Hi wonder if anyone can give me some advice, ive got an 11 year old shepard, and an 15 month old GWP, ive had the pointer bitch since she was 8 weeks old. back last summer i had the builders in , so i asked my daughter if she would take ben home with her, so she did. That was from july till he came back in october, for the first 5 days they were ok, he did try to mount her a lot, even though he is been done.emma had her first season in august, when she finished she sufferd from a phantom pregnancy, mastites. so like i said they got on ok for 5days. me and my daugter took them out and for no reason at all emma just went for him, there was a terrible figth, not just a sqaubble, so my daughter took him back home with her, but in the meantime she had a baby,and she cant cope with him at the moment , so we said we have to have him back home with us, im just a bit worried if they are going to fight again, she dosnt figth at all with other dogs. i wonder if it had anything to do with her hormones, she just got spayed this week. , and ben is due back on saturday.any advice would appreciated thanks heidi in north wales. hubby says they will be fine but im really worried, he wasnt there when they were figthing even got bit. cant stop thinking about it

The same sort of thing happened to me. I have 3 gsd bitches and 1 of them suffers really badly from false pregnancies.Luckily she only has 1 season per year but you can guarantee that 2 months after her season she starts carrying teddies around she even gets to the point where she tries to put them to her nipples so that they will suckle. She hides them in one corner usually behind the couch then guards them from the other dogs. At this time she is usually very stressed wondering why her pups arent suckling etc. and this also rubs off on the other dogs,meaning the whole house is in an uproar. I am getting her spayed in 2 weeks on the vets recommendation because when she is stressed and guarding her so called pups then all of the dogs start to fight the big problem is that there is always 2 dogs onto 1. The vet says its got something to do with their hormone levels. I think that when you introduce the dogs again they should fine providing that it is not too early after the spay so to make sure that she wont be in any pain. When the dogs fought was it when she was going through the false pregnancy or was it after?

HI THANKS FOR REPLYING SHE WAS IN SEASON LAST AUGUST, SO IT ALL HAPPEND ABOUT SEPTEMER, BEN CAME HOME IN THE BEGINNING OF OCTOBER, I THINK HER HORMONES ARE BACK TO NORMAL, SHE GOT SPAYED 5DAYS AGO, AND WE ARE PICKING BEN UP ON SATURDAY, IM REALLY NERVOS HOPE THEY BE OK, IT IS NOT NICE WHEN THEY DONT GET ON, SO DO YOU THINK THEY SHOULD BE OK, NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU BYE FOR NOW HEIDI

I think they'll be fine. It sounds like the fight was the same time as the phantom, which would make sense. Dont worry too much coz you'r dogs will pick up on it and it'll make em more stressed and they'll think that being reunited is a big, big deal.
Just in case they are going to fight I would introduce them on neutral ground maybe on a walk with the dog being away for a while , then take them to your garden and leave leads on for a n hour or so at least if any thing happens you just have to grab their leads and not their collars.
It does sound pretty daft but at least you arent getting bit and you can seperate them easier. This is what we do at the rescue kennels when we are mixing new dogs

Good luck and keep me posted. I would like to know how it goes.
Amy

Hi,

Your problem sounds similar to the one I had , that a younger dog was fighting with an older one.  My bitch pup has attacked my older male dog badly on three occasions.  This appears to have to stopped now and we have had no incidents since November. 
I did visit a behaviourlist, who gave me a few things to think about. 
I changed the pecking order of the pack ( i have three dogs in all) as suggested and things worked out well.
Do you think that the mounting was more of a dominance act than a sexual thing?

And do you think she attacked him to reassert her position or challenge his???

just to cut in here, but how and why did you change the pecking order. i was of the understanding, that they should sort the order out themselves obviously with you first. bye raffy

The reason the pecking order was changed was:

My two male dogs had never shown any obvious signs of whom was top dog and it was therefore alwayds very difficult for me to establish who was top dog.  I had always beleived it to be the older one.

The behaviourlist, had suggested that the young bitch had established in her mind that the middle aged dog was the top dog, and was having a go at the older one becuase he was getting top dog treatment.  Theolder dog was geting special privelages, which I never saw as privelages. Example:  I have a dog flap and have always allowed the middle dog access to the garden all day by allowing yhim to stay in the porch and outhouse when i was out but leaving the older dog in behind a baby gate as he is a true barker and annoys the neighbours.  I allowed the young pup access to the garden when i was out also (when she was of an age to be left in the garden of course) .

I saw this as the dogs outside getting the special treatment and the dog inside not, apparently he was getting special treatmet.

Anyway......it was suggested that I made the middle dog top dog, as she had not attacked this one and respected him immensley. 

How did I do this.........  He got fed first, stroked first, collar on first, treats first,  everything is done first with him...........
The dogs are left with equal privelages when i go out.
The older dog was placed in second place and the pup last.........unbeleivably she seems to have all of this .

And yes of course, I reaffirmed my position by doing varios things.