Hi all, I have 3 medium sized bitches, mother age 7 and her 2 daughters aged 4 and very soon to be 3. They all get on very well but over the last year the youngest daughter has decided that she is going to be the boss, Its always subtle behaviour but all the same she's definitely taking over the roll from her mother, the middle daughter is the peace keeper. The 2 daughters show and I have bred the middle daughter and she is now 7 weeks pregnant.
Everything can be harmonious in the house, they go out for walks together, they sleep together and play together but out of nowhere the youngest will start to glare at the middle one and the tension is horrible, I always try to defuse this by distraction etc but I'm sure it's going to get worse resulting in a fight, obviously being 7 weeks pregnant I don't want my girls squabbling with each other. If I separate the 2 daughters they seem to be worse when brought back together, but if I leave them together but supervised suddenly its all over and the younger 1 is nice again (not for long though) my question is how would you handle this so that peace is restored. I realise hormones are a major part of this
Thanks in advance

> how would you handle this so that peace is restored

Many people consider that keeping 2 bitches together is fine until this sort of behaviour occurs.  Once it does, peace may never be restored, and the attacks will get more violent. 

Remember the saying "dogs fight to breed, bitches fight to breathe."  Dogs seem more likely to get into scuffles, while bitches are willing to fight to the death.  You will find many threads on CD about this very issue.  Many people have had to make the decision to rehome one dog, rather than risk any bad outcomes.

You may well find that, over time, these incidents escalate.  If you are able to permanently keep these bitches apart you might want to try this.  Personally I think this causes too much worrying over who might accidentally leave a door open. 

This is a real worry and a danger to the pregnant bitch, I would separate now before a disaster can occur - a bitch fight can be very violent and even fatal.

The problem is if the 3 year old really is on her way to becoming the Alpha then your 4 year old being in whelp is going to cause issues.

It will go one of two ways, either a real fight will happen or she will be continually eye balled, the stress for the 4 year old who is happy to sit back and allow the transition will cause her to fade into the background doing everything she can to avoid conflict and showing as much submissive behaviour as possible, you can imagine the stress of trying to keep that up!

If she were not in whelp it may work, being in whelp you don't want a dam living on her nerves (even if you don't see it, it is happening) you need the dam to be outgoing, confident and happy in her surroundings to avoid absorption as well as allowing her to be at ease with her pups.

If this were my situation I would at the very least send the 3 year old to a family member/good friend/her breeder or an acquaintance in the breed, until the pups are homed, coming back in after that time the 4 year old will take a while to settle back, even with a new pup in the home. (If keeping one yourself)

After a few weeks the transition of her becoming Alpha my happen naturally or it may not, only time will tell. It is also up to you as to whether you take the risk at all.......... often it is not a happy ending.

Please don't be fooled by the 'getting along times' people fall for that so much, as humans we don't understand how two bitches can lie together, eat and play together and then suddenly they are tearing into each other, to us it makes no sense, to bitches it is quite clinical, 'if you're in the way........ you're out!' And sometimes even if they are not in the way as in this case, a higher ranking bitch just decides they do not want them around anymore, good times shared quite forgotten.

Your bitch in whelp needs peace and to feel safe, that is the first priority here, for now that is all you need to concentrate on.

Wishing you luck, times like this are never easy.

The last time I bred I had two bitches, mother and daughter.   They got on really well (they still do )   but even so, I got the mum used to being in OHs workshop so that by the last two weeks of daughter's pregnancy, she was happy to stay there and sleep overnight.   I didn't want to take the chance that they would get grumbly with each other over the pups and spoil things for later.  

Once the pups were born we kept them separated, with the oldest one living in the workshop and the new mum living in the house with her pups.   They took turns in the garden.     They did meet up accidentally and the new mum made it clear she didn't even want to see mum, so we made sure they didn't meet again.   No growling, no fighting, just a bit of grumbling from the new mum, but it was clear to me she was unhappy.    Once the pups were up and about their mum was much more relaxed and eventually was glad to see her mum again and let her play with the pups - she was a great  babysitter :-)

This was with two bitches who were, and still are, inseparable.     I honestly think you are taking a big risk not separating the two bitches with only 2 weeks to go.     If they do fight now, or once the pups are born, you may never be able to keep them together after.

I do think that finding a place for your youngest bitch to stay before the pups are born would be your best option at the moment,
then once the pups have been rehomed see how it goes.   But you will have to keep a keen eye on both of them to ensure that things don't escalate and be prepared to rehome if it's in the best interests of the remaining dogs.

I've ensured that there's a 4 year gap between my bitches and the youngest two aren't at all ambitious, which I think has helped enormously