#i also believe if i hadn't necessarily intervened to get them inside they would've been okay and walked away

[darkwood-sleddog]

This is a genuine question not a criticism, but why don't slash and sigurd get along? Is it just a personality miss match or something that dogs just do sometimes?

So I'm not really sure exactly why, but to be VERY clear they only have this issue in the dining/living room area of the house and sometimes the deck (where they were when I noticed they were outside together). They are perfectly fine together in the mudroom, outside with supervision. They play in the yard together and are very friendly towards each other 99.5% of the time. Their original incident also occurred while Slash was in a fear period and I do think this affected their relationship and Slash's perception of Sigurd.

Malamutes, like many primitive dog breeds, can have Same Sex Selective Behaviors, but I'm not exactly certain that this is entirely to blame for their behavior either. They both attend supervised doggy daycares where they are great with other males and as described are fine with each other in many other scenarios. Malamutes also enjoy fighting and their play styles can be very...rough.

My behaviorist believes Slash's aversion (and believe me when I say Slash instigates each time) is fear based because inside or in smaller confined areas he feels (even if it is not true) that he cannot get away from Sigurd if he is uncomfortable and he feels the need to confront Sigurd. Sigurd, being an overly confident asshole dog is 100% going to defend himself, thus conflict in some instances (remember though, dogs generally try to avoid conflict if they can).

Sigurd makes Slash uncomfortable because Sigurd doesn't display body language inside in the same way Slash & Zombie do (he escalates quickly, is generally rude) which makes it difficult for Slash to read him even if everything Sigurd is doing in that moment is playful/positive. Sigurd displays his body language very differently outside as well. Since Slash is not the most self confident dog, again insecurity and fear are how he reacts to this 'unknown'.

I do think a part of this is resource related. Slash tends to guard areas where he feels safe (like under the table, or in their original incident a spot on the bed, or the second incident something they were sniffing while tangled in harness...so restrained in a way neither got to act naturally) and can be pretty guarded with objects, the thing is Zombie respects this...while Sigurd does not.

Luckily this is not my first rodeo. Literally all of my dogs have had similar squabbles with each other (Sigurd & Zombie used to be so terrible to the point I worried we'd need to return Zombie to our breeder but that clearly was not the case and they get along wonderfully now with zero incidents in almost three years.), but it is the first time in a long time that I've had to break up a fight by myself and the difficult thing is I very carefully monitor the boys so they DON'T have these kinds of interactions since Slash is so sensitive about all this and we've been working very hard to counter condition him to think Sigurd = positive, so this sets us back a bit in that area. It's much harder to break up the boys just because of their sheer size and strength.