multi dog household, aggression

Question
QUESTION: We have a 3 yr. golden retriever female who has never been anything but sweet and well behaved.  Recently acquired a german shepherd who also displays a sweet temperament but does posture for dominance.  The golden doesn't back down and they have had several fights.  We love them both and are willing to do whatever we can to have a happy home.  Some books say to let them fight it out, some say to never allow them to go at it, we, of course, would prefer not to have them fight each other.  Please, can you offer any advice?  I have looked for behavior specialists in the area, but we live in an extremely rural area.

ANSWER: Is the GSD also female? In the fights was either dog injured? If so, where were they bitten? How severely? It can take a while for dogs to settle in and find their place in the family. And that can involve ferocious looking toothy displays where the dogs basically yell and spit on each other. If this happens between opposite sex dogs, I generally don't interfer. However, I am much more cautious about allowing confrontations between dogs of the same sex. ESPECIALLY females. Males fight for status. Females fight to get rid of the other one. In a natural situation, the weaker of the two would be driven out of the pack, and would leave. We don't give our dogs that opportunity. Often we select an adult dog with already established patterns, and expect them to be friends with a dog they don't know and haven't chosen to be around. Then we don't give them the option of leaving. Allowing two females to fight it out in a situation like this is going to end in a visit to the emergency vets, or a dead dog. If this is what is going on in your household, you're not going to like my advice. Rehome the GSD in a single dog home. Keeping two dogs who hate each other is stressful for everyone involved - including the dogs. If the GSD is male, you may have more options - good solid training for both dogs and interrupt (not punish, simply redirect) any posturing and hard stares before they have time to anything more. If you make a mistake and a fight does ensue, don't put your hands near mouths. Put something solid between dogs, throw a handful of ground black pepper at them (hard to sneeze and bite at the same time) or get some DirectStop from www.cleanrun.com. It's a spray that is not harmful.          Sandy Case MEd CPDT www.positivelycanine.com

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QUESTION: The GSD is female. She is 7 mos old and as I said she does posture, but she seems satisfied standing over or pushing against the golden.  I beleive that the golden is actually the one who escalates things to the biting stage.  The golden is basically my daughters, the gsd mine. It seems to be a jealousy thing w/ my daughter as she is usually paying attention to them both when this happens, the rest of the time they play and are fine w/ each other.  This is what happens: the gsd will grab and hold the golden by the side of her neck at which time we (quite foolishly we know) try to seperate them. I have always been the one to pry my gsd's teeth apart and pull her from the other dog (she has never broken skin on the golden except today on her foot as we pulled them apart, although I have gotten a few good bruises).  The last time (today) my daughter tried to seperate them and her golden gave her 5 punctures and bruising.  The gsd seems to accept us as pack leaders (waits for us to exit/enter home 1st ect.) in everything except she does still jumps up when we get home.  THe golden is just super sweet although she does go through the doors 1st herself she has never been aggressive in any way.  I'm just beside myself.  I drove 1800 miles to buy my gsd dog because I wanted to reduce the chance of temperament/health problems and chose (and paid for) a dog with the good pedigree etc. I just didn't think there would be any problem with such a sweet tempered golden.  Another factor may be that we also had a female lab (old and blind but super sweet) who we had to put down a few days ago. Do you think there is any reasonable chance we could save them both with professional help.  I can't stand the thought of losing another dog. I appreciate your candor and thank you so much for your time.
Brenda

Answer
Is your daughter living with you permanently? If it is a temporary thing that these dogs are together, I'd recommend keeping them separate, or on leash. I'm very sorry about your old dog. I just lost my 14 year old dog a couple of weeks ago, so know how difficult it is. Did the problem escalate after the death of the old dog? Sometimes in transitional periods, things can get tense. I would certainly look into professional help. Training and good rules can go a long way to making dogs less reactive. I wouldn't worry about the whole "going through the door first" thing, as much as just being consistent in your rules for the dogs. I would not allow them to be together unsupervised. I would immediately redirect the Shepherd from posturing. I would not allow her to give the Golden direct stares, or approach her directly. Even though the Golden is the one who escalates into a fight, she's responding to the challenge of the GSD. Try to avoid situations which you know trigger a fight (even to the point of putting one dog up while the other gets attention. It really concerns me that this is happening with the GSD being only a baby. Chances are she's going to be pushier and more ambitious when she reaches social maturity (generally around 2-2.5 for that breed)so the sooner you look into getting professional help, the better. And please use pepper or Direct Stop, anything besides putting your hands near the dogs mouths. Best luck, Sandy