Hello,
I put a question on the board here earlier and I came to a point where I'm getting nervous about raising 2 sheppard/lab/masiff bitches. People are now telling me that when they get older the two sisters will not get along. They would have the worse fights. Is this true?? Please, please let us know your opinions! We sure do not want to get rid of one!!!!!!!!!!!! We can't live without both! We were hoping they would be best friends and play with eachother!
If this is true, how can we train or how can we possibly give it back to rescue paws?? Please tell me everything you know! Thank you!

Hi,

I don't like to tell you this but having 2 female dogs is not really a good idea.  They can be a lot more aggressive than males.  I have a female Samoyed and a male Malamute and they are fine together.  Sometimes, my female will get aggressive with my male but he backs down.    I have seen another side to my female and I have been hearing a lot that having the same sex dogs can create some problems.    Sometimes, you can be lucky enough to have both of them get along.  When we introduced our male puppy to our 4 1/2 year old female, I was very much like you in hoping that they would be lovey dovey with each other but that is yet to come!  If he even touches her, she will growl at him!!  I hope this helps you somewhat, although it's probably what you didn't want to hear.  Sorry I can't help anymore. 

Regards
Charlene

Would advice at least 2 years between dogs in the multi dog home, have never had a problem with males, they squabble and forget in a few moments but have had trouble with bitches they fight and never forget. Now it is not certain that you will have trouble but with your bitches but being as big as they are you will need to have superb control should things start to get out of hand to make sure you can stop it before it gets to the serious stage and I would always separate them if you are not there.

Now I know of a lot of multi bitch homes where there is no problem, I think people are worried because with yours it is a big problem and that whilst fighting, if they do, a child or indeed you could be very seriously hurt, and so would the bitches. Also think people are surprised that a rescue centre would home 2 same age dogs together.

Some females will get along ok.

However if there is a falling out between females there tends to be no 'forgive and forget', they will hate each other for the rest of their lives. This means you will either have to keep them separate at all times or rehome one of them.

It might help if only one of them is spayed as this might provide a definitive dominant bitch to whom the spayed one will defer.

It is very much the luck of the draw though, and personally I would never take the risk of keeping two bitches.

Contrary to what most people think I have always found that spayed bitches become more aggressive not less, so it would be better if you decide to spay one to do the dominant one, but would not like to say it will help at all, may even make things worse.

Think it may be better to re-home one now before you become even more attached to them, if you can somewhere other than the rescue you got them from, but if you cant then give the bitch back to them suggesting that they should not have let you have two in the first place.

Having two of the same age and sex will almost invariably lead to fights, especially in dog dominant breeds.

Now with your crossbreeds you have no way of telling which breed chatracterwise they will take after.  Most Gundogs will get along OK, but most of the Guarding breed, mastiff type won't as they want to be dominant.

I own five females of the same breed as Jackie H, but there is at least two years, and mostly 3 years plus between them in age, and I have always let it be known that I will not tolerate squabbles.  They are a breed who are generally sociable, but even then some bitches will take against each other.

Male dogs fight more, but for a reason, the girls just because they dislike each other.

It was most unwise for the rescue to let you have two.  Most reputable breeders would not sell two of any breed except very occasionally to very experienced homes with appropriate breeds.

Spaying tends to make bitches more dominant and agressive.

We have 3 bitches and 1 dog and never leave them unsupervised as the bitches,even the most placid one tends to flare up at the slightest thing,like who's toy is it,who is getting in to the trough for a drink etc.It's rare that they fight,but that undercurrent is there all the time,sandra.

Please read your other post.

I have currently a three bitch one dog household,the dog being the oldest at 7yrs,(he is an entire Rotty.Then come the bitches,GSD 5yrs,Bullmastiff 4yrs and finally Rotty 2.5yrs.Last christmas we had the most unholy battle between the two youngest bitches with the result being myself getting bitten by the Bully.After taking advice from a behaviour expert and having the Bully spayed(the Rotty is very dominant)we have now acheived harmony.I was helped enormously by Jan Fleming (The Dog Listener)and by an intensive obedience program.A multi bitch household can be acheived but hard work,dedication and understanding are all needed to put this into play.Oh just in case you wondered the male Rotty is at the bottom of the pecking order in our house.Good luck

I had two bitches who really hate each other with a vengence.  Lana is 3 and Lydia 10, they started fighting when Lana was about 7 months old and neither of them wd. give in, I often had to come between them.  Lana now lives with my parents. 

Lana and Lydia haven't seen each other now for about a year and I took Lydia to mum and dad's last week and before Lydia even walked through the door Lana was there ready to pounce, for the full two hours my dad and I sat there holding their collars, not much fun.

Don't worry though just because you have 2 bitches doesn't mean this is going to happen, although I know 3 weeks before a season that my other girls are due to come in as they start fighting then.  They never fight before this or after they are 2/3 of the way through their seasons and fortunately they don't fight too violently like my other two did.  Luckily they all come in within a week of each other, so most of the year is wonderful and peaceful.