when someone comes to the door.

I have two beagles, both bitches. One is nearly 4 and the other is just 18 months old. We have only just recently got the 18 month old from dogs trust. There has been some fighting over food but I have managed to sort that problem out and now they can eat together without taking the faces off of each other. Ditto with toys, I took all the toys away initially and introduced the odd one over a period of time and now they can play with toys most of the time without it turning into a fight. The problem I have now is that when someone comes to the door they go mental and attack each other. I think they are fighting to get to the door first. I can't predict when someone is going to come to the door, so how do I stop their aggression? Any advice gratefully received. When they are not fighting they are great together. They sleep together in the kitchen at night and they like to cuddle up together on the sofa during the day. They are only aggressive with each other, they have never been aggressive towards people.

Two words: hard work.

First train them on a key word (so say clam or quiet) and get them to sit/lay/stand in the way you would want them to be when greeting visitors (for mine its sitting on the stairs, waiting to be greeted, rather than taking the lead on greeting). once they react appropriatley to the word, you need to Link it to the door, get someone to knock, then use the word and do not open the door until they react the way you want them to, make sure you reward them when they are calm then rinse and repeat. Over and over. Positive reinforcement and time. Remember they may get it one day and the next forget it completley! ,

Thanks for that. I will give that a go. Will let you know how I get on. May take a while lol

Mine do this too, as soon as the doorbell goes they get picky with each other as they think they all should be first to race to the door to see who it is. I use the word 'in' and they reluctantly pile into the lounge still picking at each other and I close them in their until Ive dealt with the visitor. One jumps up at the lounge door and I dont open it until she stops. Occasionally I have to tell her to 'get down' and when theyre calmer I open the lounge door, I then praise them for being good girls and then its soon forgotten. Over the years this has worked really well. Doesnt stop them hurling themselves onto the visitor if its someone they know. 5 beagle bitches can be a lot on your lap. lol

This is what I have been doing too, but my lounge door is glass so they can still see there is someone at the door and they just go wild at each other. One of my dogs has learned how to pull down the handle of my doors to get out!! The younger beagle was only in my house a few days and worked out how to open my oven door!! Pair of scallywags lol. I started on the door training half an hour ago and they were doing everything they were supposed to but I think they knew if was my husband at the front door so they were on their best behaviour. I know they can sit and stay when they want to so I will just keep on with the 'someone at the door' and hopefully eventually they will be better behaved when a 'real' person rings the doorbell.

Lol. Yes they will play you but the more practice you do, the more likely they are to behave when you want them to. But remember not to reprimand them if they don't do it right, as that won't help mattered, especially when there's two of them, they'll most likely take it out on each other.

When Bazaar1 says 'Over and Over' she means it! This training is going to be on-going and repeated. Many short sessions a day, every day.

Two evenly matched bitches will fight to the death. It isn't like dogs where it is almost always all 'fur and handbags' or male/female which is usually some-one forgot their manners. Bitches mean it. I've know two people who have had ongoing fighting between their bitches lead to the death of one of them.

You've done fantastic already with the food and toys & stopped it from escalating so I'm sure you'll crack this

I have read this thread a couple of times and am still mulling over and thinking about it. The question is - why do two dogs who are otherwise friendly with each other - get aggressive when there is someone at the door? It doesn't make sense.

Unless....and only a muzzy thought - they are both responding to the perceived threat to their owner and home - and that is the heart of the conflict.

Most dogs will respond to an unexpected visitor. They are defending their people and territory. Reassurance and human leadership usually sorts that out.

But here you have two dogs - both fighting for domination in who is going to be most protective.

I am seriously writing as I am thinking here - and probably wrong. But it might be that - after you - the two dogs are competing for who is next in the pack. I have no idea if this might help - but perhaps thanking and rewarding the older dog for the warning - and ignoring the younger - might just help. The new dog might relax, knowing that there are others who will confront any threat.

I only have the one dog now - but have had severe problems with barking and warning signals if anyone comes to the door. The last few months I have stopped shouting at him for quiet and instead thanked and reassured him and immediately moved to respond to any visitor - and he is much calmer now.

With two bitches one always wants to be top dog, so to speak. A bitch fight is really difficult to break up if they really get into it.

