My Girls are Fighting!
 

Hi, need some advice. My 2 breeding girls are fighting!!! This is the 2nd serious fight they have had. Marnie 4years old and top dog with me from birth, who is fighting with Maisey, 2 years old been with me 6 months. I notice that Maisey is always starring at Marnie, tail up, ears pricked, barking at her to go outside. They play when they go out, but the other day it got very serious. Maisey always get a bit tempermental when she is in season (already mated) and im wondering if this has anything to do with it. Marne has 8 week old pups and Maisey is fantastic with them. Thanks

the only advice i have is since they are both not spayed...that you keep a good watch on them...it gets very nasty...and could cause 1 of them their life...i seen it first hand...and its very sad...i noticed that it is usually when one is in heat...i guess the whole pmsing and b**** word fits them perfectly...please keep us updated!

If you get some good advice into this and it works let me know.
I know there is something to this Alpha dog thing, but I have not been able to conquer it myself.
If I put out treats for everyone then they hide them rather then eat them. This will trigger aggression if you get to close to a claimed treat by a more aggressive dog .
My 2 yr old female went into heat in October and she became more aggressive after this. Now she is more aggressive towards the smaller dogs and not all of them. There is no rhyme nor reason for the aggressive outburst. I just have to watch them closely.
I have to crate and schedule play time intervals to prevent outburst towards the other dogs. If I get some good advice I'll pass it your way.

I have a 2yr old spayed female who suddenly became vicious to my other female after living peacefully for the first 8 months living together. I was told that it was due to Halle (the younger one) maturing from puppyhood to an adult. The attacks started when Halle was about 8 1/2 months old. She is not spayed and just started her 1st heat cycle last week. Lexie (the 2year old) will still attack Halle given the opportunity, I have no doubt, so we've been keeping them separate for the past 2 months or so & will continue to do so. I believe it may be partly the "female" thing and also partly a jealousy issue about time/attention from me.

I have 3 yorkies and until about a year ago we had no fights. Now it seems to happen quite frequently. Alyssa was my only furbaby for 3 years. She thought her job was to protect mommy and protect our house. Alyssa is now 6 years old. We got Emmy when Alyssa was 4 and she hated her. She ignored her and acted lke she was still the only furbaby. Emmy tried to play with her but she would growl. She wanted nothing to do with her. Then we got Lucy who is just a few months younger than Emmy. Emmy immediately took to Lucy and treats her as her baby. They carry on a mommy-baby relationship. Alyssa is left out. All 3 are spayed. Problems come when Emmy gets close to me. Alyssa can't stand it and will jump on her. Emmy fights back and we have all out war. One vet bill was almost a thousand dollars to get Emmy's eye fixed. I bought a training collar (shock) but do not have the heart to use it. I just try to avoid situations that will lead to a fight between Alyssa and Emmy. I have found that giving Alyssa individual attention does help the fighting. I just have to monitor them when they are out of the gated area.

I have 2 girls who lived together very peacefully for over 2 years. They cannot now ever be together. I do believe they will fight to the death if we were to allow it. We will rehoming our one girl with my daughter as she does very well with her dogs. She is a wonderful pet with anyone but my other female. We have tried several methods and nothing seems to work. We are going to try to introduce them again when neither is in heat or has puppies and see if they can ever just be around each other. Having said that I would never leave them alone ever again. I just would never trust them. I wish there were an easy answer to this. I have heard it before and just don't believe that there is any one fix it to this problem. It is not always just breeding dogs either. Best wishes to you. I know first hand how frustrating and very sad it can be. We love both girls so much. I am blessed in my situation that my daughter can take her.

I was in the same situation as you once, is just terrible to see them fight :(
Sadly my 2 girls never stopped once they started so I end it up rehoming both of them as they both were alpha types.
I was putting a gate after each other until they also started to fight thru the gates , they couldn't have eye contact ....they want it to killed each other. I was so sad over this, I though it would never happen between my girls , I heard about situations like this but you can never belived how bad they fight until you see it with your own eyes.
Now, the first thing that I ask about when bringing a new addition is about temperament, then I go from there.
Hopefully things will get better for you .......their safety now depends on you, don't ever trust them 100% , they can be friends one time , then hate each other right back. Good Luck.

