Dog fights - adult & puppy

Question
Thank you for taking the time to answer my question and Happy Holiday season. We got a 18 months old neutered Rottweiler who we had since he was 8 weeks old. He is a very placid and laid back dog. We introduced a 5 months old spayed American Bulldog bitch to our household about two months ago. They got on really well but now the female starts fighting all the time with the male, when we enter the room, or it is feeding time (we keep them separate now). This morning as soon as walked into the room she attacked our Rottweiler and our male fought back and at the end he had his paw on here body, he damaged her on her head which there is a now a small wound. He sat down there heavy panting and she placed herself in front of him snarling and again attacked him. This time he laid down after they had a fight and she was hovering over him. As said, they are fine on their own as soon as one of us walks into the room, she starts to pick a fight with our Rottweiler.

My question is, what can we do, to help both dogs? Our AB is booked to go to Obedience classes at the end of January.

Please advise.

Answer
Based just on the information in your email, that this behavior only occurs when you are in the room or there's food involved, it sounds like the female is trying to attain the alpha status between the two dogs.

Here are several articles that may help:

http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/PreventingAggression.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/BreakingupDogFights.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/CanineConfrontations.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/MultipleDogs.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/CanMyDogPlay.pdf
http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/canine-rivalry.pdf