Do You Have Lots Of Girl Dogs?

[disintegratus]

I never wanted girls, now I have 3/5 :laugh:

They're all desexed though, so I imagine their bitchiness is mellowed somewhat.

Zehra's the fun police, she really rules the roost and will often get mad at the rest of them for having the audacity to play near her (read: within 3 acres of her :p) She's been the boss forever though, and I think it's mostly because she's so stupid that the other ones won't even bother.

Then Bones came along, and figured out pretty quickly that not only is Zehra bigger, but also a lot dumber than her, so there was no point challenging her authority.

Newest girl is the kelpie, who is pretty smart and figured out even quicker that size is not on her side at all. She's ended up with a slightly torn ear after much posturing and eyeballing and generally trying it on with all the others. They've told her in no uncertain terms that they're not putting up with that crap, and everyone's moved on and gets along great now.

Meanwhile, all this happens and the two boys obliviously just carry on with their lives, with never even an inkling of the convoluted soap operas happening under their noses!

[Pheebs]

We had 3, wouldn't do it again :) Whilst it worked well at the time, I realise that this was due to nothing other than luck.

Tess was 8, Lucy we introduced at 8 weeks and Maggie (2.5years, a rescue) came a year later. Tess was always top dog, and she and Maggie never saw eye-to-eye but were happy enough to 'co-exist'. Tess passed away 2 years later and Maggie was a changed dog after that - very dominant yet a lot more calm and it was retrospectively very obvious how much Tess's presence as top-dog made her uneasy. Any subsequent female fosters we have had have been met with obvious disapproval from Maggie.

Have never owned a male but look forward to it some time in future :)

Edited May 8, 2014 by Pheebs

[dancinbcs]

A lot depends on the breed and the individual dogs. I and every Border Collie breeder I have known have all run multiple bitches together with usually no issues at all, so long as you have one alpha bitch and no others that want to challenge her. My first bitch used to deck every dog or bitch that came into the yard. Once they submitted to her she was fine with them. She never got into a fight in her 15 years. The only problems encountered with BC bitches is that you get the odd ones that decide they hate another specific bitch and from then on they can never be trusted anywhere near each other. They are usually both fine with other bitches, just not each other and it usually ends in rehoming one or the other. In BCs you run bitches together and usually separate entire males from each other. In my newer breed of Japanese Spitz the opposite applies. The males have no inclination to fight at all and can be all run together but some of the bitches can be very narky with other bitches. A lot also depends on the breed's tendency to fight. Most Terrier breeds like an excuse to fight and other breeds bred to work alone are not so tolerant of other dogs. BCs have been bred to work in groups and get on together and most hounds get on well in groups as they have been bred to work in hunting packs.

[sandgrubber]

<br/>I do think it depends a lot on the breed. Five Cavaliers and one Finnish Lapphund here. All girls and no problems. The oldest Cav is the boss.<br/>

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Ditto depends on breed. Have had no problems with multiple Labrador bitches together. I think I've had as many as five. It may also depend on how they relate . . . mother daughter pairs may be different to old bitch and new bitch bought in as adult.

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

I've often got 3, I do at the moment and just had 4 with a Toy Poodle girl that I just rehomed. It does depend very much on the dogs themselves and breed also comes into play. My JRT is a bit feisty and it's all about managing her so I don't bring in another feisty JRT as that might be an issue. She's possessive of toys as well, when I had my Cattle girl the JRT wouldn't let her play fetch in peace, the JRT would cause issues then so it was all about keeping her on the lead or in a crate whilst the Cattle girl played ball for a while, it was a juggle at the time but outside of the ball issue, it was all fine.

However, if there is a problem between bitches that turns into a fight from what I know it doesn't usually end up being easy to resolve and they have to be separated.

[Sares]

I have 2 female Frenchies, both as stubborn as each other. One is 2 yrs the other is 7 mths. The 2 yr old definitely likes to show the puppy who is boss, but we intervene extremely quickly to make sure she knows that we are the boss. So far the only issues we have had is around food. But as someone said previously, no food is left out and we supervise at meal times. We make them work for their treats too.