Does anyone have any suggestion that might help this problem before it starts? I have 3 girls and would like to do anything I can to avoid this.

They can fight to death, I would make sure they can NOT get to eachother. I know a lady who lost one of her males when there were females in heat

Divided House
 

To the OP - My Chattie and Chizzie fight. I keep them separated 24/7 365. They ALWAYS have a baby gate between them and they have learned to coexist without fighting through the gate. Chattie lives on one side of the house and Chizzie lives on the other.

It isn't an ideal situation, but it works for us. The funniest thing about it is that Chattie loves Chizzie's pups and Chizzie loves Chattie's pups - when the girls had litters one week apart (NEVER AGAIN), the moms would nurse each other's pups..... Go figure......

I need to edit this - when the pups got old enough to run around and socialize, they would get milk snacks from which ever mom was closest. The kids had free reign of the house by going under the baby gate.

I have alot to add to this and also gain from reading other's posts on this subject because I have three and the two females (one spayed and one not) fought horribly until I realized this was not a game when one of them had a BM while they were locked together. I have been bitten twice on the stomach when they are trying to get at each other and the way they grab on to each other's jaws caused me to practically have a heart attack with the delicate eye right nearby. They are always separated by gates and it is quite a feat to get them out to potty. One female goes in the corral while the other goes out and then it's switch time so the other can go out.

I have one in the living room with panties on and one in the kitchen at all times. The male doesn't mind as he gets variety at play time.

In the bedroom I have a pen for the aggressive female with lots of soft bedding at the foot of my bed and the other two sleep on top of the bed. I try not to feel guilty because the most important thing to me is their safety because they are ALL my kiddos.

I am interested to see what everyone else says too. The comment about the vet bill for the eye scares me because I was sure Cleo's eye was involved until I could separate them to see where they were locked. I even stuck my hand into one's mouth and had to pry the jaw loose from the other girl.

I wish there was some solution. Has anyone done any clicker training, like Victoria Stillwell? They had an episode where there were two dogs in the same house who hated each other and she was able to resolve the issue with clicker training.

:eek:

OMG...I understand completely what you are saying when your girls fight. My girls latch on to each other and will not let go. It is almost impossible for one adult to separate them. I usually grab up Alyssa because she is the one who starts the fights. Emmy can jump up and bite Alyssa in my arms with me trying to keep them apart. I have been bit twice by Emmy and right now in the process of losing two of my nails. If you have not witnessed a fight where they lock on to each others face it would be hard to imagine what actually goes on.

I have gone about 2 weeks now without a fight. Fighting occurs when Emmy gets closer to me and Alyssa gets jealous. Spending individual time with each girl away from the others has helped Alyssa to still feel special. I think Alyssa's problem is that I was her mommy first and she does not want to share me.

Someone suggested rehoming Alyssa where she would be the only furbaby. I love all 3 of my girls and could not part with any of them... I only want them to be able to get along. Hopefully, someone has some info to share on this topic.

I will never again trust my two again together. I love them too much. One time with your back turned is all it takes, that's for sure. I had a behaviorist tell me to rehome one...I just can't do it...no way, but there won't be any casualties in my house if I can help it.

It's good to know I am not the only one

My girls are fighting!
 

Many thanks for all your replies on my girls fighting! At least im not the
only one with this problem, sad to say. At the moment Marnie and Maisey
are sleeping side by side!. Im beginning to think that its ME that they are
fighting over after reading some of your comments. AFter watching Marnie come over to me, Maisey was sat up ears pricked and watching every move, so it could be that. Marnie is top dog, but with a real gentle character, would not hurt a fly, so i have decided that once Maisey has had her litter and the pups have all gone, i am going to rehome her. I think Maisey wants a one-one with someone with no other dogs who can give her 100% attention. When i bought Maisey i asked why they were selling her, and was told that she keeps getting attacked by the other dog,obviously it was the other way round! and ive found out the hard way! She is a sweet dog, lovely temperment but not with Marnie. thanks again for all your replies,and to all who has this problem,think of something seriously happening to one of your dogs,thats why ive decided to find Maisaey a good home. thanks again. x

