Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I am new to this forum. I have a question about dominance between dogs in our family.

Our family has three dogs. Two are dachshunds, a male about seven years old, a female about six years old. Our other dog is a female about three years old, a your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine mixed breed (the face looks a little like a border collie, body is tall, thin, and muscular like a sight hound, but these are just guesses). The younger dog was found (abandoned) along a road when she was very small, probably one month old(?). All have been spayed/neutered.

The problem is between the two female dogs.

The female dachshund, though our smallest dog at 13 lbs, has always been the "alpha" dog. Our male dachshund has virtually no interest in dominance issues. The other (three year old)female, 35 lbs, is typically nervous, high energy, somewhat timid and fearful, and in the past has generally has taken the role of low dog in the pack (which we have attributed to the abandonment).

The problem is that sometimes the three year old will quite suddenly and loudly attack the female dachshund. This often occurs during feeding, when receiving rawhide chips, etc., but sometimes outside for no apparent reason. No injuries have resulted yet, but we are concerned that this might change.

I am assuming the three year old is trying to assert dominance. How can we control this situation so that it does not result in injury to either dog?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

The best way to "control" this issue is to control their access to food and not have them anywhere near eachother when they have any sort of food item (kibble or chew toys) around. I personally would be feeding both of these girls in seperate kennels or rooms and not allow them to pester eachother while eating. The young girl is probably getting sick and tired of the older dog bossing her around while she's eating and she's just sticking up for herself finally after so long. Alpha females will take what hey want when they want and this young lady is getting tired of being bullied. My guess is there's a lot of dog language going on between these two girls that you haven't noticed and it's now just escalated to the point of noise being made.

When you are away from the house, make sure these two are seperated in different rooms or crates. You could get a huge fight at some point and it isn't necessarily one being "alpha" over the other. With females, the rules aren't quite as rigid and females fight dirty and mean to get what they want.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

I appreciate your help & will put your suggestions into action.

Chelle, you mentioned that I might be missing a lot of the "dog language" going on between the two. Although I'm aware of some of the body language between dogs, you are probably right, there are probably some body language cues I am not picking up on.

Any suggestions (from you or others) on resources I might want to check out to learn more about the non-verbal cues they are exchanging? Might help me avoid future problems.

Thanks

The author Brenda Aloff has a pictoral book that is one of the best books I've ever read on dog language. Her book, plus just spending time watching your dogs (my guess is you have already seen the behaviors, but not realized they were problems) and noting what happens after the behavior will put you on the right track. Dog body language is actually not very subtle once you start looking for it, but until you look, it seems that way. A "hard stare", a body block, a lip lick, all these things start to have meaning once you know they are the dogs' way of communicating and not just a dog being a dog (ok sometimes it is). Still, look at your dogs- really look at them. You'll see the signs if problems are goi to start- one dog tenses up, the face becomes rigid, the pupils fix on something... this is all a warning that an action will take place (growl, snap, wrestle). You can also see when it's play- the body is fluid, there might be excitement, but the eyes are soft. Like I said, there's a whole book on this subject- 300 pages.

One thing I do with my dogs is not trying to figure out who is dominant or not. That job belongs to me- I'm the alpha in my house and no dog takes that role. So overall if my dogs don't "play nice" with something, they don't get it at all. I don't care who started the fight. I don't care who finished the fight. It takes two to fight so neither get the object they thought it was worth fighting over. I try not to put them in a situation that might spark a fight, but when dog tempers are raised, a piece of paper on the floor can be an issue. I typically see the resource guarding behaviors that are starting and just remove the item before anyone can ramp up. When things cool down again, I may or may not put the paper back. Depends on if i can watch the situation fully or not.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

I found this book very interesting when I read it many years ago. It is an other thing to look at when dealing with multiple dogs.
Who Moved my Bone. A Guide to multi dog homes.

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Cindy & the bully boys
CGC Brutus the bullheaded bulldoggie
CGC Caesar the fabulous pittie

>>The problem is that sometimes the three year old will quite suddenly and loudly attack the female dachshund. This often occurs during feeding, when receiving rawhide chips, etc., but sometimes outside for no apparent reason. No injuries have resulted yet, but we are concerned that this might change.
>>

Since many of these incidents occur around food or food related items, I would first take that option out of the mix. Feed everyone in a different area. If possible keep all feedings to kennels, as well as bones and rawhides. This will eliminate that portion of the issue.

Since I only keep male dogs, I can only speak from what I have heard from others, but it is my understanding that females actually have a harder time getting along.

Do you keep the dogs apart when you are not home? Is it possible when pottying outside to let the 3 year old out alone?

It sounds a lot like you need to go into a rotating outside. I actually do this as well here, because my older man will not poop with company.

What sort of training have you done with the pups. Perhaps the younger one needs a refresher course to help establish pack order as well as give a little guidance.
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Cindy & the bully boys
CGC Brutus the bullheaded bulldoggie
CGC Caesar the fabulous pittie