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Originally Posted by Mom2Sadie  I have a nine month old dog and I just took in a 1.5 year old foster. The younger one is female, the foster is male, both are fixed. How long are they going to play fight and work out their dominance issues? Do I just let them go at it? Help! |
Generally speaking, male-female pairs do not develop the dominance issues that are seen between dogs of the same sex. In fact, the relationships within mixed pairs can be both complex and dynamic. Rather then try to figure it out - which you probably won't be able to do anyway in most cases - just keep an eye on things and don't intervene unnecessarily
The play-fighting that you are seeing is very common. If your dogs are
significantly mismatched as to size, you may occasionally have to step in if the smaller one is in actual danger. But even in those cases, the pair usually works it out between them a lot better than you can.
For another example, one of the pair may become the "toy magnet" - ending up with all or almost all the toys. Don't make an issue over this - it really doesn't bother the other dog when it happens. However, the toyless one doesn't have anything to do and may start playing with things you don't want to be played with. Obviously, the "magnet" won't be using all the toys at the same time - and is probably less interested in some of them. So - without a lot of fuss - take back one or two of the less interesting toys and give it to the other one so he or she has something to do. Expect the "magnet" to get them back eventually, though.
