Seasons and fighting

[stephie95]

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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[Joules]

Stephie95, I have changed the titled of your thread slightly and moved it to the Behaviour board, so you might get more responses 

Hope you can find a solution soon.

[stephie95]

Hi Joules, brilliant thank you. I couldn't work out what board to put it under!


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[lescef]

Hi. I don't have any experience of this but would probably suggest that you find a positive behaviourist who can give you some tips.
Maddie and Bramble had some low level scraps when Maddie first became aggressive. Once dogs are wound up it can take at least a week for the stress hormones to settle back to normal, so I had to watch my two constantly. I also try to distract them if they are eyeballing one another.
We were also told to try and stay calm when they are fighting as they pick up on your anxiety -difficult I know!

[stephie95]

Hello, yes it can be a nightmare when they get would up!! I think the problem last time was that because Rosie was nervous I then kept panicking that Lola was going to react or that Rosie would go over the edge and just full on attack her. I was a bit of an emotional wreck to say the least as well as I was so upset at the thought that they might not ever get on again (after stupidly googling the issue).

I let them out together just after I posted this and there has been no problems today. Other than Lola jumping the kitchen gate and getting all the food from the bin, she is acting like I don't feed her at the moment, although surprisingly her food bowl has hardly been touched.

Thank you for commenting though! Hopefully they will be ok this time!!


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