Any advice on how to keep my recently recovered dog to stop fighting my other dog?

[notcrosskill]

This is very long so here is a tldr
Dog1 has been living in the wild for 3 weeks when she was lost in a large biking trail park.
She was found today and taken home
She is constantly initiating fights with dog2

The dogs:

Dog1(ath): large rhodesian ridgeback we adopted from a shelter 8 months ago roughly. Very friendly and playful, shy around people she does not know well, very smart. She is very strong and takes some strength to control if she gets excited. 1 year old

Dog2(dobs) medium sized, much smaller in comparison to ath, bit of a mutt with some hound in her. Also shy, probably a bit more then ath, and is kinda dumb. Over 2 years old

Current condition:

Dobs is the same as she always was. She hets excited when she sees ath right now due to the time apart and approaches her, which makes the fight even more likely, but she means no harm

Ath is very skinny (she was already a skinny dog, but you can see her rib cage now). She also has a few scrapes and general "wear and tear" i expected for her living on her own for a few weeks. She is still very friendly with all the people in the house, and seems at home as long as dobs is not around.

Behavior:

Both dogs love to be by people, both love walks and ath is very energetic, dobs is less so but still likes to run and play. They on occasion fight, which seems to generally being caused by ath not getting enough exercise (or at least when she does not get a walk)
Context:
On memorial day, my dog (ath) was lost at a park a dostance away from our house. It was a large, natural park intended for long scenic bike trails. We lost here for about 3 weeks (her collar came off), today we got a call, they found her. We immediately left to pick her up, we got her with no problem and took her home. All interactions with our family go great (she already knew them and was glad to see then).

However, our other dog (dobs) was also very excited to see her, but within about 3 seconds of contact, they broke into a fight, no harm to either dog but was stressful, and we had to seperate the dogs.

A few moments later, we took both of them on leash into our large backyard. We walked them around (keeping them apart) and gauging their reactions. Seen we let them near each other, for about 20 seconds it went well, they were just sniffing at each other, when ath suddenly becomes aggressive again, no growling, no defensive posture, no backing away, just immediate aggression. We Seperated them again. Both dogs are fine but this time a family member got bit on the leg, no major damage but its still a bite.

For the rest of the day we kept them seperated, either taking turns in rooms/kennels and taking them outside and giving plenty of food and water. However, when ath is loose in the house, she sometimes winds up next to the door that leads to the room dobs is in. If they notice each other through the door they will growl and bark at each other.

I feel it is important to note that ath and dobs both never show any signs of aggresion to people, and are either shy or happy to see them. Both dogs have never intentionally hurt a person, and the only person to be scratched or bit by them is me to break apart fights (which is basically me getting right in the crossfire)

Now i am laying in bed with ath as its time for bed. She has been very tired all day and is getting some more much needed sleep.

Our current theory is that either
A: she is in a hyper-defence mode due to potential scruffles with other aninals while she was missing. B: is VERY possessive of everything around her due to just getting back.
Or C: is hurting in some way causing her to be aggresive.

Any advice is GREATLY appreciated.

 

[the_family_monastery]

@notcrosskill You said on occasion they fight, was that happening also before Ath got lost?
Can you walk them together at all right now? I’d start there, have another family member take dobs, you take Ath. Begin walking and slowly get them closer to each other. Do it regularly. Keep on keeping them separate at home (called crate and rotate). I’d also order a basket muzzle and start conditioning Ath to it

That will keep you busy for some time. Eventually you will want some help from a professional trainer or start to learn now about managing dog aggression with an e-collar. The source of the video I linked has many other resources on their website and on YouTube that can help you get started.

 

[notcrosskill]

@the_family_monastery Yeah they would fight rarely if ath did not get enough exercise, we would break them apart, seperate them, and they would be fine moments later.

We are not sure if they can be walked together, we are taking ath to the vet now to check for any damage/pain/ disease and such. Afterwards we will decide what to do next.

We did the walk thing once, bith were passive, but after sniffing at each other they suddenly broke into a fight. We hope they repetition and a bit of rest and care will help solve the problem. We will continue the crate & rotate method going.

Now im a bit wary of the muzzle strategy but am willing to try it, especially if this does not quickly resolve

Thank you firbthe reply

 

[spiningcompass]

@notcrosskill Hey, buckliss, just a quick heads-up:

seperate is actually spelled separate. You can remember it by -par- in the middle.

Have a nice day!

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[the_family_monastery]

@notcrosskill Fighting due to lack of exercise would still qualify her as dog aggressive prior to getting lost. Lack of exercise is not a cause for aggression, just exacerbates it. When you walk them, don’t allow them to interact at all for the first week or two. The muzzle training is so when you start actual training, you can do it safely. You would not throw a muzzle on her and then put them together. That probably won’t solve anything. You’d need to correct her for attacking. If she’s been corrected before for showing signs like growling, that may be why she does it now without warning.

 

[notcrosskill]

@the_family_monastery For the first part, it may be important to note that before being lost, ath did not just suddenly start fighting dobs, generally they would be playing in the house, generally running around, and one or both would start to do what i cam best describe as a playful, or at least non threatening growl, kind of like some dogs growl playing tug of war. Often times it stops there, but rarely the growls progress getting a bit more aggresive, often times they will break apart a bit during this, though rarely they will start fighting. Easy to break up as aggresion ends quickly if its not a possesive dispute.

To be sure i understand, i want her muzzle trained, then when i start getting them used to each other using the above method(s) i use the muzzle?

 

[the_family_monastery]

@notcrosskill Once they’ve been walking apart, and you’ve got the muzzle training down, start walking them together with Ath muzzled and wearing an E collar. After a couple weeks of that you can have them supervised loose in the house, both dragging leashes, with Ath muzzled and e-collared. Don’t let your other dog invade Ath’s space. I would start learning about using an e-collar for dog aggressive dogs right now, and once you get to the phase where you are letting them in the house together with Ath muzzled, you can use the collar to correct her if she attacks. Eventually, when months pass with no attacks and you’ve seen the collar work, you can walk them together without the muzzle, then eventually you can have them in the house together without muzzles but with her wearing the e-collar. A trainer’s help is highly recommended throughout the process, but a good one who knows what they’re doing in this situation can and should be expensive. Don’t go for a cheap e-collar either.

 

[notcrosskill]

@the_family_monastery All right, got it, thank you so much for all of the help!