Hi all,
I have two gorgeous but very stubborn girls. One is my cocker spaniel puppy who is 1 and she has been spayed, the other is my golden retriever who is nearly 6 and she hasn't been spayed.
At Christmas my retriever came into a really bad season as she had been on hormone injections to stop the seasons (she can't be spayed due to health reasons) but I kept reading so many bad views on the injections so I decided to stop them as previously she had always been fine off of them although she did have a very light season every few weeks but it was nothing major as no other dog even realised and she was just as usual. So a week or so before Christmas she was being her usual self, eating loads, being generally grumpy and was grumbling a bit at the pup who deserved it when she decided she wanted to sit on her head. A few days later they were both playing nicely and then they just turned. I've seen two dogs fighting before including a dog with my retriever and I've always been able to separate them but Lola (retriever) and Rosie (cocker) were impossible to separate. Luckily my family heard and came and grabbed Lola whilst I pulled Rosie off. It then took them a good two weeks before we could trust them to be together because Rosie was so scared of Lola that she then started trying to attack her every time she saw her even though Lola showed no sign of aggression.
They've had a few grumbles since but that's mainly been just dog like behaviour or when I've been ill or stressed.
Lola shockingly hasn't had another season since now which I am so pleased about. However Lola has turned into a little madam and is just playing up altogether and destroying all my stuff which is very out of character for her. Yesterday day time there was a bit of growling and my mum separated them both before anything happened. I came home from work and let them back upstairs together and they both went for eachother. Luckily I did think this would happen so I grabbed them both and shouted at them (sounds harsh and I hate doing it but I had to shock them). They both calmed down and I kept them in the same room and by the end of the evening they were fine again.
My question is has anyone else ever had anything like this and if so what have you done to stop the dogs from fighting? Ideally I would like to leave them together because I think if I separate them then I am going to have issues with Rosie being aggressive because she gets so nervous and scared. Obviously if they start properly fighting then they will have to be separated as I'm not letting them hurt each other.
I've heard that you are supposed to let them just get on with it but how long would you leave it for? I don't really agree with this as I think they then might get into the habit of fighting just for the sake of it and although they haven't hurt each other yet it's not nice if one of them does get hurt as then it will take even longer to get them settled.
Any suggestions would be appreciated
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