Tbh I can see where you thoughts are going but yes, in all likelyhood you are wrong. Dogs do not follow pack structures and do not see us as the leader. That has been completely disproved.

The reason you dog is calmer now, IS because you've stopped shouting at him, not because you've started thanking him. Think about it from his point of view. He's at home, with his family then someone unknown approaches (or at least he doesn't know who it is straight away) so he goes on guard, his human starts giving off stress signals, so he starts to get more worried, who is at the door who upsets his human so much, they must be bad, then his human starts shouting, so it must mean its REALLY bad, so he goes on even more of a defensive. Quite simple when you look at it like that. Your now clam behaviour tells him it's ok and he doesn't need to wind his activity up to breaking point.

As for the op, I suspect the girls are fighting because they are building stress up and they only have each other to take it on, as the intruder is still behind the door. They are also picking up on the ops attempted break it up and that's stressing them more. In human terms its being nervous about some thing and snapping at the person that asks if you are ok. But in the dogs cases, they are both nervous and snap at each other.

Totally agree. My female dobe used to let rip at the old boy collie. She was vicious! Soft as a lamb 99% of the time but when he pissed her off (usually by walking past her ) she was a nightmare. There was no way we could break it up. It was distraction 100% of the time, and that wasn't always guaranteed to work

You could try installing your lounge door handle upside down so you have to pull it up to open it, its far harder to open that way than it is for a dog to jump at the handle.

Someone came to the door earlier and the older dog was good and sat in the livingroom but the younger one was determined to have a go at her. So, until I can get it sorted out I will just put them into separate rooms when someone knocks the door. Less stress for me and the dogs I think. I got my husband to knock the door this morning after getting them to practice sit/stay and they weren't too bad but I think they know when it's the real thing and when they are being tricked but I will keep at it.

It's still very early in the training, and it sounds like you are making headway. I would resit making any changes (such as separate rooms) straight away, as it will confuse them, and I presume it's not a manageable solution, what happens when they come back together, how will you seperate them in the first place etc. you much better to keep trying to tackle the problem head on, with the positive reinforcement. But like I said it will take time, especially with the younger one who has no idea when you expect from her (the older one I presume was better behaved before the younger arrived). If you praise the older one when she's calm the younger one will get the message quickly. They are smart dogs, make sure you reward with food (a special treat they only get whilst doing this training is an added incentive) and try a clicker if that's easier.

thanks Bazaar1 . I do have a clicker already so might be worth using that with the treats. I used the clicker with my older dog when she was a puppy but then went onto just commands with treats. She isn't totally well behaved (what beagle is lol) but she definitely knows I am the boss. The younger one obviously hasn't worked that out yet A case of onwards and hopefully upwards ...........

Clicker training is brilliant for 'operant conditioning' - a behaviour and its consequence becomes synonymous in the conditionee's mind to the point the behaviour becomes automatic in response to a cue - such as sitting in their bed when someone knocks the door And this is what you want to achieve here - ultimately they will know what behaviour to display given the cue (door knock) not just to get the treat (essential during training) but because it is now an automatic response.

The only thing with the clicker - when training one make sure the other is out of earshot. EVERY click should be rewarded - even the one when you test to see if the clicker you found down the back of the sofa still works

Sincerely - thank you for this. I guess I am very behind the times - because I didn't realise that the idea of a dog pack structure had been totally disproven. Or that in a human family - a human not a dog should be the leader.

I do realise with all humility that after 45 years of sharing my life with dogs, I am still learning. Most recently - I found Jan Fennell's ideas so helpful -and wish I had come across them before. I know that I now have a family with much happier and relaxed animals

But hey - she may already be out of date. I guess I need to catch up on my reading for the next theory.

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I think the theories will continually change, but as long as you remember to treat the dog with respect you'll be fine! The pack theory thing was dismissed largely because dogs know we are not 'dog' and therefore do not include us in thier social organisation, just as we know they are not human and don't include them in ours ( with the exception of the ones that seem to think making them into babies is ok!). Boundaries are good, and important, but rather than informing them with aggression or negative reinforcement, positive is the way to go (as you've found with your own dogs) there are some situations where a negative response is needed, ie where the dog is danger (running out in front of a car etc) but these are rare, and you'll know the as you'll just react, not think about it!