Our 11 year old Chow and 3 year old Pit Bull have been fighting lately. Is there any way to stop this other than complete separation?

Hello

We have a problem between our 11 yr old chow and our 3 yr old pit-bull, both female, and the pit-bull just had pups 8-9 weeks ago. The puppies are completely separated from the chow. The two adult dogs will stare each other down especially in the house. They have had a few fights before the puppies and after. During their fights the chow usually submits making your technique for breaking the dogs up easier, and is very effective. After a day of separation when reintroduced with supervision the pit-bull will lick the chows face. Any ideas what this is about? The day after their last dogfight when asking the chow into the bathroom (close quarters) while giving her praise and pets she growled at her owner.

We know the dogs must be separated but find this hard to do constantly. It has gotten to be that the chow seems almost frightened in close quarters therefore a crate is not an option for her. Our pit-bull is crate trained but cannot stay in a crate all day. (The pit-bull also has basic and advanced training and is CGC certified. The chow is trained and obedient.)

The chow in this past year has become untrusting to most anyone except her owners (mom and dad). Growling even biting one family roommate (cousin) after he put his hands on her chest and back simultaneously. We now no longer allow anyone (before only select few) to touch her. Our chow may not be able to stand more fights although she is in a healthy condition.

So with knowing our situation is there anything as good dog owners that we could do to put an END to the human and animal aggressiveness being shown here other than complete separation.

We have gone through your site and find it informative.

Thanks- Rick and Juli

P.S. We do own muzzles for both dogs.