Aggressive beagle?

[MSU Dawg]

I have a male beagle pup who is very alpha. In case anyone is wondering, yes, this is my barker I asked y'all's opinion on before! Anyway, "Trouble" (& boy is he aptly named!) has taken to beating up on my other male beagle. My husband is really having a hissy about it. I say they're not hurting each other, let 'em duke it out & establish a pecking order. What do y'all think?

[Stump Jumper]

I would let them establish there own pecking order as long as neither is really getting hurt. If it's a persistant problem I would put a stomping on the bully dog he would not soon forget.

[sgc]

Just I thought. I saw this work once before. You could try a Tritronics bark collar. A little pricey at $99, but it would at least stop your bark problem; But, the other thing it does is give the other male an advantage in a tussle, because as the alpha male is growling or barking & fighting, he's also getting shocked. He would soon back down & quit fighting & barking. Don't know if it works in all situations.

[Gbeagle]

I'm in agreement with Stump . Let them establish there pecking order, but at the same time you must establish that you are the ONLY TRUE ALPHA in the pack or this could cause problems down the road when you run your dogs with others than your own .

[run'em ragged]

I've read that sometimes we help to continue these dominance squabbles by repremanding the alpha dog. Because we are the pack leader we confuse them when we punish the next in line when he is trying to establish his spot in the pecking order. This sends the message that he is not the next top dog but should be submissive to the lower male. To send the right message if there is a squabble grab the lesser dog by the scruff of the neck and put him down while holding back the alpha male. Although it might seem cruel to put down the dog being beat up, it will help them understand what you think the pecking order should be. Also make sure that when feeding the dogs you continue to establish this hierachy by giving the alpha male his food first. Take it or leave it, might be to psychological for some people but seems to make some sense to me.
Ragged

[Hunter]

Be careful if you let them duke it out. I let a couple of females do this one time and ended up with a emergency vet run and bill. He told me she would have died if I had not called him. Wound did not look bad but, it punctured a artery. Just a word of warning, Paul

[APFII]

Personally , The overly aggresive dog would be gone . Will not put up with it in coonhounds or beagles.

[Bev]

GBeagle and Run-em ragged are exactly right. You must first establish that you are Alpha Supreme, then let the dogs sort themselves out (short of letting one kill the other, lol). You will indeed confuse and cause more harm than good if you try to determine who gets to be alpha in your kennel. Dogs (especially pack dogs) have a very strong, instinctive social order. A dog must know his standing in the pack - even if he is the lowest dog on the totem pole (the Omega) he is happier knowing it than not knowing. Not having his place established will make him feel insecure.

Now, in the case of this dog being a pup, he's probably going thru the first stage of "physical sexual maturity" and the testosterone is showing, and he may be more dominant than your other beagle, but he may not necessarily be a true "alpha". (there are varying degrees of dominance and subdominance, and alpha's are determined at birth - it's a physiological thing) You will know sometime between the age of 2-1/2 to 3 years old if he's truly an alpha or just a more dominant dog. That's the age at which males reach their "social sexual maturity." Anyone who has had to seperate 3-year-old littermate brothers, after having kenneled them together up to that point with no problem, can testify, lol.

[MSU Dawg]

Thanks for all the info guys.

Trouble once ran off w/ a sock. When I tried to take it from him he growled & snapped at me. I beat the black off his a** for that & haven't had a problem w/ him since. In fact, if they are fighting, all I have to do is raise my voice & Trouble will stop. That being the case I think he sees me as an alpha, but IMO he & Rogan - both of whom are just hitting puberty - are trying to figure out who is the "top dog."

Another thing - while we were out on a walk my husband knelt down & Trouble ran over, hiked his leg & peed on my husband!! Not just a few squirts either - I mean he just took a whiz on him! Trouble also pees in his water & food when you 1st put it down. Then he eats it. (Yuck!)

I got beagles b/c I thought they were dogs that could live well together. After 10 years in pit bulls I am plumb tired of dogfights. Please tell me this aggression won't be an ongoing issue!!

Thanks again!