Well, it seems there is no help for it. I have mulled this over in my mind, and can't see any way around it. I am re-homing Roxy today for this very reason. She was a rescue, and Cricket's younger sister. I got her when she was a year old. She and Cricket got used to each other, and were fine for a while, but when Zaccheus came along, Roxy helped me foster him. Since then, she has been vying for alpha female position, which Cricket has no intention of giving up. I have pulled them apart one too many times. Yesterday Roxy accidentally bit me.
She is a sweet, loving dog, who would not harm anyone purposely, but she cannot stay. I can't do like some of you and keep them separated, and I can't chance one of my kids being bitten.
I have a very good family friend whose dog died last year, and she is so excited to be giving Roxy a good home. Actually, she needs Roxy as much a Roxy needs to be the number one dog, so it is a perfect match.

Rehoming due to fighting
 

I think thats the best thing to do, rehome due to the fighting with Roxy, at least she is going to a loving home, a one-one which is wat im going to do with Maisey when she has had her litter of pups. She is a great mum with Marnie's 9 week old little boy who leaves f or his new home in a few days, and was great and mothered Marnies pups. It will break my heart to let her go, but i cant bear to see them fighting. I go to work partime and they must get on great when im not around. As soon as i walk in the door Maisaey starts barking her head off at Marnie, so its definiatately a power battle for my attention. Will find her a good home, no other dogs and she will get all the love and cuddles she deserves, even though i give the same attenton to all my dogs. Its a very sad situation this.:(:(

<hugs all around> My two are getting really sneaky about attacking each other. One will charge through the gate when you just get it cracked open and this week has been hell. New strategy. Hold one while the other one gets switched to the other room before letting the second one down. One is preggers, but they both want to be queen bee. I truly feel for anyone who has to go through this. :confused:

I had posted in another thread about my girls. I have a Mini Daschund and then there's my Yorkie, Tiffie. This past weekend we had a knock down drag out between the girls. Dutchess (my dauschund) has been spayed. We are contemplating breeding Tiffie so we have not gotten her spaid. She follows Dutchess around, looking at her with her tail out and ears perked up and starts shaking. Dutchess tries to ignore her most of the time but every once and a while, gets fed up with it and comes back at her. Saturday, my daughter came inside from the backyard crying that Tiffie was bleeding and that Dutchess had her by the ear. My fiance and I ran out of the house and he picked up Dutchess. We finally got the two apart and saw that Tiff just had a little scratch on her ear that was bleeding and was limping on her front right leg. I washed her up and immediately got out the crates. From bathing Tiff I could feel the wet spot where Dutchess had her by the neck as did I feel where Tiff had Dutchess as well. Although everyone turned out okl in the end and I hate to be in the position of having to crate my girls but I'd hate to have one kill the other. My mom, who breeds Afghan Hounds, recently had an incident where two of her boys went at eachother and one punctered the others windpipe and he unfortunately did not pull through.

Did you contact the rescue you got her from...many of them require that you give the dog back if it does not work out. I am assuming that all of your dogs are neutered so this is sad.

I can't imagine this kind of behavior from a little, cute, tiny, can do no wrong YORKIE!!!!:eek:
I want to add another pup in the summer for my Dudley, He'll be a year old and is fixed. Would a female be better or another male (he'll be fixed too). Oh if i got a female, she would be fixed as well.....what's best for this situation?:confused:

this is interesting subject. My dogs have moody days and fight...i watched dog whisperer... Seemed like my yorkie was trying to alpha and was snatching treats that werent meant for her right out of my hand and did it aggressively. She was tripping me when I was walking too. Jumping to be first at everything. Overly assertive! Just was not a pleasure to be around & acted jealous.

I decided to show her who was boss and I never ever give her a treat first anymore. I make her wait patiently for everything. Any sign of aggression-I put her outside and separate her from everyone and everything. When I hear sweet whinning and begging to come back in--that makes me think her mood has changed and she realizes she's at my mercy for everything & I am in charge. I let her in and she waits patiently for her treat.

This seems to have worked..kind of like rules doing math problems--order of operations. I did that with everything--combing, bath time, food time--all of it. She's really sweet and knows she'll have her turn and being assertive and aggressive wont be tolerated. What works for me might not work for you, but then again-it just might!