Agression Towards Other Family Dog

[Miss BeRidgierent]

Hey Guys my friend owns 2 rottweilers both female one is aged 2 or 3 and the other is 12 months younger.

He rescued the younger the one from a neglected family reason being for having 2 females.

The situation is- in their own yard they have be to separated, the older female will fight with the younger one specially when himself or his mother or just any person is around. However when they are away from the yard like at the beach or even out the front on leads they are fine and have no problems. They are fed together also with no problems. They both have no problems with other dogs.

He did have a behaviorist come out and he just said you have to train her the "Leave" command. To me that sounds stupid. She is an obedient dog that knows the usual commands. And it sounds like the behaviorist made the situation worse just $500 less in the pocket.

My friend is leaving for the mines in November and doesn't want to leave his mother with the constant supervision of the 2 dogs.

Any suggestions on what it is and how to maybe solve it?

[Erny]

There are a number of things any one or all of which can be going on. There is no guarantee to a 'fix'.

1. Older dog is in her prime.
   
2. Younger dog is rising into prime, maturing. As a result there is likely to be challenges for 'top dog' position.
   
3. Your friend needs to address his leadership (and the leadership of anyone else who is a member of the household. This is essentially what the trainer/behaviourist should have gone through, at the least. Leadership in this instance needs to be strong (that does NOT mean bullying) and very consistent.
   
4. Two females. Although some do get on, it is fairly well known that if any gender is the most likely to have issues, it is two females.
   

There will need to be a management system in place, especially for those times when the dogs cannot be supervised.

Your friend might do well to seek the services of a behaviourist who can offer more than suggesting only to teach the dogs the "leave" command. If that's all the behaviourist did offer?

[Miss BeRidgierent]

He does have a management system in place at the moment they are separated in two different areas of the yard. But sometimes guests walk on through and leave gates open.

Can anyone suggest a good behaviorist or trainer so he can get his leadership skill in tact.

[Pillow]

He does have a management system in place at the moment they are separated in two different areas of the yard. But sometimes guests walk on through and leave gates open.

Can anyone suggest a good behaviorist or trainer so he can get his leadership skill in tact.

I have a very similar situation. 2 females who at home have to be separated at all times, have been for over 12 months. 2 experiences with them convinced me they would do each other considerable damage and would not stop the fight. Each day though I walk them and free run them with another 2 of my dogs off home ground with never an issue. They are very companionable and will sniff with each other and wait for each other to join everyone etc.

All of them are very obedient dogs and do what they are asked to do immediately, individually or when running as a pack, with or without the presence of other dogs. I don't think it's a leadership issue here but I might be too close to see it

Didn't mean to cut in here other than to say I have the same situation and it baffles me. I look forward to advice too.

[Erny]

All of them are very obedient dogs and do what they are asked to do immediately, individually or when running as a pack, with or without the presence of other dogs. I don't think it's a leadership issue here but I might be too close to see it

Sometimes it is not leadership that might be the issue (or sometimes it is). But you definitely need the respect of leadership from all dogs in the pack to be able to have any chance of stopping aggression from escalating to a full on fight.

So, either way, leadership is needed.

This just to clarify. Leadership in place isn't by itself necessarily going to stop the aggro. If the two dogs have a 'thing' about each other, sometimes there's not much we can do to make them like each other. But leadership (the respect that comes from it and the acknowledgement of your right to govern) can go a long way to helping the situation/s.