Hello,

I am asking for a friend about her 2 WHWT.  2 bitches, one is 3 years the other is 1 year.  The girls get on fine in all aspects from eating to sleeping together.  However, when mum gets the leads out they instantly start fighting.  This happens 3 times a day and the owner doesn't know what to do, it is so bad she is thinking of rehoming one.

The owner has not established who is the dominant bitch and she has not reinforced it either so I don't think that has helped.  I have suggested she decide who is the dominant one and feed etc them first then the other one, personally I think it should be the older dog.  It was also suggested she walk them separately until hierarchy is established.

Any advice would be welcome, I would hate for her to have to rehome one of the girls.
Thank you.

PS I can't remember if they are spayed which would help all round if they were.

Hi,

This isn't anything to do with one needing to be more dominant.  It sounds very much like two dogs lacking self control and getting so excited at walk times that they get frustrated and the re-direct that frustration and excitement onto each other and then they fight!  To start with to manage the situation she could pop them in seperate rooms before starting to get ready, then go and get one pop the lead on and then the same with the other. 

She should start working on self control with them at walk times, teaching them that a sit gets the lead on, whereas nothing else will.  Sitting while she opens the door gets the through the door etc.  She will need to stay calm and patient as if she gets frustrated it's just likely to feed them being manic.  She will need to be consistent and work on this every time they go for a walk, and expect it to take a bit of tim as they have been practising the inappropriate behaviour for quite a while by the sounds of it.

She could also start desensitising them to the lead, by just picking it up and moving it, if they are calm, reward them with a treat, if not just ignore any silliness, for this I would have them in seperate rooms to start with, then progress to a baby gate seperating them so they can both see and build up from there.  The lead in their case should be a cue to sit.

If all else fails in the mean time can't she walk them seperately rather than thinking of rehoming.  Then they won't get to keep practising the behaviour and she can work on self control around walk times with them individually, which would probably be a good idea for a week or so any way to give them a chance to calm down a little without the other their to wind each other up.

Has she thought of getting someone in to help her address this problem?

Sadly it's typical for bitches that fight to be set off by any kind of excitement. I have just returned my Golden Retriever bitch to her breeder a few weeks ago as we no longer could cope and it was not fair on either the other dogs OR her -she would go for my other bitches when there was any excitement and that included food being prepared, leads being brought out, going for a walk, visitors arriving etc -it just escalated. In the past I've also had a Cavalier bitch that started to attack the other dogs (opposite sex even) when there was excitement of the same kind. You can de-sensitize to a certain extent and try to avid the excitement, but in my experience it will just change into different situations setting it off instead. It wasn't nice to have to walk on eggshells all the time and have to avoid the food bowls making the slightest sound when being picked up etc. It is much harder to sort out fighting bitches than dogs unfortunately. But personally each time I tried my best to avoid the situations I knew set it off, it is worth a try.

Redirected aggression hapens because of different reasons, fear, lack of self control, prey drive etc, and can be redirected onto other dogs of either sex, people, or anything near by.  If it's lack of self control which it does sound like in this situation then it is very changeable.  It sounds like they get on exceptionally well and don't fight in any other situation, if you deal with the lack of self control like in this particular situation you take away the cause of the fighting and in the cases I have dealt with for that reason there has been no transfering of this behaviour to other situations  because the cause of the problem has been dealt with.

Hi,
thank you for your reply.  She has spoken to the animal behaviourist she had used in the past (not sure what for) but unless she was willing to pay £25 she wouldn't help.  She did say it was a habit the girls had got themselves into and the owner would have to work out how to get them out of it.

She did say it was a habit the girls had got themselves into and the owner would have to work out how to get them out of it.

Not very helpful advice was it!!!  Gosh glad that she didn't pay £25 for that pearl of wisdom.

It is very possible that it could go the way as MarianneB has suggested, it is quite common for things to escalate from one thing to another, and eventually there is no choice but to re-home one of the bitches or keep them completely segregated, not pretty once it starts.

But as it is just at present the excitement of the lead, let's give it a go. :-)

Funnily enough my mother has a Westie cross bitch who used to get like this when excited at walk times, (not breed related just a coincidence) she would generally pick a fight with one of the males, never any of her bitches, but her and the alpha male generally would be at it like hammer and tongs when the leads came out, it was solved by my mum picking up her terrier 20 mins prior to the walk and placing her over the dog gate, (or a seperate room) making her sit, if she made a noise or got excited the lead stayed off, if she sat nice and quiet the lead went on with a little treat or a good girl.

Not only did this avoid contact between the dogs, it taught her to be calm and it taught her that having the lead on did not mean an immediate walk hence the excitement is not imminent, some dogs just get more excited than others and that just needs to be adjusted. ;-)

Once she got to over 3 this behaviour stopped, but as already suggest by karenclynes, it will be down to part initially segregating at lead times and training good behaviour and manners.

I have my fingers crossed that it is only lead excitement and will not escalate but, if blood is drawn in other situations she will have to think again.