I have three dogs living in my home. A German Shorthair, age 13 years (and showing her age), a Boxer, around 3 years old and a German Shepherd around the same age. The Shepherd has recently joined our home as a permanent addition when her owner, my sister, had to move to Germany with the military. She has lived with us for around two years, but with my sister in the home as well. She submitted to her more than anyone else. There had never been any dominance issues until very recently. She has shown aggression toward several dogs, including our eldest and ultimately she injured the eldest dog (not severely, but only because we were able to intervene). The Boxer has recently also shown interest in being the dominant dog and was also involved in the injury of our eldest dog. What can we do to facilitate a safe determination of the pack leader? We have owned dogs my entire life but have never had this issue with female dogs, particularly dogs who started out living in harmony with one another. We have no desire to put down or give away any of the dogs, but we also don't want any of them to be in danger...nor do we want neighborhood dogs or people to be in danger because of one of our animals. Neither dog has ever shown aggression toward a human, although the Shepherd has shown that she is protective of our home and of us. We're not sure where to start solving this problem. We would appreciate any help at this point and are willing to try anything we can to keep our dogs safe and happy.

First things first- if you don't already have them, you need three crates, and all three of these dogs need to be seperated. You have a powder keg here.

Next, take some time and read all of these articles:

http://www.leerburg.com/pdf/packstructure.pdf
http://leerburg.com/pdf/introducingdogs.pdf
http://leerburg.com/pdf/howtobreakupdogfight.pdf
http://leerburg.com/domdogdirectory.htm

Not sure if I would call this a dominance issue, but rather a pack structure issue. You need to make sure that ALL of the dogs know that YOU are the leader and make the rules.

How were these dogs introduced?

Mike Schoonbrood discussed this in another thread. Truly dominant dogs are not found very often, it is most often a structure issue.

Amanda,
My first quess is the dogs sense a vacuum in the leadership role. So now they're unsure of who has the reins and jockeying for that position; after all, dogs being dogs, someone has to be leader. (shrug) Thats just the way dogs are.

So is there any issues (yet) between the Boxer and the GSD? Who seems to be the instigator of the two? I'd start with the trouble maker.......Walks on leash, OB sessions (is there any special training either knows?). To get the other dog involved, I'd walk them separately for the moment, but do the OB work together with one watching from a sit/or down (stay) while I worked the other and vica versa. I don't think it'd be very long before you can take both out and keep control after that. And I'll bet things will quiet down at home as well.

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

I'm completely in agreement that we're doing something wrong. It's just that never having had this problem before, we're not sure what we're doing or not doing! There are the "puppy" issues with the GSD and Boxer, though now I'm realizing they may be more than just nipping and growling during play time. Never really any aggression, though. In one instance, the GSD was the instigator (but with a dog that was not in our family) and with the latest instance at our home, it was the Boxer. If we establish that we are the leaders, will this prevent them from trying to establish dominance with each other?

 Quote: Amanda J Stark

If we establish that we are the leaders, will this prevent them from trying to establish dominance with each other?

 Quote: Alyssa Myracle

First things first- if you don't already have them, you need three crates, and all three of these dogs need to be seperated. You have a powder keg here. ...

Do you have three crates? That would be the number one thing to do. Today, IMO.

Some dogs can't be together unsupervised, IME, and even more so with three in the house. (This is a very doable thing, BTW, and not a doom prediction.) But the separating now and the ground work for pack leadership are what you need to do now, IMO.

As Randy said, you also want to start daily ob sessions with each.

http://leerburg.com/dvd.htm
I would order Basic Obedience and Establishing Pack Structure today, and then start reading the material Alyssa has linked you to

Do you have training experience?

Amanda, it depends.

One bad fight, could make the victim of the aggression, turn dog aggressive.

That's why it's so important to crate and separate these dogs until you get a handle on the issue.

We have two crates for the two younger dogs. The eldest has never been crated. The dogs are always supervised, particularly when all three are together. We are usually in the yard with them playing, if not watching as they play and run. I do NOT have training experience. This is the first time we've had a group of dogs in the home since there have been no males. My father used to do most of the training for our dogs but hasn't lived with us since we got the two young dogs.

 Quote: amanda j stark

We have two crates for the two younger dogs. The eldest has never been crated. The dogs are always supervised, particularly when all three are together. We are usually in the yard with them playing, if not watching as they play and run. I do NOT have training experience. This is the first time we've had a group of dogs in the home since there have been no males. My father used to do most of the training for our dogs but hasn't lived with us since we got the two young dogs.

How did the GSD injure the GS if they are never together unsupervised? Not a smartass question. Did they get into a fight with you there? That can't be allowed to happen. The pack leader dictates aggression (none, in my house). The pack leader also protects the pack, and doesn't allow one pack member to injure another.

When you say "What can we do to facilitate a safe determination of the pack leader?" the answer is that you are the pack leader, but you have not stepped up yet and shown the dogs this. There is no pack leader among the dogs to safely determine.

As for not having training experience, you came to the right place.

I would say again to order Basic Ob (really a "living with and training a dog" DVD) and Pack Structure immediately and start reading about Marker Training and the articles that Alyssa provided above.

You came here and asked for help. That usually means that you are on the right track, IMO. You can do this.

Amanda,
The dogs must have some training! After all, if you say "Fiddo stop that", he stops doesn't he? Well, in so many words, he's trained. See, nothing to it.
What kind of training/work did your sister do with the dogs? Did she leave any books on dogs behind? And check the links provided from the previous posts of Alyssa and Connie. And don't get feeling over whelmed, which is easy to do, it's really not that daunting once you get started.
I wonder if it would help if you starting thinking in terms of leadership and forget about who is dominating who.

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

PS.
Connie types faster then I do, and she says it better to boot.
Your in good hands Amanda.