my 2 dogs are fighting

Question
I have a 7 month old german shepherd and a 2 yr old Lab mixed with a bit of shepherd, both spayed females. The lab mix has always been a super sweet dog whereas the german shepherd has a very dominating attitude. Yet they always got along well until these last few weeks.
The german shepherd is very jealous and has always nudged the lab out of the way when it comes to receiving attention from me or other members of the family. The lab used to ignore it but now that the "puppy" is bigger than her she fights back and I'm scared they are really going to hurt each other. They fight over food, doghouse (more than big enough for both of them)and attention.
I believe a large part of the problem is that my husband doesn't want them inside so they are kept in the yard with a heated/air conditioned doghouse and plenty of running room but obviously not as much attention from us as they would like. The lab doesn't have many behavioral problems and the german shepherd did fine in the house for the time she was inside after being spayed, never chewing anything, not jumping and doing pretty good with going to the bathroom outside. Once she was put outside she reverted to acting like she had no training. Now she's a huge agressive dog who likes to jump and bite (really not good since we have small children).
Is there any way of training a dog who stays outside or am I going to have to somehow convince my husband she's got to be a house dog?

Answer
Hi, Rain,

When puppies are young, most older dogs let them get away with a lot of stuff. It's a normal instinctive pattern in dogs and wolves (and to some extent in most social mammals). But once the dog enters adolescence an older dog will have had enough, and basically start saying to the younger dog, "Okay, enough! Grow up!"

That's probably what's been happening recently between these two. Also, it seems to me that the shepherd has a lot of anxiety, which she expresses through "resource guarding" behaviors. (Here's a link to an article I wrote, titled, "Is Your Dog Dominant, or Just Feeling Anxious?": http://tinyurl.com/2q2esp )

And when I use the word anxious what I really mean is that there's a build-up of too much emotional energy in the shepherd's system, and she doesn't have an acceptable way to use up that energy. (Your Lab/mix was probably more laid back as a pup, while the pure shepherd is more like what I'd call a finely-tuned hunting machine with nothing to hunt.)

At any rate, that's what the nudging the Lab out of the way is about. The shepherd considers attention from you a resource, much like food and a comfortable place to sleep. In fact, all their fights are about who gets to control resources. And the poor little Lab mix is doing her best to live up to her part of the adult dog social contract which says that older dogs teach younger dogs how to act nice.

All of this adds up to the possibility that you're right and your husband is wrong, at least on a certain level. That's because the Lab/mix doesn't have the kind of personality or size to "enforce" adult rules with the teenager. Since that's the case, YOU need to do it. However, you can't do it the way dog naturally would, through mock attacks, etc., because that'll only increase the shepherd's tension and stress. What you need to do instead is always redirect her energy away from something that feels satisfying to her at that moment, to something even more satisfying, which will almost always involve biting a toy. The more she bites her toys, the less stressed she'll be. The less stressed she is, the more relaxed and social she'll be too. A cautionary note: if you're going to have the dogs in the house so you can keep any eye on them, and prevent fights, DON'T GIVE THE PUPPY ANY ATTENTION WHEN SHE DEMANDS IT! Wait till she stops demanding it, then tease her with a toy or a bone, and let her settle down and chew that.

You implied that the shepherd had been trained, but is now acting like she hadn't been. Did she go to puppy class? Did you train her yourself? What was she trained to do? (And by the way, this isn't unusual; all adolescents go through what's called "neural pruning" where the brain gets rid of old circuitry, and a lot of "learned" behaviors are lost.)

Since, as far as I can tell, the shepherd is a high strung, finely-tuned hunting machine, she needs to be trained to actively do things with her prey drive. Don't worry, that doesn't mean she's going to become a hunting dog. All obedience behaviors (except "sit") are directly related to behaviors that wolves exhibit while hunting.

So use fetch and tug as inducements and reinforcements to train her basic commands. (This means instead of using a treat, you use a tennis ball or a tug toy.)

She needs to be trained to heel, to down, to stay, and to come when called. And the training needs to be fun, it should be use up a lot of energy. In other words, don't worry about getting her to calm down before you train her. You should actually get her as excited as possible about biting a toy, but teach her that she only gets to bite it when she obeys.

By the way, since you said she's jumping and "biting" (I hope you mean nipping), you should really, really play tug with her a lot. Give her two 1/2 play sessions twice a day, just her not the Lab/mix. It will wear her out, especially if she's using her prey drive. Tug is great because it gives this kind of dog a really satisfying outlet for that urge to bite. And once she's addicted to tug, whenever she gets into a bitey mood it'll be easier to redirect her to a toy instead of someone's pants leg.

As for jumping up, there's an exercise on my blog that can help with that. Here are some other helpful links:

http://tinyurl.com/3balu6 (pushing exercise)
                  
http://www.tiny.cc/tug (tug-of-war)

http://www.tiny.cc/rugaas (recognizing stress indicators)

http://www.tiny.cc/TrickorTreat (impulse control)

Also, both dogs should be taken on long walks together, on-lead, so they can tune into each other's rhythm's and emotions the way wolves do when they go out on a hunting expedition. You'll find from reading my article that the pack instinct is really about working in harmony while hunting, not about who's most dominant, so stimulating and satisfying the hunting instincts of both dogs -- even by taking them on long "hunting expeditions" -- will create more harmony between them.

I know this is a long post, and yet I'm a bit worried that I haven't answered all of your questions. So feel free to let me know if you're puzzled or confused about anything, or if you just need more input.

Best of luck,
LCK