I have a 4 yr old spayed German lined bitch who is extremely protective and fear driven. I have been told that she is very "sharp." Accordingly, I work her daily in obedience so that she knows who is in charge. I have also worked her in herding, schutzhund, and personal protection. She is over 100lb and has high prey drive. I have been using Tri-tronics as a training tool.

I have two other dogs, a lab and GSD. Both are 2 years old and have been neutered. My female has been around them since they were pups and didn't mind them. When they turned 1yr., we moved to another state. After the move, she began attacking the lab. The first instance happened when the two pups where rough housing. (I figure that it was a dominance/control issue.) I corrected her and continued to work obedience. She continued to go after the lab, for what appeared to be no reason. So, I separated the dogs and worked with her more.

After a few months, I was able to get her to be in the same room with the lab w/o attacking. For months things were great until she got him again, this time biting all the way through his leg breaking his bone. I completely separated the dogs.

Last night, she went after my submissive 2yr old GSD with whom she had never had a problem. He was running and playing with her as usual and she took him down. She would not Ous even with the Tri Tronic.

I do not want to put the male GSD through the agony of training "trial and error" like the lab. I am afraid my female has set her target on him. Any training advice would be appreciated. Maybe this female should not be around other dogs?

Maybe this female should not be around other dogs? This is probably the best way to protect your other dogs from her sudden attacks, better to be safe than sorry.

Ed has a good article written here on the website about dog dominance that would be worth your time to glance over.

The easiest solution that has 100% chance to succeed is to simple keep the female seperated from the other dogs from now on.

I am having a very similar problem with an aggressive female American bulldog- she just attacks out of nowhere! I mostly keep them separated in the house, (they are fine outside) but if I have to have them together I keep them muzzled. Seems to work but it doesn't seem right to muzzle the non aggressive dog. Do I have to or will just muzzling her make her feel she has something to prove?

Thanks for the quick responses! Shelly, I have known a few people to muzzle w/ success. I have also heard some trainers say that muzzling increases aggression. Why would you have to muzzle the non-aggressive one though?

I understand the attacking out of no where! I am sure there is a reason - pack order I assume - but it seems to come unprovoked (besides the initial puppy rough housing incident). My husband calls our bitch a bully because she seems to pick on the weakest. When she attacked the male GSD, he was wearing a cone to keep him from licking a sore on his foot. It was almost like she knew that she could win.

Exactly! The male has an injured leg(cruciate tear he's recovering from). I muzzled both in an attempt to keep from creating more jealousy. I'm trying to convince both they are equal. Tonight though a fight erupted over him shouldering her out, I'm ready to throw in the towel...

>>I'm trying to convince both they are equal.

That's where you made the 'big mistake'...where or when in a dog pack does one have 2 alphas???? Only when there is ONE LEADER are you going to get balance and harmony in a pack. What you've done is created dissension amongst the pack and they will continue to 'tear' each other apart until a winner and a loser is declared. Unfortunately neither will be willing to give up that position easily and there is a very good probability that someone is going to get badly hurt.

 Quote:

Originally posted by Brigita Brinac:
That's where you made the 'big mistake'...where or when in a dog pack does one have 2 alphas???? Only when there is ONE LEADER are you going to get balance and harmony in a pack. ...

Um, in my "pack" I am the Alpha and definitely none of my dogs. Also, they may as well not try to fight for rank position, because there is no way in "heck" they will ever get my position. Fighting for Beta position is really just fighting to get into a position to become next Alpha. Since that will never happen ...

Have never had problems even when I got dogs into my home who had been encouraged to fight with other dogs :rolleyes: I am the boss and my rules are very simple: No fighting in the ranks ever .

I decide who eats when.
I decide who plays when.
I make all the decisions ...

... and they better live with it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Brigita is right with this one. I have tried to explain this to other people on this board about my dog but many seem to think my dogs are just uncontrollable and crazy. I know exactly what you are talking about. And I must say that I know why they call them "bitches" now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Females are very bad about this especially around other females. You have to take control in this situation. You cannot let these dogs be together. Period! I know you think that you are the leader,which I dont doubt that you have established yourself. But it has been my experience that the handler can make his place clear in the pack but dogs will still challenge other dogs. I cannot stress enought that people dont need to keep their dogs together. I know that not all dogs are like this and some people live very happy lives with several dogs and never have this problem, but you obviously have this problem so you need to keep them separated because you are going to see this again if you dont change this. You dont want any of your dogs to get hurt.

Brigita is right on this. there is only one alpha and there is only ONE beta too. So by trying to convince the two dogs that they are "equal" you are setting up the constant conflict to move up into the beta position.

I have gone thru this with my dogs. one is dominant to the others and I acknowledge this ALL the time to the other dogs. She gets petted first by me, I push the others away until she gets her greeting. She gets fed first, groomed first, etc... She is by no means trying to dominate ME but this sends a clear message to the others of the pack order and keeps violence to a minimum.

This is a simplified explanation of how this works and it works much better when the dogs are raised from puppyhood this way. they don't question the family structure as much. Doing this with adults that already have issues with each other can be a little tricky and if the dogs are real fighters could be dangerous.

In that case then Howard is right....keep them separate before someone gets hurt.

P.S. Hey B, more pictures please!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />