I'm in a sticky situation.

Okay, I think I might have asked about this before, but I'm not sure of the answers I got. Here's my story:

My family owns a total of four dogs. The oldest is a GSD/Collie cross male, he is about 10 years old. The second is a GSD/Rottie cross male, about 5 years old. These two males are always together and live outside. The oldest was dominate when the younger was just a pup. But now the pup has taken over and is now very dominate over the older dog. He is very aggressive towards other dogs that happen across our yard and does not like strangers coming to our house and he certainly will not allow them to get in unless we are home and send our approval to allow the guest into our home. Plainly, these two mixed breed males are kind of "guard dogs" and have very strong guarding insticts.

The other two dogs are my two purebred Siberian Huskies. Kieron is a 2 year old spayed female. The second is a 9 month old male, Houdini. He is a complete male.

Here is my problem:

The young mixed breed male is very male-to-male aggressive and will growl when Houdini passes by. There have been occasions when I have had to yell out at the mixed breed dog because he sneeks up to the hill where Houdini is. I'm afraid he is going to pick a fight with my little Houdini.

If those two fight, Houdini would probably be the loser as he is so submissive. But the mixed breed male is so determined, I'm afraid that he will try to fight Houdini and will keep fighting even after Houdini submits and says he is the boss. Houdini could be seriously hurt.

My only solution is to neuter Houdini so that the young mixed breed male won't feel so threatened. But having read on neutering, many of you believe that neutering should only be done if there is a medical problem.

I guess what I am trying to say is, I don't know if I should get Houdini neutered and try to save him from having a fight with the outside dogs or if I should just let him stay un-neutered and risk the outside dogs sneeking up to him, fighting him, and possibly seriously hurting him.

The reason I think neutering might help is because Houdini won't smell like a threatening male to the outside dog. Hopefully this will satisfy the mixed breed male and he won't try to fight Houdini anymore.

What do you all think I should do? I hope I made myself clear on what is going on here. I just don't want Houdini to get hurt. I do not plan on breeding him or showing him. He is just a pet and a best friend. Please, any advice is very welcome!

-Tara

can u keep them seperate at all times? Thats what I would do until u find a solution. Hopefully someone like our brilliant Shadowboxer will have a better idea...

No, its not possible to keep them seperate. The two outside dogs run free. (We don't live in a city or anything) If we were to kennel or fence those two dogs in, they would go crazy. The huskies are kept on tie outs. See why its a sticky situation, there's nothing I can really do to keep the outside dogs away from the husky.

Yes, a sticky situation indeed which could turn into a fatal situation for the husky as, if he is on a tie-down, he cannot run away & would have limited manoeuvering space to defend himself should an attack occur.

Castration of Houdini might solve the problem but there is no guarantee that it would, He is probably just about physically mature enough to be castrated and I can see no reason for not having it done if you do not want to breed or show. However, I know very little about Huskies and you may find that it is thought preferable to wait until he is older, particularly if you work him and need to be sure he develops full musculature.

There seem to be only a few options open to you in this situation:

1) Re-home the aggressor.
2) Muzzle the aggressor at all times.
3) Restrict the aggressor's movement by means of an enclosure or containment system.
4) Enclose the area around the Huskies by means of fencing or a containment system installed to keep the aggressor outside the perimeter.
5) Keep the Husky inside & make sure he is not allowed out unless you are there to supervise or the aggressor is kennelled.

You could try to make sure that Houdini urinates and defacates in one spot away from the area which the other dog regards as his.

You say that "there is nothing I can really do to keep the outside dogs away from the Husky". I think you are going to HAVE to do something if the situation is this serious & you wish to avoid bloodshed. However, if the outside dogs are free to roam they must surely have visited the Huskies at some time without a fight breaking out? Are you sure that the growling is actually aggression and not simply an 'I'm the boss & you are an insignificant little pup & don't forget it' type of warning? Is there snarling & snapping? How do they get on together when they are running around free? Without actually seeing the dogs it is hard to really know what is going on.

Hi Tara Yes a difficult problem and one I have encountered when keeping 2 stud dogs..a situation that lead to my being bitten when one male jumped a 6ft fence to reach the other and I rushed in and picked up the smallest my only concern being for the precious dogs (both Ch). Bobby accidently bit my hand while I was calming the situation...not his fault but scarey and I had to go to hospital to be stitched up
Most of the time the two boys tollerated each other when off the premises but there was always the chance of a flare up.
Shadow has outlined your options and I will throw in one more, you could have the older dog Neutered rather than Hudini ..but that is still no quarantee of sucess and this action could alter the 'balance of power' between the two outside dogs though I think they would be ok. What happens if you take the outside dog and Houdini to meet and walk together on leads in a 'neutral' place, it will of course need two people,you can then watch their body language. What would do? 1) Build a pen for the outside dog or 2) Neuter the older dog rather than mess with Houdini Good luck Tara Tut! tut! Men ..(shakes head )

I was assuming that the dominant outside dog was castrated. If he is entire it would be a big mistake to neuter him rather than Houdini. The less dominant dog in this type of situation should be neutered, otherwise you run the real risk of making things ten times worse!

I've also heard that neutering an 'older' dog does not really change it's behaviour especially in terms of aggressiveness as his personality is by that time 'made'. However on the other hand it seems to be the first thing 'rescues' do when a dog is brought in after getting into a fight! It is a difficult one - have you taken them both to a vet? What has he said after seeing both Dogs? Thanks all fopr the advice!

"Castration is reserved only for aggression problems between males and it should be done to the most submissive individual. If severe fighting is present both dogs can be neutered. It is important not to castrate the dominant dog, since that could lower the hierarchical distance between both animals." From -

http://www.vin.com/proceedings/Proce...mp;PID=PR02563

Many other references are availble from an internet search.

....I understand the dog in question is five and I have heard of dogs this age being sucessfully neutered, although this course of action it is a gamble which ever dog you may choose to have done, it has no guarantees and it is best not to to rely on this as a cure all . I think Tara originally intended to show and breed Houdini so I was trying to spare him the chop in case she wants to do that later? As I indicated earlier my first choice and the most predictable course of action would be to build a strong pen for the older dog and keep them both appart. Some dogs like some people just never like each other whatever you do and it is natural for the older dog to protect his territory

..Sorry Shadow was replying to Azz ,I had not read your last post ,we were writing at the same time. I will read your ref. link later thanks for that all very interesting