We have the normal puppy in the older dog's face situation and the older dog has a snap to tell the pup to 'rack off', which we allow because the puppy needs to learn she cant bite other dogs faces. We intervene though if the older dog looks to try to be dominating to the puppy.

We are getting the puppy speyed today so will be interesting to see if their dynamics will change after this (the 2 yr old is speyed).

So I think it is managable, if you are up for it.. also big dependant is on the breed. Frenchies are a bit of work, but worth it for us!

[DeltaCharlie]

A lot depends on the breed and the individual dogs. I and every Border Collie breeder I have known have all run multiple bitches together with usually no issues at all, so long as you have one alpha bitch and no others that want to challenge her. My first bitch used to deck every dog or bitch that came into the yard. Once they submitted to her she was fine with them. She never got into a fight in her 15 years. The only problems encountered with BC bitches is that you get the odd ones that decide they hate another specific bitch and from then on they can never be trusted anywhere near each other. They are usually both fine with other bitches, just not each other and it usually ends in rehoming one or the other. In BCs you run bitches together and usually separate entire males from each other. In my newer breed of Japanese Spitz the opposite applies. The males have no inclination to fight at all and can be all run together but some of the bitches can be very narky with other bitches. A lot also depends on the breed's tendency to fight. Most Terrier breeds like an excuse to fight and other breeds bred to work alone are not so tolerant of other dogs. BCs have been bred to work in groups and get on together and most hounds get on well in groups as they have been bred to work in hunting packs.

We have 8 bitches in total, and 3 dogs. They are all pretty good together for the most part, but like dancinbcs said, we are one of the unlucky ones who have 2 bitches that just absolutely cannot be together. They used to be fine, until a few power struggles when the younger one hit sexual maturity (about 2ish) and then after she had her first litter at 3 it changed the dynamics in the pack quite severely and these 2 have clashed ever since. I have no doubt that these 2 would go at it to the death if given half a chance, so they are just never out together at the same time. Only exception is if we are at the beach, in the paddocks or dam etc as all petty differences are set aside when there is either work to be done or a ball to be retrieved. Wouldn't risk it around the house though when they are left to amuse themselves, or expected to just lie around. That is when they go looking for trouble...

The older one (desexed) is a very dominant bitch and likes to stamp her authority given the chance. She is fine with all the other bitches in the house (although likes to tease one of the other desexed girls- see below :) ) and is fine with other dogs when out and about. She is great with puppies and is our main "Grandma" with the litters as she is just such a wonderful teacher. The younger bitch is generally speaking a pretty submissive girl, incredibly submissive to new dogs that she meets and has never had an issue with another dog. I think a lot of it stems from being very protective of the 3 daughters that we have here, and any bitch that is a potential threat is to be exterminated (where is Mr Rollyeyes when you need him...)

I agree that they are fine until they are not, and I intervene much more quickly with the bitches than with the dogs. One of the bitches in particular annoys the other bitches. She is that one girl who says "slut" under her breath as the other girls walk past, good at giving a snide eyeball. Yes I know this is anthropomorphic but just as dogs will tend to act like like dickheads in a bar when they square up to fight, so bitches can be real bitches, as WreckitWhippet says. Knowing what the signs are, from the look held just a bit too long to the standing just a bit too close etc is important. I think non dog savvy people would see me tell bitchy bitch off and wonder what the hell I am getting annoyed about - but I know what she's about to do before she does it.

Yep, we have one of them too :) Or she will just casually walk them into a corner, wait until the other bitch has had enough of the intimidation and ever so slightly lifts a lip or grumbles, and then BAM- she has her justification to go in! Never draws blood, but it is not a pretty event and we will always do our best to move her away at the first sign of trouble. It is always done to the same "bottom of the pack" desexed bitch, and usually out of boredom. Its like she wants to spice things up a little if the place is quiet... People that don't know her will often wonder why we give her a gruff "get out of it" or say her name roughly for seemingly no reason, but it is the little signs that we are familiar with that tell us things might brew, signs that people who don't know the dogs would never even pick up on. Usually the first sign is the other bitch moving away from her and lying down facing the other way, she can be a little overdramatic in her responses sometimes- which only brings on the attention of the offender who begins to wonder why she is acting so weird. Bloody bitches :laugh:

