please help us help this cutie....

[shihtzuma]

Hello fellow dog lovers.......we need some really serious help so that we can help lil Missy who we rescued a lil while back. Missy is a 3-5 yr old female un-spayed shih tzu mix, that we found in the road. Since no one claimed her she joined our fur kid family about 9 months ago. I have 3 shihs. Rosy is 4 yrs old un-spayed female and Ive had her since she was 8 weeks old. Bobby is about 3 yrs old and is a nuetered male and Ive had him about 2 yrs. Rose is the definate boss of the crew, even the cat listens to her LOL. All 3 dogs got along just fine, they ate, slept and played together without any fights or problems until a couple weeks ago. Out of the blue Rose and Missy started to have small fights then it turned into really huge fights, they seem to be killing each other literaly. They have actualy drawn blood and we cant even let them see each other right now or they go crazy. I am trying to see if keeping them totaly seperated, not even seeing each other will help but its been a week almost without any kind of improvements. Rose seems to be trying to keep her postion in the pack against the faster Missy, Rose is laid back and Missy is hyper and fast.

These are my options: :confused: 1. keep the girls seperated forever 2. find Missy a new home and 3. find a way to help the girls get along.........I dont want to do option 1 since at times they will/do get at each other and they are at some point going to get hurt or hurt who ever is trying to get them off of each other. Option 2 isnt what I want to do at all either since we love Missy and she is part of the family now. Option 3 is really my only option, I hope. Nothing I have tried is working so we need some new ideas to try with these 2 nutty crazy girls........Please help........thanks in advance.... :)

[onyxeyes]

that sucks...maybe having them spayed would help? i'm not sure, but i know neutering males helps their agression sometimes. let us know what you figure out!

[opokki]

I would get them spayed and see if that helps. Dog to dog aggression is very common in unaltered dogs of the same sex.

[shihtzuma]

I would love to have them spayed but due to medical issues to do this would be way to expenive and very risky for Rosy which I wouldnt even think of endangering her..... :confused:

[Newfi lover]

Well, the standard answer would be to contact a behaviorist. I really am not sure if that would help though. It does sound like they are fighting for pack leadership status, and niether one is backing down.
I hate to say it, but, you may end up like me, I have two a have to keep separated. My two are one male one female, and they would kill each other if I had them together.
So, we do some juggling, one comes inside, while one goes outside, and then it starts over.
I wouldn't recommend you letting them get together even for a moment, until you can figure out what you are going to do. Either get professional help, or keep them separated. I have never gotten rid of a dog, because of this paticular issue, so I wouldn't recommend that, unless you found a completely awesome home, even then I think that would be very hard on everyone.
Good luck,
Elizabeth

[my_cat_sissy]

I have seen this issue addressed on a television show and used the advice to tame my two female cats from fighting with each other. It really worked!

The two female dogs on the tv show were always fighting. The behaviourist said it was because they were fighting to be the alpha dog. If you know which really is the dominant dog, you must feed it first, greet it first, and pay it more attention. In other words, treat the queen like a queen. If this is what they are fighting about, the same thing should work for your dogs. Good luck!

In addition:Many things can trigger this behavior. If you had any reason to give one special treatment such as an illness, if one was removed from the house for a day or so, etc. You may be able to figure out exactly what the cause was.

All was fine in my house until my male cat Ted died and we gave Sally (the little widow) a little extra loving because we felt sorry for her. She and Ted were inseperable. That was when all hell broke loose.

[opokki]

I would love to have them spayed but due to medical issues to do this would be way to expenive and very risky for Rosy which I wouldnt even think of endangering her..... :confused:

Can't Missy be spayed? Maybe just having one of them done would help the situation. I don't blame you at all for not wanting to spay Rosy if it would be too risky for her. I'm sure there are ways that this situation can be worked with....I think a trainer/behaviorist would be your best bet.

[Davesmom]

I agree with Sissy. What if you keep them separate but still allow them to see eachother. Maybe put a fence outside to separate them so they can see eachother and not be able to hurt eachother. Where does Bobby enter into all of this?