Well, it’s a new year. 2017! We haven’t kept up with our blog, but we’re going to try again! This morning wasn’t a great morning for us. Candy was her typical self. She turned up her nose at her food, but Nigel and Dottie gobbled theirs down. We never know how Flower is going to react to her food, and this morning, she sat and guarded it for quite a while. I honestly don’t know what happened next. I thought Candy was still guarding her food in the dining room, but suddenly, fur was flying. The female shih tzus all seemed to be gathered around Flower’s half-eaten dog food. Candy and Dottie were clamped onto each other’s faces, and Flower barked, going back and forth between the two of them. I ran toward them, shouting to stop, but the harder I tried to pull them away from each other, the more they terrorized each other. I finally picked Candy up and dumped her a few feet away, but she was back in a flash, once again clamping her teeth on Dottie’s face, while Dottie bit back, and Flower continued her wild dance.

Candy after dog fight.

My biggest concern was that Dottie was just getting over an eye infection, with her final vet appointment coming up tomorrow, and that this would set her back. When I finally got Candy shut up in the bathroom, I checked Dottie’s face. I saw blood, but I couldn’t tell if it was her’s. As I dabbed around her eye, it didn’t seem like it was her blood, so I put her in a dog bed and went to get Candy. She, too, had blood on her face. A closer look revealed a not-so-pretty cut below her eye. I cleaned it with eyewash several times and blotted the blood. Then, I went to look for Flower. She didn’t seem to have been harmed. Who knows where Nigel was during the melee!

It’s hours later, and everything is calm. I still don’t know what happened. I do know that Candy seems to be a little aggressive lately, especially when she is next to me on the couch and one of the other dogs approaches. I have a few questions for anyway who has had this experience. How do you keep these dog fights from happening? Once they do, what’s the best way to separate three female shih tzus that are eating each other’s faces?