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Aggression Problem between my Dogs
I'm having an aggression problem with my dogs.
Zoe is a female whippet/beage mix. She's six and a half and we've had her since she was about four weeks old. Gizmo is a female boxer/beagle mix who is about two and a half and we've had her since November. Both are spayed rescues and are the same size (about 35 pounds). The two dogs bonded instantly and there never seemed to be any question Giz was alpha to Zoe. Up until now, the only problem we've had was a small fight over a rawhide bone. Until now, Zoe seems to be really happy to have a sister and they love to play together. Gizmo has a tendency to chew, so we got her a kennel a couple of months ago and put her in when we leave for more than half an hour. This doesn't happen often since my husband works at home. Zoe seems to be more upset at the kennel than Gizmo. When we come home, she'll greet us at the door as usual, but will immediatly go to the kennel until we let her sister out. Saturday when we let Gizmo out, she and Zoe started rough housing (normal for them) but it ended in a real fight, with Zoe getting the stuffin' knocked out her. She has about half a dozen bites to her head. Sunday we took Zoe into the backyard before we let Gizmo out of the kennel and reintroduced them there. Same thing happened, although we were expecting it so we separated them before any damage was done. We took Gizmo inside for a few minutes before I let Zoe in. They did a stare down for about 5 minutes but they finally calmed down. In both cases, Zoe appeared to be the aggressor. The hair on her back was up and she was trying to get her head above Gizmo. Is Zoe "reclaiming" her territory whilst Gizzy is in the kennel? Why would this start all of a sudden? I can't think of any changes to precipicate this new behavior. Seems like I have three choices. Either forget the kennel and remove anything waist high from my house. (Gizmo is a skilled counter surfer), kennel them both, or let Gizmo knock Zoe's socks off a couple times and hope she gets the message. Anyone have any suggestions? TIA, Caroline |
#3
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I'd choose to kennel them both and continue working towards Gizmo
being able to have free run w/out chewing issues. I would do this as well, but keep in mind that sometimes two bitches, (even if they have been living together peacefully thus far), will start fighting, and it's pretty much impossible to fix. Males seem to have a "fight and then hang out together" attitude towards life, but bitches will hold a grudge forever. This usually results in having to rehome one of the dogs, although there are people who have rotating schedules for their fighting bitches. |
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