KCzaja, I could use your opinion. - Page 1

I've had this post on resently, but I don't think that you put your opinion in there.  I have a 7 year old F. GSD, and a 8 year old F. mix breed.  Also have Chaos my big male GSD, 1 year old, and my white GSD which is 5 years old.  Princess, the 7 year old becomes aggressive toward the 8 year old when it's time to go outside.  We had another big fight this past Wed. morning very early, when I was letting the dogs out.  Not thinking, I let Downy out onto the deck with Princess out there and a fight broke out.  I was bitten on the leg by Princess.  We have since then been putting Princess in our bedroom with food and water while we are gone, and when Downy is outside, Princess is NOT.  We put Princess out with the other 2 dogs though, as they all get along, and keep Downy inside then.  Anything else besides keep a very close eye on them, and keeping them separated allot, do you think that we could do.  I really don't want to have to get rid of her, she's one of my kids.  I have been given some advice that didn't set well with me, so let's see what you can come up with! : - }

I had two females who would fight non stop, before I moved I had a very small house and a very small yard, so it was hard to have seperate times, unless one was crated, which I feel was unfair.  So I talked to another breeder, she told me to muzzle the two who would fight, that way no one got bit and since they couldn't bite they would eventually give up on the fight.  I tried this, after 3 trials and them trying to fight they finally gave up and never fought again, of course you can't leave them outside all day with this on but for potty breaks, and play time it worked great.  In my home now I have 2 seperate yards, and only put out the ones that get along in one area and anyone who picks fight in the other yard alone.  Hope this helps, I bought the Jafco muzzles on Leerburgs site, http://leerburg.com/muzzle.htm I hope this helps, Ed even recommends keeping dogs that fight muzzled at all times.  Good Luck, i hope you don't have to place one, its hard to give up your kids, even if they are furkids.

 Kari

???????? So what are you doing to stop the bad behavior???????? It is not hard to understand, why not fix the problem instead of avoiding it????? A muzzle? Post after post after post about the same thing with no work being done to fix it!!!!! You waiting until an ear gets ripped in half or a severe injury happens before you decide to get serious an fix the problem??

I have to agree with Dennis. The problem needs to be corrected. You are not pack leader????!!!

 I have 2 females that used to fight...stupid me got 2 pups 1 month apart..so they fought for alpha female forever. We now refer to them as "Grumpy Old Men" as that is how they act around one another. It is quite comical...but the point is they will not fight again...as the problem was me and not them. I don't muzzle them either. And they are totally different dogs when not at home. They would die for each other outside the home!!

Good luck!!! I hope you get the problem solved. You will have a much happier household!!

Ok, what a lot of people wont understand is these are 7 and 8 year old dogs. Its very easy to ride her butt and tell her needs to fix it. This is ridiculously hard to fix.

There are underlying respect issues here. If you do not have the ability to stop this behavior with your own authority, you need to find a good trainer who specialez in behavioral issues to see if they can help you. You may very well need to muzzle one or both dogs to work this out, and I would certainly deal with them separately for now. The dog needs to be trained to tolerate the muzzle, if all she did was fight it, she isnt properly trained to accept it. Working them together via obedience, ie long downs in the same room, will help teach them to accept one another because YOU say so.

To be quite honest,  you're going to have to work hard with a trainer thast knows what they're doing to undo years of this mentality. Best of luck to you, you can email me if you like.

Check with Cesar Millan,the dog whisperer,he can help you out with any problems with your dog,national geographic.com