We've only had our siberian husky for about 7 months now and she has come a long way with our training! However, she does not tolerate other dogs at all. She just goes straight into attack mode. If we're indoors she seems to deal with it for a little while but always ends up fighting no matter how nice the other dog is. If its outdoors there is no chance, she goes straight to fighting.

I just need training advice on how to stop her from wanting to fight other dogs! I don't mind if she never fully accepts other dogs but she needs to stop trying to fight with them. Our neighbor has two labs that they let roam around their front yard freely and they're as nice as they could be but she still tries to fight when we walk by. Once we do get past the confrontation then she drops the issue pretty quick. Afterward she looks back once and pulls for a minute or so but she stays focused on the direction we're moving and goes on with the walk.

Here is a little history if it helps. Gwen is about to be 8 years old and from what we gathered she spent the last 4 years in a 10ft x 10ft fenced in dog pen before we got her. The owners kept her away from other dogs because she "always tried to be the alpha and got into fights." She is a little big for a female at 58lbs but the vet said it was all muscle and she isn't overweight at all (she was 47lbs and skinny when we got her). She does show some small traits of trying to be top dog sometimes but nothing that would cause this problem. Any help would be appreciated!

Ive had a big dog a few years ago who was the same but only with certin types of dogs. We used to turn her onto her belly to show she wasn't the alpha and waited till she looked away to show her no. Each time even for only she was nice she got a treat.

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Ive had a big dog a few years ago who was the same but only with certin types of dogs. We used to turn her onto her belly to show she wasn't the alpha and waited till she looked away to show her no.

No. Alpha rolling only causes stress, fear, and has just about as much chance to cause harm to the dog as it does to the roller. It shouldn't be advocated to people, and should only be done as a LAST resort to protect your dog from harm or harming itself. Using a roll to establish dominance is the wrong way to go about training a dog properly in my humble opinion.





David :

The way I would deal with this is simply high reward and desensitization.

Find a powerful treat for Gwen (Great name by the way, I have a Cat named the same ) what ever captures her attention. Make it extremely high reward and if it smells strong all the better. Some chicken, peanut butter, fish, ect. Anything that just by waving it in front of her she will want to follow your hand.

Go to park, where you are bound to bump into another dog. At the start a low traffic area would be better. I would wait on a bench with my dog and even be as far away as possible.

When another dog arrived I would wait for my dog to notice it and focus on it. I would say a command word, Gentle I think works well, and wave the treat in front of my dog's nose. Once the dog was focused on me or the treat I would reward, again saying gentle.

The goal here is to get your dog to focus on you and expect something awesome when ever she hears the word "Gentle". It is such a high value item it should break any fixation and reward you with today focus, thus ignoring the other dog(s).


I would slow, and I mean over weeks or even months) continue this method as I progressively got closer and closer to another dog. She will let you know when you're too close as she will fixate on the dog instead of the treat at that point. When that happens leave and try again the next day.

You should even be able to lay the ground work for this exercise at home before any dog is present. It should help.


There is ALWAYS a non intrusive and non violent way to fix behaviors. It just takes time and commitment.

I really hope this helped, and if not I would think about getting in touch with an actually trainer or behaviorist who can help more. Maybe someone else can offer something better.

The very BEST of luck to you and Gwen!!!

~Chris~

I was only told that when I went to this obbidence school 10 or more years ago but she never had problems with other dogs only certin types. Thanks for the new input!

Thanks Chris! I will definitely try that. I'll need some higher reward treats but I think I can manage! That is for the most part what we've been trying to do. Usually she completely ignores treats when we get on the trails and even more so if she sees something she is interested in (like another dog). So it hasn't been working. She loves chicken but I've never really considered taking it with us on a hike or to the park so I'm not sure if she'll respond to it. I'll give this a try today.

Shes a squirmy thing with some brutal strength, I don't think I could force her to roll over even if I tried. So that's not an option anyway.

You could try adding a gentle leader to help direct the attention to you and the treat. Ideally verbally is best but sometimes they can get too focused and need just that little tug to break their attention and bring it to you. Tugging at a collar pulls them back but a leader should help turn the head away and break the focus. Keep the collar and leash attached as you may need it, but provide any correction with the leader.

Also try to stop the behavior at the first sign. Treating them helps them get out of the behavior, reacting quickly helps them never get into that mode.

Still working with Harry on this training as well. Not quite the same situation as he is A little ADD and will chase anything that moves. He'd be a really good bird hound, but needs to not chase them if he ever wants off a leash.

Well we've had some encounters with other dogs on the trail but no where near as many as usual. We did find a treat that she will not ignore and it gets her attention every time! Salami! So we just need to keep a zip lock bag of fresh salami with us for a while. Today we went to the trail park and she saw a well behaved dog that was off leash and she did seem to do better. She didn't pull as hard or seem to be as aggressive but we didn't get to close to find out what it would lead to yet with socializing.

Thanks for all of the help! It seems to be working.

glade everything is doing well!