my dog Bridget is very agressive towards Pisa in the house.
, The dogs all live in the house, same room so they see each other lots in a day,
here is their living arangements, to the right is Pisa's x pen and crate, to the left behind the blue gates each of the big girls have a room, the white gate leads to the rest of the house
the 3 are never together, always pisa in her pen or crate when the mastiffs are out, and vise a versa.

so, we have recently started face to face intro's out side, Pisa is really crazy like a puppy, but both of the big girls tollerate her, but show some avoidence Pisa can walk under them and kinda trys to herd them.

last night I had Pisa(11mo old) in our chicken coop, for a bit of training, play tug, fetch, and had my wife bring Bridget(almost 4) into the coop.
It went awsome, lots of sniffing and even got both dogs to do some ob in front of each other.( like the other was not there)Pisa came each time I called her, Bridget would down while Pisa was sniffing her face
later in the house The big girls were laying infront of the couch, Pisa in her pen, all sleeping.I opened up Pisa's pen thinking we would have a happy visit(first face to face in house since spring and it was ugly like this)
wrong.. as soon as Pisa got close Bridget jumped up and slamed her paw down on Pisa,leveling her and started pulling her under, at that point(less than a second after letting her out) I had to grab bridget(she was not complying with go bed)almost ripped my finger nail off on something while wrestling bridget to bed and my wife got pisa put away, Delilah just watched(thank goodness)

every now and then bridget walks over to Pisa in her pen and starts barking while lunging at Pisa.

I know I still have lots of work and desenitizing to do, but it is weird when outside goes so well, but inside Bridget acts like she hates Pisa

---

Inside there is less room to move away, retreat, escape, more trapped, cornored, also more territorial behavior is usually exhibited inside then outside.

I think that you may be pushing too fast too hard to 'make' this all work. Take a step back.

My dogs took 2+ years to be able to live together peacefully outside & longer inside for the reasons above. They will still get in a 'tiff' inside, at times, when they don't have the ability to get out of each others way. Especially when their drive level is up. ie: excited about going outside, out in the truck to go to the field etc etc.

It is not something that you can rush. Each dog is different. You are trying to get 3 to get along. Even harder. I had 3 here for a year that didn't get along & had to be kept seperated. It is not easy to deal with, but if you rush it & they keep fighting you can end up with a situation where they will never get along. The more they fight the less likely they will ever get along. It kinda gets like muscle memory (for lack of a better term) it becomes the 'comfortable/default' state of mind. Not what you want to have happen.

I have to keep two of my females apart probably forever. They came from the same breeder so I just 'assumed' (I hate that word) they knew each other and would get along. They no sooner moved in here and WOW! Hoppy HATES 'Pelli. I am not even going to try to get them together. Crate and rotate/outside at different times, etc. Maybe someday, but I am not in any hurry to try them together ever again.

I've had serious issues in the past with females trying to co-exist. I just don't have it in me anymore to break up avoidable fights.

If you are able to work with them for however long it takes, then great for you. I have decided I'm much too old (and no longer immortal) and just have no need to have them loose in the house together. I do sometimes envy other people with packs of dogs loose in the house, but for the most part, I am content with the one on one time I get to spend with them.
Best wishes and be careful.

This was all very familiar to me several months ago, it ended very badly, (for a miriad of reasons), and it haunts us to this day.

In recent months, the 2 boerboels and the 2 pointers all crash out together with me in the evenings, and run together off lead over the fields, I still feed them separately, and the 2 sets sleep together in different rooms, but this has only been possible since we lost the young boerboel.

Mastiffs are, as I am sure you know, stubborn, wilfull and dominant, the best way for me to keep the harmony and peace going is to keep them all knackered, and I have spent hours on ob, using the e-collar as back up over the fields, not as a precaution between my lot, but because of other provocative nuisances when they are off lead.

I tried and tried to keep the 5 dogs together, used what I THOUGHT I had by way of experience and common sense, took and acted on advice, but still the combination of those particular dogs was a living nightmare.

Some dogs just can't be together, and it took one fight too many before I was forced to make the dreaded decision to have the youngster pts, the heartbreaking devastation reverberates to this day.

I wish you every piece of luck, urge you to take on board everything piece of advice the experts on here give you, try to keep a clear head if/when it all kicks off, and hope with all my heart this is a 'phase' that can be dealt with and moved on from.

My breeder, and now dear freind drove up to see us all today, and left with a happy heart and delighted at how the 4 dogs just happily play and co-exist, this compared to the overwhelming grief and guilt of the last time, with what had happened with Haz.

I wish you every success with your problem, sincerely and genuinely.

Anne's first paragraph screams with common sence,
It's not a problem keeping them seperate, I was hopeing to keep Pisa from being doggy anyway, Pisa can be in her pen with Bridget laying a few feet away so I guess I'm pretty lucky to have that.

and thanks to both Lisa and Tracey for the insite, I see a situation my people emotions need to be removed from

ok, this goes back to when Pisa was a puppy and atacked bridgets face, Bridget is not agressive, she is pre defensive,

Bridget has been wonderfull with our new pups, and as long as Pisa is polite bridget tolerates her.

I have really really watched for the triggers, its always Pisa.

I wrote a post on Pisa's reactivity, it really explained to me where this is comming from.

Dave,
IMO time to call in a professional to evaluate your situation. I can only imagine how stressful this must be to live with and how difficult it is to determine your best course of action. Not to mention trying to figure out what your dogs' behaviors are telling you. A new set of objective eyes could go far in assisting you work through this.

Hopefully, you don't take the quotes I've included as critical or judgemental. I use them only as an example of how important it is to stop trying to solve this problem on your own.

In the past two months you have gone from today:

 Quote: Dave Owen

this goes back to when Pisa was a puppy and atacked bridgets face, Bridget is not agressive, she is pre defensive
I have really really watched for triggers, its always Pisa

To just two months ago:

 Quote: Dave Owen

my dog Bridget is very agressive towards Pisa in the house. I know I still have lots of work and desenitizing to do, but it is weird when outside goes so well, but inside Bridget acts like she hates Pisa

I don't see any improvement --- just a change of blame on which dog is the issue.

Dave, the whole pack is the issue, and that includes human members too. Are you open to meeting with a behaviorist that specializes in aggression?

Good luck.







Edited by Connie Sutherland (02/12/2012 09:30 PM)
Edit reason: fix broken quote tags

duplicate post

Edited by Connie Sutherland (02/12/2012 09:25 PM)
Edit reason: delete duplicate

Dave I can't add anything of any use to this, but I want to tell you I understand some of what your frustration and despair is like to live with, it consumes your every waking moment, and it is miserable for all concerned, am at the end of a pm if you just want to vent, and sincerely wish you a positive and good resolution with Pisa and Bridget.

I type 9 words/min so I shorten thoughts to the detriment of what I ment

I will further elaborate later today.