i have five dogs in all 2 newfys a boy an girl aged 4 a staffy aged 8 and a toy yorkie aged 6 and last but not least a 13 month halequinn dane. Majority of the time they all get on well but for the ast three weeks the female newfy and the great dane fight at every opprotunity and i dont know why, its not over food.
can any one help or suggest something as one is going to get hurt, cannot let the 2 newfys out with the dane now as the male will gang up with his mate against the dane, otherwise they are all very placid. Could it be the pecking order thing. Dont want to get rid of any of my dogs

Absolutely to do with the pecking order, your Dane is now an adolescent and is jostling for the top spot, all dogs have different characters along with their breed traits, with an older female in tow most new bitches will accept the older as the higher ranking bitch, but your Dane obviously has a strong character and also being a large breed and characteristically more dominant a breed, she will ultimately take over.

So, unless your Newfie can stand her ground, the Dane will eventually take over now there is an issue with continual fighting, if your Newfie just can't put her in her place they will fight until serious injury or even death, bitches take no prisoners and believe me anything can set them off now.

Are the Staffie and Yorkie bitches or dogs? As the 8 year old Staffie if a bitch may well be the actual top dog, in which case once the Dane is through with the Newfie she may well turn her attentions to the Staffie, hopefully the Yorkie if a bitch will be giving submissive rolls.

You can't have inner fighting like this, all the breeds are too powerful to handle, (except for your Yorkie) for now you will need to seperate the Dane, and with luck once she is through adolesence (seasons can also cause snappy behaviour, who is neutered who is not?) things may settle via body language, for now you can not chance it, there is nothing you can do to make the situation go away other than seperation I'm afraid. :-(

Sorry, just to add you must install yourself as the authority figure here, make sure you do plenty of one to one training with the Dane and that she becomes obediant to your every command,  never leave the Newfie and Dane alone together, one word from you and the Dane needs to be coherant if told to leave your Newfie alone, as an adolescent dogs tend to go deaf and their hormones over-ride our hard work, but continue daily with training her this will all help once she is out of adolesence, which will be in another 12-24 months, with this breed.

is one due in season? this may cause issues also?

Hi,

If your Dane hasn't already been in season then she could be due and this could definitely cause upset?  Have their been any changes in the home or anything of late, Danes are very sensitive dogs and they can be easily unsettled.  Do any of the dogs seems different in any other way, has there been any other change in your Dane, has any of the dogs been poorly?

You sat that it's not over food, but does there seem to be any trigger, such as you, toys, playing amongst themselves, at greeting times etc.

Beware! You are going to end up with a seriously injured dog. You have been made aware of the possibility of 2 bitches fighting and yet you seem surprised. They do not stop. I ended up having to PTS the older dog  as the injuries were so severe. 14months was the age of the GD when it first occurred. this was 30 years ago BTW.
Although you do not want to part with one you have upset your household and this young GD will continue to assert herself. Are all the others neutered and if not why not do that first and especially the GD.
I assume you walk them all for  several hours each day to tire them out and I also assume you give the Newfies some work to do as they are Working Dogs. Well GD can work as well and it gives them mental stimulation. If the answer to these questions is no then there is a line you could take. Make yourself the leader by giving them some orders.

Hi Louise,

It isn't always that simple.  Maybe I've missed other posts by this poster that gives more info but from this post there is very limited information to be diagnosing the cause of this sudden fighting.  It could be down to adolesence but there are many causes of fighting and aggressive displays that could be causing this.  Everybodies idea of leadership is differerent and diagnosing problems with aggression over the net can IMO often cause more harm than good.  I think where aggression is involved, especially in situations like this where it could potentially be dangerous it is always best to enlist the help of a recommended professional that can come in and do a full assessment and advise the best course of action.