[sheena]

Something I have been thinking about lately as I hope to add another BC baby to our house-hold in about four years time. I am really thinking about another girl as I seem to bond better with girls. Bindi (girl) will be about 11 years old & Cricket (boy) will be about 7. They are both desexed & the new girl would be desexed at the appropriate time also. I already have the breeder & the bitch picked out even though it is way down the track :laugh:

[halfthewords]

Two bitches here, both desexed. I agree with the comment that two terrier bitches together is TROUBLE! They are related as well. One is 11, the other is 9. The younger one is definitely the submissive one and the bottom of the pack but she likes to eyeball the older one and often is looking for a fight...if she is on the couch and Mischa walks by, she will give her a "look" and depending whether Misch feels like disciplining her, it's on! The boys are sookie la las and I would probably not have two female dogs together again, unless it was a totally different type of dog.

[CaseyKay]

If I had a choice I would have two spunky girls and a sooky la la boy for some balance, but dogs tend to choose us, not the other way around. I really do think personality matching is more important than what sex the dogs all are.

This is my plan :) I have the two spunky girls already!

We had four bitches for 2 years without any issues between them. 3 border collies aged 13, 11 and 4 all desexed and an entire Brittany aged 2. The oldest BC and the Brit were the best mates of the lot and the middle two played together as well. Gael, 4 year old BC, can be a bitchy jealous creature and used to slink about making what we called "snake eyes" at the older 2 when they came to me for attention (the BCs are my breed, the Brittany OH's). They just ignored her! The older two died last year. I don't think Gael considers Scout competition for my attention because she never makes snake eyes at Scout even when Scout is hogging my lap :)

But it was enough to make me think my next BC won't be a girl as I imagine if you had two like Gael there "could" be clashes and I don't want to risk that. I know plenty of people with serious female-female aggression issues (although none have BCs) and it seems to me once they decide they don't like each, other permanent seperation is the only answer.

[*kirty*]

I've always had multiple girls and currently have four girls. I had never had an issue until a few years ago when one of my girls decided she wanted to kill another. It was just awful. I will always be cautious with girls now.

[WreckitWhippet]

I've always had multiple girls and currently have four girls. I had never had an issue until a few years ago when one of my girls decided she wanted to kill another. It was just awful. I will always be cautious with girls now.

That's the down side of bitches who decide they no longer like each other. Dogs posture, carry on and make a lot of noise, bitches are often silent and deadly.

I know a bitch that offers little more than a stiffening and twitching her ears, once they've laid back it's too late and whatever she's decided is no longer worthy is on her way to the vets.

[tdierikx]

I've always had multiple girls and currently have four girls. I had never had an issue until a few years ago when one of my girls decided she wanted to kill another. It was just awful. I will always be cautious with girls now.

Same here... and those 2 do NOT run together now under ANY circumstances!

Up until this "pack" I'd always had at least one male in the mix - and found them to be a relatively calming influence for some reason...

T.

[Steve]

No problems here - Maremma and Beagles - easy.

[sandgrubber]

Worth adding, my girls don't just tolerate eachother, they are close friends.  They play together, lie on one another when it's cool, groom each other, cooperate in hunting squirrels and other small game, and will share food . .. eg, if I pour some sour milk in a bowl, they'll all lap it from the same bowl with no conflict.  One of the reasons I have three is so the middle girl won't end out bereft when the old girl goes . . . hopefully many years down the line.

Edited May 9, 2014 by sandgrubber

[*kirty*]

My current girls are all good friends, will share toys, etc. But it has certainly made me very wary. I had no prior warning with the fight - they were BFF's. I wasn't home when it happened so I don't know what triggered it. But from that moment on they could not be together. The offending bitch was eventually PTS (not just for this reason, she had a lot of issues). It was devastating.

[cali]

I think it depends honestly, I have 5 girls in my house,all dominant bossy types and never had any kind of problem whatsoever. With Multiple males however I have experienced nothing BUT problems. IF I ever own a male dog again I will never do more then 1, females though? I'd be happy with nothing but lol

Its worth adding that I HAVE had issues with hormonal bitches, getting nasty when close to season, but outside of that my females are all good friends. My males OTH barely tolerate each other and for years were crate and rotate and they sometimes cause issues between the females who are very tolerant otherwise. Heck Gem is my "bitchiest" female and she will always do the least she can get away with, ie, when one of my males attacked her she didn't even use her teeth to defend herself, she just rolled over and kicked him till I could get him off her..then she walked away calmly...and then offered a play bow...

