Dominance Problem, Any Suggestions.

[pmajka]

We have three rotts all spayed females ages 7, 4 1/2 and 8 months. The oldest has always been a nervous dog, but has never showed any issues with people or other dogs, until about 2 months ago. The oldest has been attacking the younger (4 1/2) over bones, laying position, and\or proximity to people. These attacks while they sound violent do not draw much blood. Normally it is the older dog grabbing and locking on to the younger’s (4 1/2) leg or occasionally neck, the older never draws blood until we pull them apart this does not appear to be intentional, however the younger one will sometimes bite at the older’s face and leave some small marks and a little blood. This is strange because if they really wanted to fight it would be a mess and it does not appear that the older dog, the initiator is trying to fight just get the younger (4 1/2) to submit.

The younger(4 1/2) has always in the past submitted to the older (Ex: not resisting when the older tries to take a bone or when the older wants to lay somewhere) however the younger is starting to resist by growling at the older and not giving up the bone or moving out of the way.

The weird thing is that we can leave them alone all day without any incidence and these incidents do not occur very frequently (about twice a month for the last 2 months). They also will sleep side by side all day and at night without any incidents. The other peculiar thing is that no matter what the puppy does triggers this reaction, it is always between the oldest and middle.

We have taken the oldest to the vet twice and had them due test all of them came back excellent with no indications of health problems. They did however proscribe 125mg or Amitriptyline about 3 1/2 weeks ago, which seems like an awfully strong dose.

Any suggestions on what we can do to end these disputes. I will check regularly and answer any questions since this post is already long enough and I don’t think you want to read a novel about our dog dominance saga.

Thanks

EDIT: Just wanted to add one more detail, we have had multiple rotts\ rott mixes at the same time over the past 20 years and have never had a problem like this.

[Judi W]

Since you know where these are heading, you should be correcting the older bitch preemptively. that means to interupt her before she gets involved and give her a stern correction for her behavior that is such to make her think twice about attacking the other dogs. If you do not, you run a serious risk of these fights escalating as well as the youngest who is not going to remain a baby and is going to jump in and you could easily end up with a dead bitch, two on one.

[KatMc]

Hi, do a search on females and dominance. There is a great thread that really will shed some light on this.

I had always had multiple females before but never more than one Rottweiler. That thread opened my eyes to a whole area to pay attention to, from what can and does happen not only to the dogs but to the humans involved.

So far I am lucky Vienna at 1 1/2 is still very submissive to Bella (3)

Good luck and like Judi W says you need to stop this now.

Kathy