At the end of October I lost my Bullmastiff Moose who without a doubt was my second in command and alpha amoung the dogs if I wasn't there. Unsuprisingly this caused some troubles with the rest of the pack. And I quite honestly have no idea on how to go about things. Most of the trouble is with the girls interacting with the boys I believe. Here is some background on the pack so that maybe those on this board may help.

Adam is my eldest boy at 9 years old, he is a great dane and intacted. He has the typical great dane behavior, very submissive and does everything he is asked. Lately, he has been staying at my aunts in order to keep from stressing his heart condition otherwise he stays in the kennels or is on the road showing. If I were to guess his place in the pecking order it would be very low and he is fine with that. He was bought at 8 weeks and has been with me every since.

Chloe is my eldest bitch at 8 years old, she is also a great dane and intacted. She is the more territorial than most but only to humans in the yard, she could care less about animals. She is usually kept in the kennels with Adam or on the road showing. She is more dominant bitch that I have but she hasn't been in one scuffle. She was bought at 2 years to add to our breeding program.

Jersey is 7 years old, male and intact. He is the odd one of the group as an Italian greyhound. He is rather easy going and would much rather stay in the kennels though for the past couple of weeks he has been in the house as he is too cold out there. He is the most ignored in the group. He was my first juniors dog and was retired to our kennel.

Kratos is 4 years old, male and intact. He is an English mastiff. He spends most of his time outside with Jersey and was Moose's best bud for lack of better words. He has been mopey since Moose passed and ignores most of the pack. He was bought at 8 weeks as a preformance dog and has been with Adam and Chloe since.

Jinx is a 2 year old, female and spayed. She is a boxer. She is fear aggressive towards unknown humans. When Moose was alive she was constantly around him and it has been a joke that Moose was her confidence. Jinx was a rescue that we were begged to take. My mother and brother took a midnight run to get her and her sister in TN. They were both 5 months at the time

Isis is Jinx's sister from the same litter, and is also spayed. She is human aggressive to everyone and dog aggressive to unknown dogs. I believe that she is the one causing the most trouble. Isis is basically everything combined to create a bad dog.

Kona is my last dog at just a year. He is a male great dane puppy that we just got for conformation. He has a very even temperment and no trouble. He is usually in the kennel and is about to go on the road.

Our family doesn't own any crates except for the show crates which are never taken out of the van. Everybody is trained in basic obedience and Isis and Jinx have gotten better around other humans.

If you have read through all this then I congratulate you. Hopefully, someone will be able to help me and my pack in our time of need.

You have a lot of dogs. It sounds like you also have a kennel set-up. I'd just separate, and keep separate, the dogs. This is a lot of dogs to work out dynamics between, figure out who gets along with who, etc.

You're going to need more crates.

For now, I'd keep their interactions down to one dog with one other dog, at most, and only when you can supervise 100% to watch for dominant or bullying behaviors. Eventually you can work out which two dogs get along well, but they should never be loose together unless you're present to keep an eye on them.

They should all be separate in their kennels. I wouldn't kennel two dogs together- if they fight, and even the best of buddies can get into a fight if the conditions are right, they're trapped with no escape.

How much exercise are these dogs getting a day?

Usually the dogs are in pairs because of the way we have been seperating them. When we do leave, however, they are all seperated though in rooms or kennels and not crates. I'll take your suggestion though and talk to the rest of the family about getting some more crates.

Kratos and Jersey have been getting road worked for a combined total of 2-3 hrs every day.

Chloe and Kona are given two long walks and if the weathers right they are allowed to go swim in the lake.

Jinx is given 2 walks of about 6 miles and a hour with the flirt pole.

Isis is given 2 walk of 6 miles as well as an hour with the flirt pole and is also taken with me when I run cross country as Moose used to do.

I noticed as I was writing this Isis does a body block type behavior towards Kratos if he is around even through a gate. If I prevented this would it help? And how would I go about that?

Being able to visually bully each other can increase stress, yep.
I'd try to create some sort of visual barriers between the dogs if possible.

For now, I'd take everything down to one-on-one, increase exercise as much as possible, and focus on obedience work.

In a month or two, when you know everyone has reliable recalls and down/stays, you can start going back to pairs again.

What kind of shows do you do? I mean if a dog has a heart condition...........Just curious

I'm in Conformation mostly. Adam's heart condition is Dilated Cardiomyopathy. We caught it the week before he was to be bred the first time. However, it was the family's decision to leave him intact for what little time he has left.

So what exercises do you practice with the dogs as a pack.

It sounds like they get adequate physical stimulation seperately, but is there anything they do together. Also, I would up the mental stimulation - structured pack obedience is an awesome dog "bonder", as well as structured pack walks (on leash, fast paced, no playing).

Sit, down and stand stays as a pack are excellent brain workouts that can be done together.

Start with the most stable pair that you currently have and add one dog at a time as you master each element.

Until you can have 100% control over each dog individually, none of them should be together IMO. Not even the currently paired ones. As you said before, your one dog saw the other has it's confidence, it's leader - all of them need to see you that way, not the other dogs.

Crate, kennel and seperate, work all the dogs seperately and slowly integrate into structured OB sessions (not free time) and realize that you may have dogs that can never be together outside of the structured exercises that you are providing for them. They may be the seperate for life type dogs...