Aggression after spay

dellytots

I Rescued a 1yr old female terrier from the pound before Christmas she was lovely and fitted in with our other terriers perfectly. We got her spayed last month and now she is becoming aggressive towards one of my older females (growling and snapping at her) yesterday the older female had enough and bit the newer dog on the leg causing a puncture wound and grabbed her neck which is now badly bruised.

I'm worried to keep the two of them together now. I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this as I'm hoping it's a hormonal thing and will eventually settle down......

DBB

There is some evidence to suggest that spaying can increase aggressive tendencies in females, but this tends to be the case where there was already signs of aggression and/or nervousness pre-spay.
Terrier females are always a risk to keep together, spayed or not. Chances are that this problem is not related to the spay, or at least not entirely so. It's quite likely that your new female is growing in confidence as she gets more familiar with her new surroundings, and is starting to exhibit more "pushiness" that may always have been there, but was masked because of behavioural inhibition you often see in dogs in a new environment, some call it the "new kid in the playground" syndrome.
And, as I've already said, keeping two female terriers tends to come with a higher risk of inter-dog aggression than breeds from other dog groups (gundogs and hounds are generally more peaceable, for example). It's not a combination I'd ever deliberately set up in a home, because of the higher risk.
You'll need to keep a very close eye on things here OP... When two females decide to take exception to each other, it can be difficult to reconcile... They don't call them bitches for nothing! You may need to have a careful management system in place so that they can be kept seperate at times, and you could benefit from getting some properly qualified professional help in to assess what's going on. And when I say "properly qualified", I really do mean it, this is one of those problems the cowboys tend to get horribly wrong.

dellytots

We know all too well what two female terriers are like as we already have to keep our much older, one eyed terrier on her own most of the day. She senile and starts fights she cant finish with the same dominant female. So I don't want to be stuck keeping another two seperate.

We've 7 dogs altogether - 4 females, 3 males (all rescues). The rest all get on fine except for the odd little spat over a toy or food.

I know pack mentallity takes over when you have multiple dogs but I'm still hoping its a hormonal change. Although shes a little more settled since they had their fight. Maybe she's been put back in place!!

carav10

I did have a similar problem for a few months after getting my pup spayed at 7 months. She became more aggressive towards my older dog (also female) and would go for her over pretty much nothing. Initially I put it down to being still in pain, but when we were well past that stage, I put it down to going through her bossy, moody, teenage, adolescence age. It was a nightmare, it would go into full blown fights. After about two'big' fights and a few other near misses, it was obvious that there was a pattern. Main thing I found was not to panic when it happened. I did initially and then eventually just stood back to see what would happen before intervening.

It always happened in the kitchen, if the pup thought that the older dog was getting more attention or might be sniffing out a piece of food on the ground etc that she didn't have. I had up until then taken care to treat them equally in the attention stakes. But the pup was establishing her position of topdog and I needed to recognise that. My older one initially wasn't too keen to give over, but when the originally small pup grew into a big pup who good sit on top of her, she realised it was an easier life to give in & keep her distance if the pup got in a little mood.

I learned to recognise the warning signs of the pup (would stand stock still staring at the other as if saying 'what do you think you're doing') and do some distraction with a toy or high pitched fun voice (calling her every name under the sun while I put it on!) for her to make it all happy atmosphere again.

Initially I was panicking thinking, they'll have one so bad they won't get over it, and that would be a nightmare as I wouldn't be able to keep them separate long term.

But looking for the pattern, very careful handling and reading the dogs has gotten us through that 2 month period of pure nightmare and always waiting for the next breakout. You need to watch your behaviour as well and do recognise which dog will be the boss between them. They will decide this, not you.

Thankfully, we've had none in 3 months now, and they're best buds. If older dog senses something, she goes and sits at the back door out of the way and leaves pup to it.

And as a final story...
The last fight they had broke out at 1am when I'd been out, they'd gone for their last pee & gotten their bedtime treat. Next thing all hell broke loose over pretty much nothing! I managed to grab the big pup from the back legs and pull her back thinking, ok once they're separated, older dog will retreat. nah...she came back right at her in a very uncharacteristic way! So I reached for the first thing to hand which was the kitchen fire extinguisher not realising it was a powder based one.... it worked...got them both out the back door, turned around to see this cloud rising and spread itself all over the kitchen and dining area....I was so mad at the two of them, I left them out there for 30mins to sort themselves out. A lot of pacing was done, pup was tracking older dog, older dog was a bit afraid and trying to get away from her. But eventually, I looked out and pup was giving the other's ear a good lick. We haven't had a fight since.

dellytots

Worst then ever now!! Had a fight yesterday thankfully I was in the garden to split them up. Older dog ended up in the vets though with a bad cut on her nose. Looking like we'll have to rehome the younger dog as they can't be trusted together We'll just have to hold onto her until the right home comes along...

Kukey

How are things now with the two dogs?

dellytots

Kukey wrote: »

How are things now with the two dogs?

Unfortunately we had to get in touch with the rescue who we got the 1yr old from. She is going to a foster home today

They just never settled back down after their last fight.

I'd say it could have just been that she wanted to be top dog and our dominent female isn't ready to give up her post just yet!!

We feel terrible but it wasn't fair on any of the dogs. Hopefully it's the right decision and she finds the right home quickly

Kukey

I'm sorry to hear that but it probably was for the best,it would have been a nightmare for you trying to keep them separate.I would have made the same decision if it was my dogs.She would probably be better in a home on her own or with a male dog.I have 2 females myself and thankfully haven't had any problems.