two female 8yr pitbulls

Question
ok I have no idea what to do at this point.   we have 2 female pits who are both about 8. one we rescued 6 mths ago, that's mama, she's not fixed and has been fought but is so sweet we love her. susie is the other one. we've had for  abot 5 yrs.we had two little dogs for 16 yrs who got put to sleep about 3 mths ago who didn't get along with mama. susie has been depressed ever scince. mama lives in the basement ith my boyfriend and I and susie lives upstairs with my mother. they don't really get along  but we need them to because it's getting hard to keep one isolated all the time. we have to young catss they both get along with but we can't figure out how to get them to get along they are both lonley dogs who cry when we leave so maybe if they could get along they wouldn't be lonley.

Answer
Hi Devon,

It's not uncommon for two female dogs not to get along. Chances are neither dog sees you or any family member as the pack leader, or "alpha". That's the reason why they they don't get along, each dog thinks she's the alpha, and feels the need to establish dominance on the other.

There's no quick way to make the two dogs get along. It's going to take time, and plenty of persistence on your part, to make this work.

Without seeing exactly what is taking place between the two dogs, it's hard for me to say what you should do.

Both dogs should wear basket style muzzle until they can be trusted together (which may take two months or longer). Basket muzzles are very humane, the dogs can still pant and even drink water while wearing one.

I think you're going to have to be very vigilant in order to have a chance of keeping these two dogs safely in the same home. That said, your veterinarian may be able to recommend a behavior specialist to come out and evaluate the situation between the two dogs. There may be a lot you can do in how you run things in the house and handle the dogs to make things safer, it's just that you need to be trained in what to do, just as the dogs need to be trained to live peaceably together.
Having a live person who's able to see your dogs and teach you what to do, as well as teach the dogs is probably the best course of action, since this sounds like this has been going on for some time, and trying on your own to fix this problem isn't working.

Best of luck,
Patti