I have three dogs and I can say that they get along very well 99% of the time they are together (which is technically most of the time).
Sometimes they start a fight out of the simplest thing that might tick them off one time and it might not tick them off the other, so I did a little research and concluded that the ideas that I was considering to be the problem were mostly it, the triggers for that reaction are described here and they make sense.
My question is:
How should I react to this? I figure it's a bit normal that we as humans tend to tense up when your best friends all of the sudden lash-out at each other... My usual reaction was to yell at them to get their attention and carefully break it up withing being accidentally bit or what not.
They've never made themselves bleed or anything that rough, but I don't know if I should continue to yell and break it up or let them handle the dispute as long as it doesn't get too violent? ...And please don't take me wrong, I do not condone any sort of dog fighting or anything like that, but I'm realistic about the fact that they are still animals (as much as we love them) and I might be getting in the way of something that comes natural to them?
Let me specify that they do this 1% of the time so it's been probably 2, 3 occasions in a 2 to 3 year span, and as soon as I break them up I don't separate them into different rooms or anything like that, I just standby ready to see if they still feel aggressive against each other but it's usually the other way around, they'll be licking each other's scuffle wounds.
Just as a final note for what it's worth, they don't always lay down in the same place, we leave the doors open around the house so sometimes one is in another room; so I guess what I'm saying is that it's optional to them if they want to be together (they usually are).