How do you keep the dogs from fighting?

About once every 6 months, my dogs just really go after each other.

Well, today it was serious.

Pippi's top canine tooth somehow got caught and by the time the fight was over it was stuck straight out from her head.

She's having surgery tomorrow to have it removed. I suspect that the upper jaw got broken a little too, because the tooth wasn't loose at all, it just stuck straight out. :o

I don't want this to ever happen again, so how can we avoid it? Or if a fight is going on, how can we stop it? :shrug:

(PS It bled, but not HALF as much as one would expect. :o )

A toy? Food? Territory?

:shrug:

So do you make them both sit before the get a cookie?
If not you should they need to earn their cookie.
Also, I would suggest picking a specific spot for each of them (not next to each other) and that is the only place they are allowed to get a cookie.

If there is a pecking order...the most senior in the pack gets the cookie first....

It will work out, they will just have to learn they can't have a cookie anytime they want and any where they want! You will have to train yourself to be Alpha in the pack....they follow your rules.

they do not fight over which one of them is the boss.

Not sure if this makes sense to you....

They have a ritual at their food bowls and if one tries to do something different they start fighting. When they were puppies (6 years ago) they were fighting outside and I had to turn the hose on them to break them up.

Now, I just yell at them and they stop. I never yell at them, so they get startled by it. Thankfully, it is very infrequent. If you can figure out what starts it, maybe you can find a way to prevent it. Good luck!

...two of whom sometimes get bristly with each other (the third is a sweet omega). When the girls come into season, all havoc breaks loose. Nothing to do except keep them separated, feed them in separate rooms, let them out separately, rotate them among resting places and crates at night. In ordinary times, I'm still careful to keep the contentious ones apart during feeding or when handing out treats. They get especially possessive of chew bones. One guy will bark and growl if another dog even looks at him when he's anywhere near food. So I just try to do as much prevention as possible.

One tool that's really useful is a shaker can - an empty pop can with some pennies inside, and the opening taped over. If the dogs start making too much commotion among themselves, I shake the can at them, which they don't like, and it settles them down. Also great for getting their attention when they're starting to chew on the couch!

Outdoors, I've found that they don't really argue, because there's enough space for everyone to keep their distance if they wish. It's just indoors that I have to anticipate potential problems.

For all that, arguments are fairly rare, and they're all lying peacefully together by the back door in the sun at the moment. :)