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[Syndic]

I have trained a bunch of war dogs, and assigned them to a pen/pasture zone at my entrance to catch any annoying kobolds that might try to sneak in... but the dogs keep spamming me with combat reports. And dropping body parts. One poor dog is running around without its nose now 

The reason seems to be that they don't spread out over the full 10x10 area of the pen, but rather bunch up wherever they're closest to the animal trainer who trained them (we all know how trained animals love to follow their trainer around, but this is kind of annoying) and then they fight each other because they feel cramped.

Is there any way to prevent this behaviour without going all micro-management and assigning every dog separately to a tiny pen/pasture zone? 

[StagnantSoul]

Assign them to a larger pasture and get the trainer out of there.

[Syndic]

they re-bunch-up any time the trainer walks through the area, it seems... so I'll just have to forbid my animal trainer from doing stuff that might take him past the entrance-pen, huh... 

[FantasticDorf]

It might be wiser to rely on traps instead rather than have dogs cluttering up your entrance, for instance a dog on a restraint still can attack units within its radius so you could design the traps so that dodging out of them will land you into another trap OR jump into the war-dogs attack radius and bait for attackers to walk into traps in the first place.

Other traps like pressure plate/lever activated war dog cage releases would also serve the purpose without the clutter.

[Syndic]

I do have traps, anyone trying to get to the dogs has to navigate those first - only cage traps right now though, since I'm a bit wary about weapon damage crashing my game (or is that only with trap components and not with actual weapons in weapon traps?)

But I like to have a bunch of war animals after the traps because sneaky kobolds don't get caught by traps... and also, because I'm always paranoid about maybe someday too many invaders coming and overwhelming my traps, so I want a second line of defense before my actual dorfs ^^

[PatrikLundell]

I believe it's been confirmed that anything breaking in weapon traps break the game. I've also heard that breaking ballista arrows can break the game as well.

[anewaname]

Just a couple of dogs is enough to notice the kobolds, so you could replace your pasture with dogs on restraints.

Then to serve as the second line of defense, have a nearby room with a door or floorhatch. Pasture all the dogs inside. This should stop "nearby animal trainer" issues) by blocking line of sight and if there are other dogs still running in and out, lock the door. When you have a problem and want to release them, 'z'one, 'a'ctive to deactivate the zone. The dogs will head for a meeting area or for dogs/dwarfs, and get into the fight. When the problem is over, reactivate the zone and the remaining dogs will be hauled back.

[Syndic]

A werebeast (which is trapavoid) visit has convinced me of the value of more than just traps as defense^^

However, it seems "nearby" isn't even relevant for the animal trainer - the dogs just bunch up at the exit nearest the animal trainer (or the meeting room, actually not sure which one they're going for) even if the animal trainer is kept busy in the deepest depths of the fortress >_>

I think I'll go for anewaname's suggestion (thanks!) - I'm thinking a locked floor hatch between the dogs and the entrance, with a few chained dogs for detection.

[scourge728]

a bunch of 1 x 1 pastures, each with one war dog