2 Female Dogs (sisters) Fighting..please Help!?
October 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
I have a total of 7 dogs….3 females (2 shepherd mixes, 1 chihuahua) and 4 males (1 lab, 1 shepherd mix, 1 papillon and 1 Boxador). All are fixed except the Boxador puppy. Some of these are our dogs while others are fosters. The 2 females (Princess and Shauntae…both shepherd mixes) are the ones causing me trouble. I raised both of the dogs (along with their 3 other siblings..one of while we still have) from the time they were abandoned at 3 weeks old. We adopted Shauntae out early on but in July got a call from her owner saying he had to relocate and had to find a home for Shauntae. Needless to say, she ended up back with us. When she came back to us she was not spayed yet….we had that done (in October) but it might have been too late? When she first arrived back here things were fine. Over time I did notice there was some tension between Princess and Shauntae but thought a little of that would be normal. Well, it progressed over time (from circling, starring down each other, some nudges here and there to actuall fighting). The fighting never drew blood or lasted more than a minute, until Saturday morning that is. We kept a close eye on the two of them hoping that dominance training would help bring them around, but….apparantly it’s not working. Saturday, Princess started a horrible fight with Shauntae that lasted well over a couple of minutes and ended up with Princess have a number wounds from it. I could NOT get them apart at all. It scared the heck out of me. Once I got them apart we put Shauntae in a crate while I tended to Princess (her wounds weren’t horrible but needed some attention). Of course I have not let them anywhere near each other since this happened. The strangest part about this is that they get along fine most of the time…they eat together (I hand feed them all to help them bond with us and help establish dominance), they play together, they even sleep together at times…but it seems like if Princess is in a situation where she gets too hyper…the fights begin. (examples of those situations: having to wait to have their leashes put on for their walks, running out the back door for play time, when someone comes to the door). Princess has always been a hyper dog but this is ridiculous. Princess is the one starting the fights…Shauntae is apparantly finishing them though! My first instinct was that we had to get Shauntae out of here and fast. When she came back to us we didn’t intend to keep her…just keep her from the pound so we could find her a home. There’s a bit more to this story that might help with answers too. Shauntae was an only dog in her previous home…so, in my eyes..she was the alpha dog in her home. Princess was the biggest female in our home until Shauntae came back…so, obviously…that is going to be a problem. But…is there any way I can make things work between them? The other part of the problem. I have had severe medical problems since this past March…I’ve been having seizures and they believe I may have Fibromyalgia and I recently fell down our stairs and am now in a wheelchair. The dogs pick up on my condition a LOT…it’s caused problems with my maintaining the ‘leader’ position as they sense I’m weak. All of the dogs sense the days that my seizures are worse and hover around me. I don’t know if this has anything to do with what is going on between the two of them but thought it might. Also, re-homing either Princess or Shauntae is going to be difficult. Both of them have bonded to me so much that it takes a long time for either of them to bond to other people. We’ve actually tried to re-home Shaunate with 2 different families already since she’s been back with us but neither worked out. She got away from the first family before they even got her in their house and my husband had to go and get her (she wouldn’t go anywhere near them)…then they decided they didn’t want her. The second family….well, they said she would just sit at the door and whine and seemed like she really wanted to come back home. I have no idea what to do here! If you have any advice on how I can make things work between Princess and Shauntae I would have problem keeping them both…but, this fighting just cannot happen (no matter how severe it is)….or, if anyone has any advice on how I can make Shauntae going to a new home easier for her that would be great too. Shauntae is very skiddish (she wasn’t socialized much in her previous home) and it takes her a while to warm up to people….this is a HUGE turn off for most people so they don’t even bother trying! I contacted a rescue and have considered placing her there but I just don’t know….would that be a better situation for her than trying to find her a permanent home and just keeping Princess and Shauntae seperate until I can? I just want the best for her!
Thank you in advance for your help!
