I have a female 4 year old JRT she has always been very aggressive towards my smaller Jack Russell. But lately she has been very aggressive towards her. To the point of drawing blood.
She only exibits these tendencies towards her, she is nothing but a sweetheart with us.
But I'm at my wits end . She is just too aggressive and I'm afraid that she will seriously injure my other JRT. I have thought about a muzzel and I know that sounds horrid but I dont know what else to do does anybody have any kind of advise. please.

If two bitches start to fight it is usually more serious and harder to deal with than two males. Which (if any) of the two are spayed? Do you treat them both equally, or do you favour one above the other? How old is the smaller bitch - is she just coming into season, for example, and how long have you had her? There could be many causes of this behaviour, but it could be just the 4 year-old's nature, I'm afraid. :( My friend has a JR bitch who has always been a "bossy-boots" to the other dogs, drawing blood. The oldest crossbreed has now (after 6 years of abuse from the JR) started to retaliate, and my friend has to keep them separated at all times in the house.

Thank you for your info, both females are spayed and I actually had the smaller female first. Bailey the bossy aggressive one came second. I have all ways tried to give them the same attention and so has my husband , but Bailey (bossy) has always felt she should have first and foremost all of our attention. I will infact keep them seperate ,but do you think a muzzel on her would help ? Because believe it or not she wants to be with the other dog but she is way to intense.

Trying to treat them equally could be the root of your problem - a naturally bossy dog is following her natural instincts, and your behaviour is promoting the naturally subordinant dog into 'her space' or 'her resources' - try to recognise that there are differences in each dogs needs and deal with them accordingly.

Trying to treat them both the same may, in fact, be adding to the problem. It would be worth trying to boost the "bossy" one's position and lower the status of the other. Put Bailey's food bowl down first, put her lead on first for a walk, stroke her first etc. She may be trying to prove to the other that she is "top dog" and if you can 'back her up' in this it may relax her and stop her feeling she has to "prove herself" all the time. Hope this helps - it's a horrible problem to have.

Hi Wenmur, not haveing had this sort of situation or breed not to much I can say on that, but have you been to obedience classes before? and can you retrain them? what kind of obedience classes did you go to?

I agree that treating the 2 dogs the same may have caused or made the aggression problem worse, unfortunately although we as humans like to be "fair", dogs don't think as we do :)

It may be possible to manage or solve the problem by always making the aggressive dog "first" in everything, first to be acknowledged, first to be fed, first to get in the car, etc. However the situation may be more complex than this, it's not sensible to give "complete" advice via email for serious aggression problems.

There is also the sad fact that some bitches just don't get on, and never will. HOwever it is interesting that you state that the more aggro bitch wants the company of the other one.

Best wishes
Lindsay