". the fact that they are trying to determine that amongst themselves means that they dont feel that any of the humans around are the "leader". if they had faith that you were their leader, they would be content to all be members of the pack, and would be confident that you are capable of protecting them and the home. the biting is probably half protective/half dominence. you should probably look into a refresher training class or probably a trainer that would work with you and your family in your home, and one that knows about the theroy. by going through obedience training and learnin more about their behavior, a dog starts to see you again as the "leader of the pack" much like puppies do. puppies run and play and typically could care less what we are doing (although they hate to be alone, mostly cause its boring), but as a dog grows up, they start developing behaviors that we think, "why didnt they ever do that as a puppy?" a lot of it has to do with them growing into the leader role, or head of the household. as a member of the pack, we can never have complete control of our pets because they dont respect us, they think of us like children that need protecting and babysitting. we see their insistance for attention and following at our feet as devotion and love, but really, it has to do with them demanding our attention when they want it, and not trusting us to be out of their sight.
even sometihng simple; first, pick the dog you feel is the most dominant of the dogs. then, at feeding time, feed that dog first (even if his bowl hits the ground only a half a second earlier than the others), then the other two in order of dominance. but, before you feed any of the dogs, eat a little bite of something (anything!) first, in front of them. the pack leader is always the first to eat, and this will help to reestablish who is who. i hope it helps; im not positive, but it feels like there is a power struggle going on in your home. i hope everything works out for all of you!
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