Beagles fighting

Question
Hi

I have two 17 month old Beagles from the same litter, one female (spayed about 6 months ago) and a male (neutered today). I brought him home from the vet and all seemed to be going well until my two children (4 and 8) started playing with them. The bitch attacked the male and they got into a terribly vicious fight. When I finally managed to seperation them, the male was bleeding. I brought him inside and left her outside. They have had one or two fights in the past, but nothing like this and nothing I couldn't manage physically. I am at a loss as to what happened. Any ideas on why, how to prevent it or what to do should it happen again would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Answer
Hi thanks for writing to me. I would venture to say your female could sense that the male was not up to par and took advantage and attacked him to show dominance. If he just came home today there is no way he should be playing with the kids or doing anything but recovering. He just had major surgery! It will take some time for his hormones to dissipate and for him to readjust after having been anesthetized. This could have been a one time fluke due to the circumstances or it could be a growing issue where they are going to fight for dominance. In order to avoid that from happening you must become the ALPHA, when there is a strong ALPHA the underlings will not fight for fear of the ALPHA. I would suggest reading some books about dog dominance and looking online for info on this as well. There are many books out there on this subject.

In the meantime keep them apart as much as possible for few days and let him recover and keep the kids away from him while he recovers.