westhighland terrrers

Question
QUESTION: I recently adopted two male 13 weeks old westies.  They have recently become aggressive with each other on occasion.  I do keep them in separate crates and I am planning on having them neuter.  I read on the Internet this morning that two male westies will never be able to live in harmony together.  Is this true?  I have three children along with myself that have become very attached to the dogs.  My heart is broken right now with the thought that I must choose to keep only one of them. Please help.
ANSWER: Eileen -

So these are from the same litter and are 3-4 months old ?  How aggressive do you mean ?  Is there blood being drawn ?

Some fairly serious scuffling makes sense while they work out the nature of their relationship, but you do not want to endanger either of them or the kids.  Terriers are fiesty and often sqabble amongst themselves - it's just the nature of the breed.

I recommend that you try to describe just how aggressive they are being - If there is no blood - not matter how much terrible noise they make (their fights often sound far worse than they really are).

Can you describe their fights a little more ?  Any hint of turning on a person ?  Like resentment over toys being taken away (that's something you want to make sure to practice with them a lot while they are young).

-Beth

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The fights are like the ones of a very bad dog fight.  It is not happening when they are playing already.  Recently a few times when my daughter accidently placed the wrong dog in the wrong crate it started a major war and this morning right after waking up and immediately taking them out to go the bathroom when they took one step into the house and war broken out again.  It is quite different then the fighting that they have been doing.  They are 14 weeks old and littermates.  NO blood yet but I have not let them continue once the fighting has begun.  The one dog growls when they other approaches his dog dish too.  So far there has been no human contact but I am afraid that when we interfere that someone will get hurt.  I just do not want to have issue down the road and have to get rid of them after even more attachment.  We love them both very much already.
ANSWER: Eileen -

You are very very wise to resolve this one way or the other right now.  They are showing signs of resource guarding - which can be about food, toys, people, crates...

I have 2 immediate reactions -

1.  Put harnesses and leashes on them right now. Make them drag the leashes at ALL times. That way if something does happen, you can get ahold of them without reaching for a collar.  Harnesses work pretty handily for snatching up a misbehaving dog.

2.  Get them into obedience classes or call in a trainer.  This is less about being "obedient" than teaching them how to act correctly. try your very best to find someone terrier-savvy. Very few trainers are prepared to work with the terrier temperment...

I also advocate that you read through this article. It is about a practice called "Nothing in Life is Free" wherein the dogs have to behave correctly to get anything they might like.

http://www.cairnrescue.com/docs/NILIF.htm

I know that the idea of people needing to be the alpha in the pack is kind of going out of style, but in my terrier experience I see too many dogs running the family too many times and dogs ending up in rescue.

I am not advocating hitting them or anything like that, but you will see that simple things like crating them for growling is very effective.  Terriers hate not being in the center of things, so some "shunning" can often do them some good. Picking up all toys and making them go without, feeding them in their crates and picking up whatever they don't eat in 10 minutes... all these things start reinforcing you as the giver of all things good.

If, at the end of your efforts, you do end up splitting them up, please consider westie rescue.  Breed rescues are best suited for resolving behavior problems and making sure they go into terrier savvy homes.

-Beth
Col Potter Cairn Rescue Network



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Just now they got into a major fight.  I put one of them in the front yard and one the back for 5 minutes.  As soon as I brought them back together they started fighting again so I put them in their crates and they still continued to try and get at each other.  I am very worried.  

Answer
Needless to say that does not bode well for the future....

I sent you some things in my last post that may help you just to get by until you can make a decision.... a baby gate for starters !

I am really not in the position to be much more help since I'm not hands on.  So you need to decide what you are comfortable taking on and doing it.

If you want referral to a rescue contact, please just let me know where you are located and I am sure I can network for you.

I'm sooooo sorry, and I know only too well how stressful that is....

-Beth