12/27/2025
💜 Social Dominance 💜
*Neither dog was injured, the dogs were separated immediately when the camera cuts off*
I captured this interesting moment and thought it would make a good educational video. What we're seeing may look like chaos at first but when you truly observe the communication is pretty clear.
This is not a 'dog aggression' situation. I do believe there are dogs genetically designed to view other dogs as prey or have a true instinct to kill other dogs but that's not what we're looking at. In my experience, a majority of dog fights are caused by dogs that are not properly socialized with other dogs and become defensive and afraid when they receive a social "correction." Without context on how to respond, they flip a social communication into a true 'fight for their life' even if the situation didn't start that way. Lots of fights start over resources like food, people and territory, but again, not what is occurring here.
What I believe is going on with this American Bulldog is a genetic trait that has "flipped on" during his sexual maturity (usually around 18.months - 2 years). It's not uncommon for dogs that have been very social as a puppy to have an abrupt change in personality around this age, especially in strong, conflict driven breeds.
My dog Arie is very confident around other dogs and has had a lot of experience controlling chaos. I've never seen her show excessive aggression or lose her composure to the point where she wouldn't listen to me, so I trusted her in this situation. A dog that had any less clarity could have easily flipped into a red zone and began a true fight. Luckily Arwen trusted me enough to come to me when I called her off and I was able to safely separate them before a real fight occured.
The bulldog is only showing this dominance behavior to other dogs, not his humans which is a good thing! However I don't believe it's safe to "correct" him or try to rely on training to "fix" such obvious and strong instinctual behavior. I recommended daily training to reinforce his bond with his people but ultimately believe his instincts will inevitably overrule training at some point, so separation is the safest option...
