my 2 dogs randomly fight

4003 Views 11 Replies 8 Participants Last post by poodleholic, Jul 21, 2009

grozenblat

Discussion Starter · Jul 20, 2009

Hello everyone, my name is Sarah, I am new here and a first-time dog owner (well second time now)

I have 2 dogs, female mixed pekingese, one of them is 2 years old, and the other one 8months. they usually get along really well, they play, run, and lick each other all the time. but sometimes, randomly they get into BRAWLS.. and we have to separate them. Why do they do this? is there a way to stop them from doing it? is it jealousy?

the first time it happened was when the little one had her first period.

any help would be appreciated.

thanks a lot!

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zhaor

· #2 · Jul 20, 2009

Do they actually hurt each other?

I'd think it might just be a dominance thing. My friend has two corgis (littermates) the smaller female is the dominant one and would "fight" her big brother a couple times a day. Looks fierce but no actual damage. She's a feisty little girl

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kiihara

· #3 · Jul 20, 2009

Two questions first .... are the both of them females? And obviously one is unaltered but is the other one fixed? Alot of times when you have more than one dog, more so when they are the same sex, they will try and form a "pecking order" if you will. Simply put dogs are pack animals ... you are their leader ... well tthey aren't going to change that but, they will try and establish who has dominance over the other. It is a natural thing, although scary .... and if it seems to get out of hand by all means SEPERATE them. I don't want them to be hurt ... but i HIGHLY recommend fixing both of them, this will lessen the need to fight for a place in the pack. Also try when they are together and not fighting ... gives treats and praise, positive reinforcement that you want peace between them. Sorry i can't tell you more and hope i helped!! Luck w/ your pooches!!

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BoxMeIn21

· #4 · Jul 20, 2009

Unfortunately this is a risk you take when you have two females co-existing. They will be fine growing up together and then one day, usually when the younger one starts to hit maturity, and bam they will begin fighting. The bad part about this scenario is when bitches start to fight it's VERY hard to get them to stop without the help of a professional. These fights are not to establish pecking order, they are actually fighting to rid the other bitch from the pack, ie fights to the death. If you continue to allow them to fight it's only going to get worse. You need to be aware that they may never get along and be prepared to either rearrange your house so they can live seperately or deal with the heart break of having to rehome one of them.
I would recommend you look into getting a behaviorist asap and spaying both of them.
Here's an article on bitch fighting.

http://www.caberfeidh.com/Fight.htm

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emily445455

· #5 · Jul 20, 2009

Was it real fighting or just rough play? My two girls play rough, really rough! They draw blood all the time. There is a lot of growling, barking, biting....but it's not fighting.

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grozenblat

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jul 20, 2009

they fight for real i am guessing, they charge at each other and jump and bark and bite, and the saliva foams out everythig.. it gets pretty ugly

they are NOT spayed yet but they will be soon, maybe that will help ?

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BoxMeIn21

· #7 · Jul 20, 2009

grozenblat said:
they fight for real i am guessing, they charge at each other and jump and bark and bite, and the saliva foams out everythig.. it gets pretty ugly

they are NOT spayed yet but they will be soon, maybe that will help ?

It might help, but you really need to get a professional in to help the situation. It's not going to go away on it's own.

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kiihara

· #8 · Jul 20, 2009

BoxMeIn21 said:
Unfortunately this is a risk you take when you have two females co-existing. They will be fine growing up together and then one day, usually when the younger one starts to hit maturity, and bam they will begin fighting. The bad part about this scenario is when bitches start to fight it's VERY hard to get them to stop without the help of a professional. These fights are not to establish pecking order, they are actually fighting to rid the other bitch from the pack, ie fights to the death. If you continue to allow them to fight it's only going to get worse. You need to be aware that they may never get along and be prepared to either rearrange your house so they can live seperately or deal with the heart break of having to rehome one of them.
I would recommend you look into getting a behaviorist asap and spaying both of them.

This could be the case, however this does not cover all dogs .... every dog is different, as is each case. I have heard of females not being able to be housed with females. Period. But, my father, before he passed, breed a working line of neo's. (please don't rip away at me lol he promoted, bettered, and loved this breed, was closley involved in rescues, and had contracts on each puppy, spay/neuter , ever ANY prob it comes back to us... NEVER to a shelter. By no means a byb .... that being said....) Anywayz the point is we had like 4 intact females living together at ALL times. And I currently have in my house right now a female shih tzu and 3 females pit bulls, .... other than the occasonal "you're not going to push me around" snarl i have never seen a fight to the death senerio, not saying its not possible, or it doesn't happen, i'm just saying its more than likely a fixable problem. If you feel it's serious and i mean you're the only one out of anyone that actually SEES whats going on, call in a professional trainer and have the situation evaluated. I also wouldn't leave them alone together, unless you can moniter them. I'm not trying to say what i think is totally right, i just don't want you to jump right into "my dogs can never be together and i have to get rid of one." I just have to much personal experience that this may not be the case.. once again ... i wish you all the luck in the world

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alphadoginthehouse

· #9 · Jul 20, 2009

I had two females for over 13 yrs and I can honestly not remember them getting into fights, ever. Oh, a little scuffle if one intruded when chewies were involved but never a fight. Lucy was the submissive, but that's not to say she was a woos. After I got Misha, the two of them got into it several times, and I mean NASTY. But Tinker and Lucy, NEVER. So two bitches can live together without fighting.

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zimandtakandgrrandmimi

· #10 · Jul 20, 2009

there's this thing dogs do sometimes.

the pros call it "resource guarding"

Do you leave toys out? or food bowls? Do you pay more attention to one dog over the other?

stuff like toys, food, affection..even a particular spot to lay down.....those are all resources. Some times dogs fight over them.

so is there anything they might be fighting over?

id take a peek at the NILIF sticky in the training forum. its excellent for situations like this. I'd also not leave them alone together.

and call a pro.

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BoxMeIn21

· #11 · Jul 20, 2009 (Edited)

kiihara said:
I'm not trying to say what i think is totally right, i just don't want you to jump right into "my dogs can never be together and i have to get rid of one." I just have to much personal experience that this may not be the case.. once again ... i wish you all the luck in the world

And I never said that - but the OP needs a professional come in and evaluate the situation. Of course I agree that every dog is an individual. I know many homes with multiple females who have never had a problem. But I also know that more times than not, when bitches start to fight, it's very hard to get them to stop.
Unfortunately I have had experience with this very thing...I had two AB sisters, who grew up together just fine, when they hit two they began fighting. It wasn't until one of my girls ended up in the hospital for the third time that my vet recommended a behaviorist. Unfortunately we learned that they would never tolerate each other and had to rehome one of them.

SO again the moral to my story is that the OP needs to get a professional.

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poodleholic

· #12 · Jul 21, 2009

And I never said that - but the OP needs a professional come in and evaluate the situation. Of course I agree that every dog is an individual. I know many homes with multiple females who have never had a problem. But I also know that more times than not, when bitches start to fight, it's very hard to get them to stop.

Absolutely. And, each time they DO fight, that behavior is being reinforced, and will become harder to change (if even possible).

When I decided to get a female puppy, I was somewhat concerned about how Maddy would take it. She's 8 yrs. old, and has been with me since 9 wks. of age. We are very, very close. I didn't let Lucia bug Maddy a lot, the way puppies are apt to do, and made sure that really, really good things happened whenever that puppy was around. So far, so good. I do notice a lot of appeasement licking on the part of Lucia, which Maddy appears to enjoy!

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