alpha female. Is there such a thing? - Page 1

Hi all, I was wondering whether there is such a thing or not. I have recently acquired a female pup.She is 3 and a half months old. I also have an eight month old male. The both get along well, however despite the female being a third of the size of the male, she takes no nonsense from the male and is in fact quite feisty! He lets her take things away from him, but growls at him when he trys to take anything. He's not so much scared of her but is wary of her. When the play fight his size overwhelms her of course but she gives as good as she gets. The other thing I noticed is that she urinates quite frequently, almost like trying to mark out her territory. Today I saw her mounting my male!(Its the second time this has happened) Any thoughts or suggestions?Thanks Alex

Is their such a thing? You betcha their is. In the wolf population.... Only the alpha male and female are allow to breed.. This is to keep the genes strong. often when the alpha's became of age the betas usually take the alpha's place. your bitch shows obvious signs of dominance. The humping doesn't mean that your bitch is in heat... the humping means that shes showing off her dominance.

Thanks Brittany, Is there anything specific to look out for in the future i.e. training or even trusting them? I have heard that alpha males can sometimes be too head strong and even have quite a temper sometimes turning against the owner. Is this the same in bitches or is it any different? Thanks

Alpha females?! Heck YES! Alpha females tend to dominate even the alpha males (though of course not always the case) Alpha females WILL hump, other females, males, humans, etc. Alpha females WILL mark their territory, some even lift one of their legs while squatting too. Alpha females is where the term "Bitch" was really coined from. I don't have the time to sit here currently and say why having a confidently tempered dog is NOT dangerous. Your female must become the Beta of the household, YOU must be the alpha, she may still boss around your male dog who is now in 3rd place in the household, but if you are a good leader and you keep a peaceful household and obedience train your dogs then the female should have no issue at all with deferring to you. Talking about dogs that turn against their owners is a big rock to turn over, I don't want to sit here for 30 minutes and type what I think on it. I will beg Bob-O or DH or someone else to do it if they want.

one of my females is very "alpha-female" towards any other animals and dogs; she's the mellowest towards me and my family, but i had to teach her that when she was around three months...

YES, when my female was 8wks old she did the same thing to my male. Since my 1 year old male was extremely submissive to her a trainer said just to let them establish their rank. BIG MISTAKE, when she matured she attacked him a few times. Thankfully I was always there to get her off him. At that point I put my foot down and let her know I was the boss and did not let her growl or guard things from him. I also created rules and boundries (NILF-Nothing in life is free) to further establish my dominance. All is well now, she hasn't attacked him in over 1.5 years and is very obedient to the house rules. Regards,\ Melanie

klekoni, take urmangsd's advise... Do not let your dog be the Alpha over you... it is YOU that needs to be Alpha... not the dog. Training will not be a problem if you have a solid relationship between you and your dog.

Does anyone think that this apparent dominance over my older more "gentle" male will affect his performance or character later on. After all he is still only 8 months. Before she came along he was doing swimmingly well, and still I cannot say that they get on badly at all. I just dont want the alpha female to break his spirit. Or maybe I should just allow nature to sort this out. I dont know!! Is there anything else I should do other than what GSDfan suggested? Thanks everyone for their replies so far!

klekoni, If you do not approve of what the female is doing to your male... then stop the behavior, again you're the ALPHA not your dogs. You will not break any spirits by acting alpha.

YES!! I would say that my males' spirit has been broken. After repeatedly being "put down" by my female over the years, he now tip toes around her. Still more than willing to stay away from anything she used to guard. He won't even chew on bones or other chew things from the store. Even though she no longer bothers him and won't take it out of his mouth if i'm there, he still gets nervous he has a BONE!! and frantically finds a place to hide it, he treats it like a "hot potato". I'll even separate him to a different room so he doesn't have to "worry", but he still hides it (usually between the couch cusions or under a pillow, lol). Unfortunately he's not a good hider and she quickly finds her second treat. Also he still won't touch her tennis balls. If there was a small area to pass he used to go the go the opposite directon or wait for someone to move it one of her balls were in the way. He used to give her toys a 2-3 foot boundry, he no longer does this but still won't pick one up. I try not to leave them laying around though, that was one of the "house rules" I made...no balls in the house (it was a big source of excitement/aggression/guarding for her and I thought it was best just to eliminate it). Same thing with the bed that she used to keep him away from with a growl. She is no longer allowed on the bed until/if I invite her (To all the critics: I work third shift and enjoy having the company). She quickly caught on and will wait paitently at the side for my invitation or will lay down and fall asleep on the floor if I don't. My male still won't go near the bed unless I call him onto it. He still makes me tell him 3 or 4 times and looks at me like "REALLY??" then glances at my female and looks at me again like "are you sure???". Its sort-of amusing, but very sad...Hope this helps. Regards, Melanie