i have 2 staffys male and female (male has been neutered), ive had them them now for nearly 4 yrs and now they dont seem to get on any more if they are put together all they do is fight resultinh in minor injuries (up to now).so i decided to try putting them together with muzzles on at first they had a spat but after 3wks they started to get on again.
Then one day while my chilldren were out playing whilst dogs were out to (muzzled) the dogs started to fight agian resulting in dogs biting their tongues and children really scared. Im at my wits end what can i do please help. Sorry its so long but i really cant cope with this any more thanks.

what are you feeding them? high protein foods are known to encourage such behaviour in breeds such as staffies

they have always had the same food weebox sausage meat mixed with wag compleat

that sounds like a recipe for disaster :D

we have never had problems befor and our vet has always been happy with thier apperance i.e coat, weight ect.
could you explain more why you think what i feed them is a problem please

find out (if you can) what the protein content of all that is. Previously they've been pups, which is usually a good excuse to get along

A feed of 18% protein or less usually has a good calming effect on this breed

There will be other things you can do too, but having seen first hand the effects feed can have on staffies, I'd make that a start point to make any other measures (training/psychology etc) easier to implement

ow i never knew that food affects tepriment, is there any food that you could recomend that would help im willing to try anything as this really is the last straw for my kids sake more than mine thanks

I believe Supadog is a relatively low protein food (I think it's either 18% or 21%) and I feed my dals Burns as it is only 16% protein and low protein is recommended for dalmatians.

It's generally perceived that wet foods are higher in protein than dry foods but that's not always the case... there's a way of working it out (because the readings on wet food packets will always be different to dry foods because you need to look at the dry matter or something like that).

So I'd usually say don't feed the wet food but if they're used to having the sausage you could still feed wet food if you could find one with a decent low protein level (I know Burns have started a wet food which I'd assume to be low protein as their dry food is) but you may just be better off trying them on completely dry to begin with (you can try wetting it with water, meat stock - not gravy as the salt level is very high).

Hope that helps :)

thanks lotti ill try that

we feed our staffy raw meat, we currently buy natures menu which has veg etc in it from pets@home freezers, ruby has only been eating raw meat 3 weeks and the difference has been unbelieveable. Everyone who has been here have commented on how much calmer she has been, she had a really itchy, scurffy coat, we were using shampoo from the vets that took the edge off it but it didnt clear up, that has gone and we have been able to stop using the shampoo - shes a different dog!! She still gets giddy moments, but nothing to the degree that she did before, she seems much happier and more contented. Definately recommend the change!!

If they are fighting for dominance - then I am sure that there is a school of thought, that says - correct me if i'm wrong someone please, i'm not sure about this - that 1 dog has to be dominant in the house. If they can't settle it amongst themselves then you have to decide, I think its based around primarily, 1 dog gets its bowl of food first, fussed first, etc etc, I'm not saying leave the other one hanging, but put down 1 dogs bowl on the floor first, then put the the other, not at the same time - does that make any sense?

hi eeejay174, thanks for the advice i think it is a domiancy situation we feed dogs in seperate roomsas for the past couple of months maybe longer we havent been able to put them together at all without thier muzzles