Quarreling

My dogs quarreled today. The trash guys came, and I didn't have a chance to put the dogs inside, so I worked with the dogs and made them sit while the guy got our trash. (The dogs don't bite, but Hero does persist in making dashes at the trash guy and barking, which can be kind of alarming for the poor guy.) As the guy walked away, I grabbed Hero by the collar to stop him from doing his usual pursuit down the driveway, hoping to prevent a lot of barking, since it was early in the morning.

Hero was not pleased about being restrained while the man made off with his trash, and struggled to get away. At that inopportune moment Impulse decided it would be fun to jump up and bite Hero's ear. Suddenly Hero lost his temper, and because he couldn't take it out on his human, he took it out on poor Impulse. He broke loose of my hold on the collar and lunged for Impulse, growling and roaring in a very impressive and uncharacteristic fashion. Impulse recognized this as more serious than their usual games, and he rolled on his back instantly, yelping loudly and begging for mercy. Hero stood over him snarling for a moment longer, then listened to my voice telling him to knock it off, and ran off down the driveway to bark at the departing trash truck. Impulse got up and wagged happily at me, unharmed and unfrightened.

My boys have never quarreled like this, but I've seen similar behavior in other dogs before, so I wasn't really upset or concerned by it. The neighbor's dog got a new and exciting toy a few months ago (a Wubba Kong, which seems to be the Best Dog Toy Ever), and when all our dogs were playing together, another neighbor's dog decided the toy should belong to him, and that he didn't want to share it. He lunged at the first dog and gave that same growling, roaring noise that made all the other dogs drop to the ground and say, "Okay, you're the boss, take the toy!" But as loud and dramatic as it sounded, there was no bloodshed and no real biting involved. It's not really a fight, just a step up from the usual way dogs have of settling things.

I suppose if one dog shows this much aggression, and another dog resents it rather than backing down, you then have a real fight on your hands. But as long as one of them backs down, I'd categorize this as quarreling rather than real fighting.