Dog Aggression

Question
We just rescued an English Bulldog -her name is Matti.  She joins a home with three other dogs -Golden retriever, Yellow Lab, and another English Bullie who is named Zoe.  All dogs in the home are female and both Bullies are not fixed.

The behavior we are seeing more of is isolated to when we have guest in our home.  Matti who everyone just loves begins picking on Zoe.  Both dogs are about 2 years old but Zoe is smaller at 40lbs and Matti weighs about 57lbs. This aggessiveness does not appears to be instigated with toys or food.  We notice that Matti just stares at Zoe . . then all hell breaks loose.

We are trying to correct this behavior by placing Matti in a crate for 10-15min of time-out.  Then we give her another chance only to pull them apart.  Really Zoe doesn't seem to be doing anything to bring this behavior on.  Almost seems to be driven by the attention all the dogs want from my human visitors.

When they are alone with me or my daughter who lives with me  . . all the dogs seem to get along.  Matti has shown signs of aggression with my other two, but the behavior is brief and limited.

Please help . . .

Answer
All I can tell you is this behavior will get worse. It's part of establishing pecking order right now, but the intensity will increase as Matti gets more comfortable in the house and "wins" more of the confrontations.

I strongly suggest that both Bulldogs be spayed as soon as humanly possible. If you think this behavior is bad now, wait until someone comes in heat.

I've raised dogs all my life and I've never seen female aggression any worse than with Bulldogs. I've tried over the years to bring in older females and it never works. If I raise a puppy in the household, that's a different story. Their place is established right from the beginning.