Leila is 5 months old and becoming aggressive

[Mimi 510]

I am having a issue with my 5 month old puppy who has recently starting getting aggressive with my 2 year old female Chihuahua Mila. For some reason lately they have been snapping and growing at each other and a couple of times actually starting fighting. Leila gets along with my male Chihuahua Champ but for some reason not Mila. Mila is really laid back and I think gets annoyed at Leila and her tons of energy running all around the house. Instead of breaking them up and putting them is separate rooms, I step in and pin both of them down on there backs in the submissive state showing them Im the alpha until they calm down. It seems to work for Mila cause she ends up doing the avoiding eye thing but Leila on the other hand I find is more fixated on Mila and is still trying to stare her down. I use the light touches like on her neck or side like how Cesar Millan does it on his show to snap her out of it but still she is so stubborn and is hard to break. Has anyone ever went through this with there puppies? If so, how did you over come it?

I am eventually going to take her to a obedience class but right now financially cant afford it, plus I really want to do a little research first to find the best one out there. It makes me worry the most because she is going to be a lot bigger than my Chi's, at almost 7lbs now and don't want anyone to get hurt especially if I'm not there to stop it. I take her with me to work at least 4 times a week and she is great! When she was younger we did have issues with her biting our hands but after her teething faze and showing her the limits she stopped that. As for walking...she pulls a lot when Im walking all 3 of them. When its just me and her, she is fine....sometimes she will walk ahead of me but will stop and wait for me to catch up. Shes very energetic and loves to get into everything.

[Teresiana]

I'm not great with the behavioral issues & am always learning new things about that here on YT. I do know that sometimes 2 girls in a household can tend to fight, especially if they're not spayed. Are both of your girls spayed? I'm sure someone will reply soon with some good advice for you. Good luck!

[Mimi 510]

I was planning on spaying both of the girls this year at the same time but since Leila is only 5 months old our vet advised us to wait until she was at least 6-7 months old.

[Teresiana]

I think that having them both spayed could make a really big difference. I know you don't want to separate them, but since it could be a hormonal thing, that might be the best thing for them right now...for their own safety. I'm not sure if waiting another month to spay would really make that much of a difference. But then again, I'm not a vet. Maybe that's something you could ask your vet about. My boy was neutered at 5 months. One of my girls at about 4 months & the other girl at 3 months.

[kjc]

I have a neutered male, a spayed female, and two intact females. The NM and SF fight the most (with each other). I have rules in my house... one of which is 'no fighting'. I just interrupt and redirect their attention. Now I just holler 'Hey' and that's enough to stop them, even when they're in another room. When I separate them, I keep it going until they forget what they were doing. If I let them back together too soon, the fight continues.

Pinning, or 'Alpha Roll' should never be done on a young puppy. It was developed for use by professionals to use on vicious dogs when all other training methods failed, as a last resort to try to prevent the dog from being PTS. When it does work, it needs only to be done one time. It's not a method that requires repeating.

Alpha rolling a puppy destroys their self confident, and can make them 'act out', and be more aggressive. They can become fearful of their owner (the person doing the AR), and will tend to hide away from people.

Puppies need nurturing, and gentle reprimands (reminders). They need to be rewarded for their good behavior first and foremost (verbally and with a treat), or they won't understand what you expect from them. And persistence is very important, don't keep changing the rules on them. I found out that by giving my male (the attacker) more good attention, he actually attacked the other dog less often. Now it rarely happens anymore.

[Maximo]

Is Champ neutered? If they are all unaltered, I think that is a major contributing factor as Teresa indicated.

I also agree with KJC about not using the alpha roll. My older boy is very headstrong and I tried the alpha roll/dominance technique very briefly when he was a pup. It did not calm him at all. I am absolutely convinced that positive reinforcement training and lots of exercise are much more productive.

For undesirable behaviors, I withdraw attention. For dangerous behavior like my boys getting out of hand wrestling, I will clap my hands and raise my voice to get their attention and then redirect them. If they were to get truly aggressive, I would separate them.

[Teresiana]

I know you'd rather not separate the two, but in my experience separation/distraction can really help. My two older pups can get pretty feisty with each other. Instead of waiting for a fight to break out, I say "NO" & pull them away from each other when I see any signals of aggression. I put one in another room...I don't close any doors or give them a "time out". I just separate the distance between them. It gives them just enough time to relax so that the unwanted behavior won't escalate. They've become so used to it that most of the time all I have to do is say "NO" and give them "the look". They'll back away when they see my signal.

[Mimi 510]

Originally Posted by kjc

I have a neutered male, a spayed female, and two intact females. The NM and SF fight the most (with each other). I have rules in my house... one of which is 'no fighting'. I just interrupt and redirect their attention. Now I just holler 'Hey' and that's enough to stop them, even when they're in another room. When I separate them, I keep it going until they forget what they were doing. If I let them back together too soon, the fight continues.

Pinning, or 'Alpha Roll' should never be done on a young puppy. It was developed for use by professionals to use on vicious dogs when all other training methods failed, as a last resort to try to prevent the dog from being PTS. When it does work, it needs only to be done one time. It's not a method that requires repeating.

Alpha rolling a puppy destroys their self confident, and can make them 'act out', and be more aggressive. They can become fearful of their owner (the person doing the AR), and will tend to hide away from people.

Puppies need nurturing, and gentle reprimands (reminders). They need to be rewarded for their good behavior first and foremost (verbally and with a treat), or they won't understand what you expect from them. And persistence is very important, don't keep changing the rules on them. I found out that by giving my male (the attacker) more good attention, he actually attacked the other dog less often. Now it rarely happens anymore.

Thank you so much! I never really knew that the Alpha rolling could destroy a pups confidence and we do not want her to become fearful of me or act out! I have 2 Chihuahua's who's personalities are a lot different than the Yorkie breed...they have all bark and no bite while the Yorkies have both the bark and bite! She is very bold like the true terrier breed. I work with her everyday and am lucky enough to get to bring her to work with me (right now shes sleeping in her crate. She is good with my male Chihuahua and they play all day long. Mila on the other hand is more laid back and gets a little annoyed i think when they play to close and accidentally step all over her ...there is something that I'm probably missing...could be Mila who is the instigator and not Leila.

[Mimi 510]

Originally Posted by Maximo

Is Champ neutered? If they are all unaltered, I think that is a major contributing factor as Teresa indicated.

I also agree with KJC about not using the alpha roll. My older boy is very headstrong and I tried the alpha roll/dominance technique very briefly when he was a pup. It did not calm him at all. I am absolutely convinced that positive reinforcement training and lots of exercise are much more productive.

For undesirable behaviors, I withdraw attention. For dangerous behavior like my boys getting out of hand wrestling, I will clap my hands and raise my voice to get their attention and then redirect them. If they were to get truly aggressive, I would separate them.

Yes, I got Champ neutered...couldn't take all the crying he was doing when Mila was in heat...broke my heart to see him in such pain. I had to really talk my husband into getting him fixed cause originally he wanted Mila and Champ to mate which I did not agree with at all and was really upset with me for even suggesting it. Took a lot of arguments and Champ marking all his clothes (which I let Champ do..hehe oops!) and the visits to the animal shelters to show how many dogs do not have homes to locking him in the room with Champ with the crying and whining to finally get him to understand the point I was making!

For the undesirable behaviors such as nibbling the hands, I do already withdraw attention then made the redirection with something that she was allowed to bite on and it works miracles. Everyday she bites less and less. I do reward for positive behaviors with the clicker method. She loves that! As of yesterday there was no fighting so maybe it was just a off day for both of them