My boyfriend has two dogs that fight a lot and it has been worse lately. What would you suggest we do?

Hi,

First I would like to thank you in advance if you take the time to read this!

My boyfriend has two three month old american pitbulls. They are brother and sister. They always want attention at the same time and you can never be with one but you need to be with both. Even if you are with one, as soon as the other one sees it will come over. The problem though is that the female dog, is extremely dominant over her brother. To the point where she will always being the fight, take his food, eat from his plate even though she has her own, take his toys, or anything she sees him playing with eg. a stick or piece of bark! This really upsets me as the boy is even smaller than her now and she is alot more playful, I think he is too scared to play, or just simply knows he wont allow it so he doesnt bother.

Every now and then they would get into a fight where no damage was done other than growling and some fighting but no blood or injury. However today I came to find them fighting pretty aggressively and the boy was left with a bloody scratch on his nose and ears. Their fights have never escalated like this and I always stop them when I see any sign of aggression toward each other. They have never shown any sign of aggression to a human and I have not socialised them with other dogs to know if they are aggressive with other dogs.

I do not know what to do and to make the situation worse he cannot have them living at his house any longer and so he is going to move them to his factory. They come over to mine every weekend and sometimes throughout the week, however I am afraid that moving them to the factory will make them more aggressive, and further more no one will be around to stop them if they fight at night.

We love BOTH dogs very much and we do not want to give them away as we do take very good care of them (like they are my kids) and I am scared another owner will treat them bad. We are also afraid of separating them. I have read your articles saying that this is just a human emotion we feel and that the dogs will not feel lonely or miss their sibling and that it is actually optimal to have one dog to develop a better human bond but I guess I wish the issue could be resolved with us keeping both dogs. I just also worry that the dogs haven't even reached maturity and there is already this aggression and so it will get worse (although I hear de-sexing them may lessen the issue).

I really hope you have read this and can offer your opinion it would be of SO much help. I adore these puppies and it upsets me that WE may be doing something wrong as im sure most dog aggression comes from something the owner has done or not done.

Sincerely,
Crystal

PS. I loved that you are raising so many dogs together and I find it hopeful even though I am not a professional by any means!