Hi folks.

I am writting this for advice and to find out what other people would do in my situation......

I have three dogs, one bitch two dogs oldest dog is ten, middle dog eight and a young cross staffie bitch who is two.

The x staffie has over the period of time I have had her from 14 weeks, attacked my older dog four times once resulting in me being injured trying to seperate them.

When she fights with him it is the most unpleasant situations anyone would wish to experience and despite trying several suggestions on how to break them up she fails to stop until she has had enough. The older dog has very sore legs and is no match for a two year old cross staffie.

Each fight has arisen out of nowhere really, last night was the latest and she started over a chewy bone .

I really am at a crossroads as to what to do!!!!. One part of me is sadly saying she needs to be rehomed with no other dogs and the the other is saying the opposite. She really is the most adorable little dog away from these incidents and gets on well with dogs outside the home, which is why I'm finding it difficult to make some form of decision about whether to try rehoming or not.

Really I would be most grateful if you would tell me what you would do in my situation.

p.s. I have tried a behaviourist

What did the behaviourist advise?  Behavioural solutions often take some time and effort to implement before you see a change.....  Personally I'm reluctant to advise on agression situations over the 'net as there can be so many reasons behind these attacks, it may simply be a transition of power, and in cases like this breaking the fight up will simply mean the situation becomes a long running one with no eventual winner, which is what the dogs are looking for - to sort it out once and for all.  It may be resource gaurding, in which case remove all potential resources which may be fought over.

I thought the same.....do not have  chews,toys etc lying about.I have done fostering for rescue for years and we had a pair of british bulldogs in.the bitch dominated the dog and was unwilling to socialise with other dogs.She attacked her male friend outside over a dog-chew and I never let her have anything to get possessive over again.Eventually she improved and was re-homed with an elderly dog,with the new owners fully aware to leave nothing about.She had been re-homed prior to that with the new owners agreeing to this.They dropped their guard and she attacked their other dog resulting in them returning her.She has been in her present home for three years and is wonderful with everything, and all livestock as she lives on a small-holding.
I have six dogs and do not leave food,toys chews about as it definately would result in fallings out.

In multi dog households it's generally best to never leave anything about, even cups of tea, I know all the in-house fighting our two have done has been down to someone leaving something lying about that both of them wanted, be it toys or food a relative dropped for them. It could purely be that you have two dogs, both of which have a dominant character, and as such neither really wishes to back down, which is the problem we have. Some may advise to watch them awhile, work out which one is the more dominant and work on reinforcing that through various methods, but making sure that after each 'play' period all toys are picked up and put into a box out of the dogs reach, and sight usually, should curb any fights relating to these.

No fight is completly unprovoked, the problem arises when the dog sees something as a trigger which we don't, it could be the most simple of things that set your youngster off, your older dog sniffing something she considers hers, you petting him, him moving into her space etc. You can't really give a good description until you've seen the dogs in action though as sometimes owners (myself included) miss important body signs in the rush to stop it getting too far, the whole incident can blind you to certain aspects of behaviour shown by your dogs, even just being the owner of the dogs can blind you to the behaviour patterns etc.

I'm rambling, ignore me.