Edited May 10, 2014 by cali

[espinay2]

Breed absolutely makes a difference. Be careful- i know of a number of situations where bitches were fine together, until they weren't. The ability to separate when you're not supervising is important.

Agree that breed makes a difference. I have a breed where same sex aggression is relatively common. I currently have three bitches (and four males!) together, but it hasnt always been harmonious. I have had bitches in the past who hated each other and had to be kept separate so they didnt kill each other (I only had bitches at the time - no males). Having the means and ability to separate dogs is important when it comes to managing a multi dog household. Crates, baby gates and separate runs can help make life easier. When I am not around to supervise, the dogs are separated and are in separate runs when I am out (often paired M/F - with the exception of in season bitches of course ;) ). Right at the moment in the house I have dogs separated by baby gates and peacefully sleeping in different areas. While they get on together, I 'manage' them closely ('active management' as SSM describes). They are all separated for feeding (separate crates and pens) to prevent issues ever arising (though quickly eaten treats can be dispensed as a pack).

With Bassets I would expect them to hopefully get along - being an animal designed to live and function as a pack. It would be a trait I was selecting for. But I would still be sure I had the means to separate when necessary and would be proactive in managing the 'pack dynamics'.

Edited May 10, 2014 by espinay2

[fainty_girl]

I had two desexed girls and then after a while, my brother moved back home with his male kelpie, Rusty (entire).

I had Jessie (stumpy tail cattle dog X) for 4 years before I adopted Tilly (kelpie X). I was only wanting to adopt a male, but my family and I fell in love with Tilly when we saw her at the pound.

Jessie was always good with other dogs (although she could be a bit too full on with small fluffy dogs). She was never playful and didn't like in your face dogs, but she wasn't dog aggressive and never fought back. Initially, Tilly had issues with food aggression at meal times, so that was something we had to work on. That was totally resolved though and they used to eat dinner side-by-side and then they would swap at the end and clean out each others bowls.

For quite a while, they didn't take much notice of each other at home, Jessie kind of ignored Tilly. For quite a while I used to exercise them separately, because Tilly can be a handful. I think they bonded more when they started going out together. Jessie's favourite place was the beach, so if they went there together they got along particularly well and would play chasing games, etc. When Jessie was older, Tilly would look out for her too if Jess went wandering on a walk and Tilly would find her.

Over the years we did have some problems with Tilly going for Jessie. One incident was over a toy, so all the dog toys were put away after that. Not too long ago, Tilly went through a stage of going for Jessie out of the blue, when Jessie hadn't done anything. It was bizarre and we really had to watch them together for a while, but everything settled down again.

It does depend on the dog though...a male and female won't necessarily get along. Rusty didn't like Jessie, he used to growl/grumble at her all the time. Jessie was very vocal and Rusty is too, so they used to set each other off with barking all the time. Even though they were both working breeds and a similar age, they were not compatible.

Even though Tilly can be feisty with some other dogs, she has always gotten along really well with Rusty. Since losing Jess, Tilly has become a bit more dominant over Rusty, because Jessie was the alpha dog before.

I wouldn't recommend having lots of girl dogs, but that is just based on my experience.

[kelpiecuddles]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their thoughts and advice. I feel like when this litter is actually on the ground I'll now be in a better position to assess the best way to go about things. There are ways we could separate if necessary here, we can fence the 'sideway' off on either side of the house to create two smaller runs and could even put some fencing mesh around the patio and use that area to separate when we aren't home so there are options if it became necessary. When we had Zena the dane X rescue here not long ago we had to keep everyone separate and it was stressful as it was a case of leashing dogs to move them past each other and swapping indoors to outdoors regularly so everyone got a run. But I think that was more to do with my girls finding Zena's size(and she was in the midst of a phantom pregnancy so was a bit weird) very overwhelming moreso than her being a bitch.