Hi -- I only have a few more days to resolve this issue, any advice would be appreciated....we have two male GSD, four and ten. They are house dogs, they get along well, the 4 yr old is dominant.....two weeks ago we adopted a beautiful 1 yr old female GSD. She is very sweet, doesn't mind handling, quiet in her crate, very very nice dog. Not one accident in the house or crate. Great dog. She completed her first heat cycle shortly before we brought her home. We plan to have her spayed. The first day we introduced the dogs and our 4 yr old (who is neutrered) tried to mount her, just for a second or two. We seperated them, she got kind of hyper, and since then have not let the dogs in the yard together. That was clearly our naive fault. For the next few days she barked aggressively whenever the 4 yr old was in view. Now she does not do this, and in fact we can walk them side by side on leash with no problems -- no lunging, no gorwling, nothing. The male pays no attention to her at all, and she is way more interested in the possibility of a treat. Yesterday I walked both of them myself with no problem, one leash in each hand.............. This morning we walked them and they sniffed around the same tree in a meadow and she got close to him and licked his nose. ALSO - she gets along fine with the older male -- no problem at all. OK -- the thing is, I work at home, our dogs have great lives, but we are not equipped to keep these dogs seperated all the time. I just don't have the energy for it. If we are returning her to the woman we got her from - who has another family ready to take her -- we have to do it on Tuesday after Labor Day. I do not want to fail this dog! Is it a reasonable idea at this point to try them in our (big) yard together, perhaps on long lines? If they don't fight we can keep her. I hate to see her go through the stress of yet another move. And we like her very much. For all I know there is no reason to think they will fight at this point and its just us being overly-cautions. Sometimes she pulls to get to him, but her tail is going, it seems she wants to play. Any advice? Please.I will check for replies all weekend! Thanks -- Michael

There isn't an easy answer to this question other than bringing in a new dog is always work and you are going from 2 dogs to 3. I would think it to be impossible to assess if adding this female will work out in just a few days. If your concerned about the 2 fighting, then I assume you have reason and would not put them together in a situation that you cannot control. Even if you put them together and they don't fight that day it doesn't guarantee future encounters. I really understand your not wanting 'to fail' her, but she does have an opportunity to go to another home. If you push the meetings and assessments to fast you run the risk of failing them all and maybe humans physically and emotionally. Not an easy decision I'm sure...

Thanks very much. Its been two weeks that we've had her. So the mounting incident was two weeks ago and the aggressiveness on her part was for a number of days after that, and now there's really nothing there except her puppy exuberance -- she's one -- and that she wants to play. She tries to play with our oder dog but he just wantsa no part of it and ignores her. He doesn;t play with our 4 year old really either, unless I'm throwing a ball. So it seems like now she just wants to play with our 4 year old when she occassionally linges toward him. There's no aggressiveness. Her tail is wagging. Most of the time she doesn't even do that, they can just walk along together on leashes.................anyway -- thanks -- maybe we'll let them meet each other tomorrow loose on long lines............

Hi Michael, You aren't being ignored... alot of our members train their dogs on the weekend so sometimes it can be a bit slow on Sat. & Sundays, especially a holiday weekend. In my opinion, it is really important for you to let your male dog you will not tolerate that behavior - not just stop him from doing it - does that make sense? It should be one of those "absolute rules" you have with your dogs - YOU are the boss and he does not have the position in the pack. I'm not suggesting any harsh corrections - some folks can simply use their voice and attitude (assuming the dogs see you as their leader). I agree with Aimee in that this is a hard one to call in such a short period of time, and with just this one encounter, but GENERALLY males and females get along better than two males and definitely better than two females.

Just wanted to add, that not all tail wagging is happy tail wagging... a tail held high and wagging slowly could mean something else entirely, if I'm not mistaken.

I hope all this works out the way you would like for it too! (You might want to read up on Ed's "how to break up a dog fight" to be on the safe side, JUST in case.

Hi Barbara -- thanks. My 4 yr old male only did that behavior -- tried mounting her -- very briefly the first day we brought her home. Then after that she was barking aggressively at him and he just tried to avoid her, didn't even want to walk past her crate in the house. We gave her verbal correction for that barking and it stopped within a couple days. Now we walk them on leashes fairly close to each other, he just ignores her totally. And she either ignores him in fsvor of looking sround or hoping for a treat. So at this point there's not even any bad behavior to correct......that's why I don't know if we're being sensible or overly cautious at this point. I hate to send her away without never seeing how they get along in the yard! I've read all Ed's stuff on intorucing dogs, dogfights, etc. and watched the video on Pack Structure........oh -- the tail wagging -- there is definitely no posturing on anyone's part, no stiff legs or tail, etc. Thanks for your help!
Michael

Michael, how are they all doing?