Siberian - Malamute Fights

Question
How on Earth can I restore peace and order to my family without having to give up any of them?

I have 4 dogs, two male neutered mix breeds, 3 year and 4 years old, a 2 Year old Siberian Husky female and an Alaskan Malamute female of about 1 year. We had the two males and the Sibe with us when we lived in Japan and had no problems with any fighting.  When we moved back to the United States, my husband and I got the Alaskan.  We experienced no fighting between any of the dogs until just recently. Both females had already gone through their heat cycles and there was no agression between them during that time.  I do not know what happened over the past 2 months, but since then the Siberian and Alaskan have been tearing into each other for no apparent reason.  We ended up spaying the Alaskan a month ago and are getting ready to have the Siberian spayed as well.  

Some things I did notice about them fighting was that the Siberian has a thing for the Alaskan's legs, shes been tearing into them so badly that its caused her to limp and I've had to take her to the vet to be patched up.  The Alaskan will tear at the Siberian's ears and neck, drawing blood. Also, it seems that the Alaskan is starting the fights somehow, when she is limping no fighting occurs, for the couple days after her spaying operation, no fighting occured. Their fights are particularly violent as opposed to the way they interact with the other dogs. So far we've had to pry them apart with a pool rod if I or my husband are by ourselves or by dragging them by their hind leg if we both are there.  My husband has been bitten on the hand once trying to get between them. (This helped influence his decision on getting the Alaskan Spayed vs. the financial cost of not doing it.) When I've pryed them apart with the pool rod I can keep them apart by pushing them away from each other by pushing their chests. Should they lunge, I've been sticking the pole in between them so that they end up biting the pole instead of the other. By the time they get pried apart they tend to not go back for each other. Neither once crouches away, they just stand there. I don't want them battleing each other to the death with fur, blood, and broken bones going everywhere so the fights have always been broken up because they have been violent in that manner.

They behave differently inside and outside as well. Now the Siberian prowls the house with her fur raised walking after the Alaskan. So far all of the fighting has occured inside of the house. The Alaskan will push aside the two male dogs if they are getting attention and she is not. The Alaskan will throw herself at the front door to be the first outside, I have to pretty much shut the door in her face a couple times and tell her to sit to get her to sit and wait for me like the other dogs do, to open the door and go out so I don't get trampled. When they go outside, the Siberian still prowls around the Alaskan, but she just gets ignored. I would like to keep them outside more during the winter when it will be cooler for them, but until we get a good solution for fencing, they keep ripping the wooden privacy fence apart to try and get out.

The dogs seem to behave a little more differently towards each other as well. One of the dogs tore into the least dominant male dog's face causing two puncture wounds which became swollen and infected.  We had to take him to the vet to have it drained. I have no idea which dog did this to him as we didn't notice it until it was swollen because his face is black. I had thought he just bumped himself playing with the others.  The wound was healing until it was reopened by another of the dogs two nights ago. He is a very passive dog, I do not know why any of the others would do that to him. I did notice a couple times tho, that when the Alaskan and the Siberian would fight, sometimes the least dominant male would join in with attacking the Alaskan. Other than that, he just sits there and stares any other time be it treats, or food, or play time until it is his turn.

The dominant male has done nothing during their fights, he just sits there.  This one will sit in the house in  his favorite spots and will only move when I or my husband tell him to Off, or the Alaskan comes nearby. He seems to hate her. When he is laying down and she walks up he will growl and leave the spot.

So far I cannot tell which of the females is the dominant one and behave properly around them. It is easier with the two males.  We have had to keep the Alaskan kenneled in one of the large metal folding cage-kennels for most of the time because of the fighting.  Even so, the Siberian will walk by the kennel and the Alaskan will throw herself at it to try and fight the other so then I have both dogs snarling, barking, pawing, growling, lunging to get at each other through the kennel bars. I just tell them both no at that point till they stop. Those spats don't last long.  When she is in the house, I put the Siberian and the most dominant male outside for company and keep the least dominant with the Alaskan.  They seem to be alright with that arangement, however playing musical dogs dosen't seem fair to them because we are kicking two of them out of the house without them doing anything wrong.

I am completely at my wits end and I have no idea what else I can do to help these two get along. I do not want to have to give away the Alaskan, but that may be my only choice. Please let me know if there is anything at all that I can do to help them.

Thank you,
Kristina

Answer
Kristina,

Obviously if you spent this much time writing about the problem, you care about the dogs and that's a good thing.  Unfortunately, there are certain situations where two dogs should not coexist.  Breeders that I know that spend 8-10 hours a day with their dogs just have to keep some separate because they don't like each other.  When you look at wolf pack hierarchy, similar things occur, and usually one wolf will be killed or forced to leave.  Now, dogs (with humans) are a little more civilized, but obviously there are still some concerns.  I think you've done the most intelligent thing in separating them, but from the body language and posturing that you are writing about, I can't think of any method to fix the problem.  Mals are generally known for being a little more aggressive and dominant than Sibes, but Siberian females are known for being stubborn and bitchy.  So unfortunately, it does sound like you may have a dog situation that the two personalities just don't mix.  I wish there was an easy fix (or a fix at all), but the only success I've seen in this have been fixing the dogs to reduce some of the aggression, and then physical separation.

Sorry I don't know of any better ideas.  However, one more resource that you may wish to try would be SIBERNET-L, a list serve that has several hundred Siberian Husky owners.  There is a vast array of knowledge on that list, and you may want to try copying and pasting this story to them - you may be able to find someone who has run into this problem before.  Here's the link:  http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-pluto.exe?SUBED1=sibernet-l&A=1

Although be warned - it is an active list and not uncommon to have about 400 emails/day.