P.S.–I had my husband pick up some muzzles for them but Princess gets hers of
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Wow that was long.. Anyhow Find the one sister a new home.. That is the problem.. Sisters and brothers… even brother x sister combos often fight… They are equal in size and strength, and they know what bugs one another.. No one should keep brother sister combos.. Sometimes it works out well, if one allows the other to dominate.. but if they don’t want to be dominated, then you have problems.. It’s going to be a life long thing… find the offending sister a new home.. THis should have been done long before this fighting started.. Now she will be dog aggressive in her new home and you’ll have to warn people of this.
And quit allowing these fights to go on that long.. You should be seeing the signs and stopping the fight before it even starts.. You have too many dogs to try and control.. You are not the leader.. Way too much going on there.. Don’t be surprised if the rest of your dogs decide to join in… or start picking on the dog that is getting beaten by her sister..
well u need to be the leader grab them from the collar make them stop fighting and say NO!!!
Wow-sorry you are having to deal with this. First thing I would do is have FULL thyroid panels run on both the dogs who are fighting.Low thyroid is not unusual in dogs and can be the cause of some aggression issues. If all is well medically it may just be a situation of keeping the females separated or rehome one of them. Unfortunately, female to female aggression can be only be dealt with by keeping the dogs separated. Females will fight to the end more often than male to male or even male to female. You can gain some insight from a behaviorist who can visit and assess the situation in person.
You have TOO MANY dogs. What on earth is a boxador? Never heard of such a thing. Probably a MUTT! Find homes for most of your dogs.
P.S. Your post is way too long, probably no on read the entire thing, I know that I didn’t!
Okay! I finally got through your whole question. If you want my honest opinion it sounds like you need to give one of them to a rescue or other foster home that will be able to socialize them better and work on training skills. Shaunate specifically needs a lot more socialization outside of you and the other dogs. She needs to be better trained if she is running away and is developing separation anxiety if she is crying at the door of her new home.
I know you want to make sure she gets a permanent home, but without more training and work, Shaunate will never find a home, or Princess and her will get into a serious enough fight that she’ll be severely hurt and possibly killed.
If your fostering your dogs, I would highly advise you not to hand feed them. They’ll become very attatched to you this way and most of the time dogs will create the habbit of not being able to eat regular. A new family isn’t going to hand feed them and they will not be used to that.
If you are having medical problems, I wouldn’t commit to anymore dogs until you know you are physically able to. I know that medical bills can be very expensive and you wouldn’t want to become financially overwhelmed either.
I hope that helps you. I know you’re trying to do the right thing, but putting Shaunate in a rescue seems like the best for her and fixing her problems. I hope you make the right choice and your health gets better!
I have two males neither fixed who used to have dominance issues (and are still learning) what helped me is between the two of them decide on a dominant dog since they already recognize you as the leader they will accept you choice, feed that dog first pet that dog first etc. don’t ignore the other one just obviously let the one non dominate one know you’ve chosen that one to be dominate. If they do start fighting have pans dog dishes etc handy to pound together close to their heads this startles them enough for you to break up the fight. My dogs rarely ever fight now and if they do a sharp yell from me will stop it. It takes time and patients. Hope this helps
F/F companionship between dogs is a tough row to hoe. If the owner is not on top of the dog game everyday this is what can happen. Spaying sometimes make a difference, most times not. Two females can live together for years and then all of a sudden start fighting, sometimes to the death. The only reason the chihuahua is not involved in this pissing contest is because of sheer size.
The time to get invovled was when they first started challenging each other but that is hindsight now. You may only have one choice and that is to adopt on dog out and let them know she is not compatible with another female. Your other choice, if you want to try, is the next time they start getting into a contest is to take each of them and roll them over. It’s the next step in discipline. Each dog is grabbed by the scuff of the neck and forced down onto their side into a submissive down. They are held there until they become calm and submissive. No pawing, scratching or trying to get up. Once they become calm, they are imediately released. While it is not physically punitive, it is very effective mental discipline.
Do a search on what is called Alpha Roll over for dogs. This discipline is an exact mimic of what an alpha pack leader would do in a pack. The other thing you can not do is leave these two together when you are not home or otherwise with them. To do so you run the risk of returning to a blood bath and one dead dog when you get home.
I think I could respond to your question if you offered a little more detail.
Too many dogs. TMI