Angry dogs---fighting

[rubyduby]

For some reason I cannot fathom my 12 12 yr old cocker and my 3 1/2 yr old Cocker have started fighting, it seem to be started by the younger dog. The older dog is spayed , the younger hasnt. I am so depressed, they have got on so beautifully up to now...

It started when my older dog(Topaz) wandered near to the youngers (Amber) food dish and Amber growled , the next time it ended in a real scuffle, I had to intervene.

Today just gettingin the car started a scuffle, and again back in the house, no food in sight nothing???

I have had Cockers for 44 yrs and only had an issue when I had a mother and daughter , the daughter would protect anything I dropped.

any ideas??

[vixen]

My previous 2 dogs were litter sisters (apparently the worst combination you can have).  They tolerated each other most of their lives.  i wouldn’t  say they loved each other but rubbed along ok.  As they got older we did get little spats that sounded horrific but if left alone, usually sorted itself out quickly.  Marley started to guard things that she thought precious (could just be a scrap of paper) and didn’t want Stevie near her.  Marley also started to guard me. I began to recognize the signals and intervene before they led to a spat.  If i saw Marley with anything that looked likely to be guarded, I took it off her and thus defused the situation.  When I brushed / or dried Marley, I made sure Stevie was in the other room. Sometimes I felt I was walking on eggshells but preferred that to rehoming one of them as for the majority of time they were fine.
I feel I may have unintentionally have caused the problem.  Stevie was always the more dominant one of the pair and Marley accepted her place.  Being the sort of person I am, I felt sorry for Marley and may have fussed her more to compensate and thus changed the dynamics between them. 
Amber may be trying to assert herself over the ageing  Topaz.  This is only a suggestion as to what it could be.
I hope you can sort it out and just related my experience to give you hope because it can be managed, you just have to read the signs and maybe adapt how you do things.

[rubyduby]

Thankyou for the insight, I did think it may be something of the sort, it seems that now every time Topaz moves , Amber growls, just wondering if she is coming into heat, altho she has never behaved like this before, I am worried that Topaz, who hardly has any teeth will get hurt, Amber is the spoilt brat , and maybe this too is my fault, but I am surprised it took so long to manifest itself

[MIN]

We had a 9 year old staffie when we got Gemma at 10months. They played, ate and slept together until one day Gemma attacked poppy. No noise from Gemma, she just latched on. It happened 3 times then we never had them together again. Gemma went from a dog loving dog to one that now screams at the sight of another. We can control situations (a bit of help from other owners would be appreciated when their dogs are running loose) but it's sad as she has no friends