Multiple Dogs and Obediance

Question
I currently own two dogs; a 4 year old female shepard mix and a 2 year old male German Shepard/Husky mix. I am also about to be caring for my boyfriend's 2 year old female ridgeback/pitbull mix. Parker, my male dog, is responding very well and sits, stays, lays down, etc; whereas my female, Lilith, is the picture of a dominant dog. She knows sit, but only does it when she's good and ready to, and she will NOT lay down, 'leave it,' come, or stay for anything. I'm concerned about Rogue, my boyfriend's dog, as she has never had any training and she also thinks she's the 'Top Dog.' How do you persuade the alpha dog of the canines to do what Top Dog of the entire human/canine family asks, and do you have any advice for training multiple dogs, who are all at different levels of training?

Thank you for your time, and have a nice day!

Kelsi

Answer
There comes a point during training where corrections must be introduced for disobeying or ignoring a known command, Kelsi. I would strongly suggest that you and your boyfriend enroll in some obedience classes with the girls to learn how to gain their respect and how and when to administer a correction. I will also warn you that you will need to really keep an eye on them, because when bitches fight, it's often to the death, and a pittie/ridgie mix has fighting ingrained on both sides. Ridgebacks were originally developed to hunt African lions, if that gives you any indication of their tenacity. I'm sure you are aware of the pitbull's ancestry as well. Shepherds can also have very dominant personalities (I know - I train and breed them), so it's very important that you and your boyfriend are in charge BEFORE you put the two girls together. If they don't respect you, how do you think you are going to be able to control them if they start posturing towards one another or worse, if they start a fight.