We are raising two females at my home. They have been in three fights since we got the new one. Can you offer any assistance with this problem?

Question

Good Evening,

    We are raising two females at my home. One is a pit bull and the other is a mix which we were told had pit in her but we don't see it. We have two small children, 11 and 7 years old. We are currently having a problem with what we think is dominance but we aren't sure. We had our mix pit (named Daisy) first and have had her since she was a pup. She is now 1 1/2 years and we got our 4 yr old pit less than a year ago. They have been in three fights since we got Lexi (the 4 year old pit).  We are a bit lost because we don't know who to turn to that specializes in pit bulls and raising two females at one time. Daisy (the 1/12 yr old) is always trying to play with her (or it looks like it at least) and is grabbing her scruff and trying to wrestle with her. Lexi and her appear to play fine usually. The first two fights were because of toys and we have removed all toys but we aren't sure if that was the right thing to do rather than teach them the right way to have toys together. This last fight was because they were getting riled up from neighborhood kids and they started fighting for a reason that we don't know because we weren't there to see what actually happened. 

    What we aren't sure of is because of them both being females, does it make sense to try to fix this problem or should we be thinking of rehoming one of our dogs? We do no know of any professionals other than the SPCA and we have a call into her as well. We feel this is a dominance problem but we can't be sure because we don't know of anyone who can come to the house to observe what is happening. We are afraid for our children's safety and their friends and want to correct the problem if it is fixable.

    Can you offer any assistance with this problem?

    Best Regards,
Sam

Accepted Answer

If you are willing to separate the dogs and put in the work to train them separately it can work although sometimes dogs can’t ever be trusted together without supervision. If you can’t put it in the one on one time with each dog, and don’t have the ability to separate them then it would be best to rehome one of them.

Fighting between 2 dogs of the same sex, in the same house is a common issue. The problems you are seeing are the result of the way you live with your dogs. When dogs act like this they lack leadership from their owners. In other words their owners don’t understand how important pack drive is in how they raise their dogs.

Owners of dogs like yours underestimate the genetic power of "PACK DRIVE." Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership your dogs NEEDS then they will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way. Your dogs are not behaving badly out of spite or stubbornness; your dogs are simply being dogs, and they need some guidance and rules.

If you want to fix a problem like this you can but it takes some work. I’d start with our Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off - Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

Here is a DVD that I would recommend titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs. If you go to the link on this DVD you can read about what it covers. You will also see a detailed outline of what’s in the video.

I’d also recommend that you have muzzles for each dog to wear during the training process.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum. You also may be interested in our free ebooks on training.

I hope this helps.

Cindy