not posted for a while but I am suddenly having serious problems with one of my collies and one of my cavaliers, they are both female and just had seasons neither are spayed as yet.  Since the start of their seasons they seam to be fighting at least twice a day and is very violent and it is always the collie that comes worst off.  Both dogs never start it but if any of the others are growling at one another they automatically lunge for each other then two other cavs join in and its bedlum, it then takes me ages to calm them down they have grown up with each other and it has never happened before  do you think it is just the hormones still raging?

Please help

Linda

I've had a similar problem with my girls, HORMONES!! We all know what havoc they can cause. One of my girls is booked in for spaying but at the moment is finishing a phantom and has mastitis. I use Dorwest Scullcap & Valerian, also DAP plug in's but I have to say that being aware of the trigger points and trying to prempt it by distracting them is my approach. Amazing how normal sweet girls can turn.

Good Luck

I have been having problems with two bitches fighting. I have seen a behaviourist and she advised spaying both girls. this was to remove the hormones from the equation altogether. She said that it would make the situation much easier to handle if neither girl was affected by hormone moods. The hormones don't affect their relative dominance like it does with dogs.

I did get both my girls spayed just before Christmas and it did seem to calm things down although they had another fight  last weekend. Thankfully things have settled down again and they are able to be together again whilst supervised. I don't leave them together when I am not around and I do watch them at times when their arousal level is likely to be high. For example I don't have them both out in the garden playing together as the younger one gets very  wound up and takes the toy from the older one aggressively.
I have found when my two fight the other dogs join in too so first of all I get the others shut out of the way, and then can concentrate on separating the two girls if they are still fighting.
When the adrenaline is high they are more likely to start a fight so I split them up before it starts and calm everyone down.

My neighbours 2 bitches were fighting and on the advice of his vet both were spayed. There hasn't been any bother now for over a year.

I agree, spaying seems to do the trick, we had a problem with our girls at one point it was very stressful and the slightest thing would set them off, which in turn makes you on edge and apprehensive which they of course pick up on and it just adds to the tension. I have found this normally seems to occur after seasons or just before they are due...they got very hormonal, our main problem was with our girls were as soon as they hit around 15 months of age up until they were about 3 but once they were spayed the problem was resolved and all is well again.  

I would agree with spaying. It definatly seems to help this problem.

For arousal issues (that trigger the fights) I would teach an alternative behaviour such as laying on separate beds on command. This way if they get snarly you just tell them to bed and then they are separate (distance) and can calm down.
Once they're on the beds a good technique is to click (or praise) and treat them for glancing calmly at one another. Just use praise if they're food aggressive.

Also try and reduce the other dogs growling as this is a trigger.

Adam