My dogs are fighting a lot

Tiddlypeeps

I have two dogs, one is a large wire haired terrier cross and the other is a small whippet cross. The terrier is slightly bigger than the whippet but they are very close in size. They usually get on very well, the smaller one gets very anxious when she is not around the bigger dog but every so often they have some sort of disagreement and the smaller one starts getting aggressive towards the bigger one. She would start growling and then nipping and eventually the bigger dog gets annoyed and they get into a scrap.

They get into a scrap in front of us about once a week. It started about 3 months ago, we moved house about 2 months ago and it's only been getting worse since. This has only happened once that I'm aware of when myself and my partner weren't around. I came home and the smaller dog had a cut on her face. It could happen more frequently than that tho but without injury so I would never know.

The most common time they start fighting is when they are getting attention from us and they get very jealous of each other. The bigger dog often tries to push the smaller dog out of the way if one of us is petting her or the smaller dog will bark and growl at the bigger dog if we are petting her. We try to ignore the jealousy and not reward it, if the bigger dog tries to push the smaller one out of the way we usually just push her back and continue petting the smaller dog. We try to ignore the barking of the smaller dog or we will say no to her. It doesn't seem to work tho.

Yesterday they got into a scrap in the garden and my partner tried to grab the bigger one by the collar and she bit him. We both think it was an accident because she was so worked up and she let go the second she realised it wasn't the other dog she had in her mouth. The bite left a fairly deep puncture in the palm of his hand and a couple of very swollen bruises on the other side of his hand. It was the worst fight I've seen them get into, the smaller dogs nose was covered in scrapes and she had a puncture wound on her chin.

I have no idea what to do now. I'm afraid to be around them now incase they get into a fight. We were lucky this time, the damage could have been much worse. If we can't stop them from behaving like this then it's only a matter of time before they do some serious damage to each other or us.

Is it possible that we will be able to train this behaviour out of them? I love them both to bits and really don't want to have to get rid of them but if I can't stop this behaviour then keeping them around would be very irresponsible. I don't believe that either of them would deliberately hurt anyone.

I have no idea where to go from here

andreac

Are they both bitches? How old are they and are either of them neutered/spayed?

Tiddlypeeps

andreac wrote: »

Are they both bitches? How old are they and are either of them neutered/spayed?

They are both bitches. The bigger one is almost 4 years old and the smaller one is just under 3 years old.

Neither of them are spayed, it's something I meant to get done but never had the money for. I never saw it as a huge priority because they are never around male dogs, they are contained in the garden and are always on a lead when they are outside the house. Does that make a difference to their temperament? I was told by our vet that it should have no effect on their personalities.

I'm in a position to afford it now so if that will help I'll definitely get it done, I should probably get it done anyway.

andreac

Unfortunately you could have a major problem on your hands here. Bitches tend to not get on together as well as two males and if they start fighting then it can be very hard to stop it.

I would look into getting professional help with this one.

Also, i really would urge you to get at least one of them spayed as this might help with hormones etc.

But you need to keep them separate when they are unsupervised and do not leave them alone at all when you arent around as they will fight to the death if given a chance.

No, spaying wont have an impact on their personalities.

Tiddlypeeps

I will get them both spayed. The vet said I should have it done anyway because it can reduce the chance of cancer in later life so I've been meaning to get it done, I've just been putting it off. This has made it a priority so I will get it done asap.

What do you mean by professional help? A professional trainer or something else?

Can you recommend anybody in Dublin that might be able to help me?

belongtojazz

I would recommend Siobhan at Dublin pet school

http://www.dublinpetschool.com/

I had her out about 18months ago for nearly the exact same situation and it made a huge difference to us. My girls never became best friends but they were certainly able to live together without trying to kill each other.

There is probably some very subtle stuff going on between your girls that you are not trained to see but a decent behavourist can spot straight away.

Best of luck, I understand the utter misery worrying that your dogs may seriously injure each other.