Shaken to the core - Page 1

Ok I have read before about females fighting but I always thought NOT ME.

I live on 16 hectares of farm land, my neighbours have 3 small breed dogs that occasionally stray onto my property thanks to wildlife that often make holes under the fencing and a neighbour that takes no responsability for their dogs.

Problem, today when the neighbours dog ventured onto my property 2 of my bitches (half sisters 4 & 5 years old & always been best of friends) became so agitated that they attacked each other, no real harm done to either bitch only 2 very shaken owners.

Everything as I thought had calmed down, so after feeding  my dogs tonight I let mother out with her 5 year old daughter to toilet and daughter picked a fight, once again today I had to part 2 females.

All of this in one day has really got me rattled. Does this mean that I can no longer trust any of the girls together?

I do realize that for the next few days atleast I will keep the bitches separate.

None of my dogs have ever done this before.

I have 2 half sisters and the breeder told me the same thing, "that mature bitches will fight and when they do, it's to the death".  The pup is only 17 weeks old, so she is too small to be with her sister.  When they are together for little bits of time, I am right there with them.  We attended a seminar in Miss. this past week and I had both girls with me.  I walked them separately as there was no fenced place/area to let them romp.  My yard & kennels are separated too to prevent something from happening because I was told once they fought, they would continue to because they are fighting for dominance.  Unsure if this is true but I'm too afraid to chance it and figure the breeder has more experience with this than I do. :o)

Teri       

When you have two alpha bitches, you should be very careful, yes they will continue to fight till one establish dominance (pack order) even than every now or than there will be a challange. Don't let them out at the same time unsupervised. Good luck.

If you keep them together a pecking order will be established and yes there will be fight's.

If you keep them separate there will be no pecking order and yes there will be fight's.

I would rather have the pack fight over rank, than a territorial fight between stranger's, they are less violent for the most part.

Maybe you have too many dog's.

Moon's.

Moons how many dogs do you have?  How many do you consider to be too many for a pack?  Just curious if you think too many influences the pack or if it's too many dogs for the handler to handle?

Teri 

I think it boil's down to the handler and their experience.

P.S.

I have four and seriously considering making it three..LOL

Moon probably stitches up his own dogs.   A person can afford only so many $200-$300 vet bills in the attempt to "let them work it out", and risk losing one every time. The tough bitches can, and will, kill each other in rank fights, especially if there is more than two bitches out, two can gang up on one.  All of mine are tough, most are very dominant working bitches who think they could conquer the world, and I segregate them if we are not working them.  On the trialing field, they are fine, they ignore each other, it is time to work.  If you want to breed, a dog fight in the early stages of a female's pregnancy can abort the litter due to stress.   Infighting can make the bitches hard to get pregnant due to the stress.  Veronica

I keep my three females seperated, all alpha working lines, even the "pet" dog.  I've had a few problems as they matured with fighting,  Why the heck would i take any chances of serious injury to them or any person who happened to be there???????  As Veronica said, when they are at the field working, they work.  At home they are never lose together.

Hi Veronica,

Actually I use a staple gun and duct tape.

All kidding aside,  If you understand your pack and know what to expect then you take step's to avoid serious injuries.

The point is If your shaken to the core, your still learning. 

I've had my suprise's, but I was there, not some where else.  I deal with it and make adjustment's.

I agree with your post for the most part.    I also believe a person need's to know their limitation's.

You must also know your animal's and have the experience to handle them.

Moon's.

A pack is probably four + dogs with you as their Alpa, make sure that they know this

Fence fighting is a night mare.  I have some real dumbass neighbors here that seem to find it entertaining to let their dogs run out and have my pack race back and forth until of course a fight breaks out in my pack due to sheer prey drive having kicked in and the will just get into it with each other.   Now you know why I want to move to 100 or more acres asap....   oh yeah and a 100 feet barrier double fence.  at least...   That is what I ended up having to do here and I lost over an acre of the use of MY land and a $1000 to have the extra fence built.  lovely eh.

http://www.morrco.com/itpoldogmuz.html  is a link where you can purchase some pretty darn great muzzles so IF they get into it then at least you won't get hurt by sticking your arms in it.    The Nr.7 is what I use for females.

I use these when introducing a new dog into the pack and the alpha females get to wear them

I use them when a female is in heat and she is NOT the alpha as that will give them a reason to 'put her in her place'

Also, when one of my alpha females gets out of hand I PERSONALLY THROW THEM OUT OF THE PACK IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE PACK.   I chase m off  or sent them back in the house.  walkie is over for that one.  

Now what usually happens with my pack when they get into it, is when I RUN AWAY FROM IT AS THEIR ALPHA, they follow ME and it stops.   I noticed this by accident when some yrs ago a fight broke out with 4 of them and I went looking for a good size piece of wood to stick it in there (instead of my arms) and I couldn't find it so I was running away from them and suddendly I noticed them following me all happy go lucky?!!!  huh!   So they only way to explain this is that I as their Alpha was not getting involved thus they lost their interest in the attack.   

IF you start getting involved and scream and holler to try and make them stop, SINCE they don't think like we do, they think we are getting into it in beating up that dog too! eggin them on so to speak.  Especially when your flaling arms start grabbing them etc, to them that is getting into it, not stopping them.  THUS, the old cold high pressure water hose might work IF its nearby.   

Now this approach doesn't work when a fight breaks out INSIDE the house.    You could open a door and see if your leaving distracts them, but make sure you keep CALM and say things like LETS GO FOR A WALKIE OR FOR A RIDE.  anything they really like.   

If you are with two people and want to break up a fight, and its two dogs, then each grab a dog by the beginning of their tails, (where it meets their back) and pull quick and lift their back ends OFF THE GROUND, so they only have their front legs to stand on, that is to protect you, as they loose quite a bit of control that way,  but its pretty tricky.  

Schock collars is another option, that is used by many police dog trainers and it will teach m... 

and yes it shakes me too when it happens.