Help Needed - Urgently!

Hi All,
I hope you can help me. We have a GSD/Husky bitch who is un-nutered and is 19 months old.3/4 months ago we bought a husky female aged 3 and a husky male aged 4, we originally only wanted the female, but when we went to meet her, the owners were also selling the male and me being a soft touch couldnt see them seperated!. We tried to introduce the dogs slowly and they all seemed to get on well, we had a few skirmishes between the females but nothing major - until now! - my gsdx is in season, and we think the husky is due in season in october if that makes any difference, but the gsd keeps following the husky around and touching the back of her neck-much as a parent would with a pup - the husky female is quite a bit smaller than the gsd x, our gsdx has started chasing the husky out of the house when she tried to come in, and gets jealous if we pet her. We have tried petting the gsdx and then the husky, and a whole host of other things, we dont have the room to keep them apart so are at our wits end - thay have started having major fights - not all the time, but have made each other bleed. The gsdx came off worst last time and had to go to the vets with 2 great holes in her leg. We want to keep all of our dogs, so any help will be greatly appreciated - I was hoping that as our gsdx got a bit older she would calm down - these fights used to start with the gsdx playing with the husky - who really didnt want to play so she would snap at the gsdx.
Sorry this is so long winded, but I am trying to get everything down!
As soon as we are able we are going to get both bitches nutered, our male is already castrated.
All the dogs have great temprements, and have never been aggressive to other dogs, people or our children and often if we put one in the kitchen and the other in the garden, they cry until we let them all back together.
so I just don know what to do, or why they keep fighting.

Hi Midge, sorry to hear about your troubles, I would take a guess that there's a struggle for status going on, but can't offer anything more I'm afraid . Someone will be along shortly I'm sure

I cant really help much but I suspect they are fighting because you have 2 bitches and one in season and hormones are flying at the moment.

I hope someone can advise you on what to do

Sounds like there is a challenge for pack leader to me, the head over the neck is certainly a sign of dominance, as your GSDx is in season her hormones will be elevated and it sounds like she is asserting herself as alpha bitch, wether your older husky bitch accepts this is another matter, I know you say you cant seperate them but surely you have a doorway that you can put a gate on to keep the bitches apart til her season is over? I know this is not helping but you have really made a rod for your own back introducing another entire bitch into your home, when your first one is at the peak of her teenage/adult stage. how you deal with this now will more or less determine how they will all end up living with each other, the more these bitches fight the more they get a taste for it, so you NEED to stop it now before it goes too far. even if you have to have a relative take in one of your bitches till the season is over.This is my honest opinion.

Mo

Thanks everyone - we can put the bitches in different rooms, but cannot keep them away from each other all the time, I intend to get both bitches nutered asap, but have to wait until 6 weeks after suki's season (as im sure you all know) as our husky bitch (Airen) has not yet had a season while she has been with us, it is difficult to know when to get her done. At the moment they are all lying together by the computer as i am typing this - you would never know that there was a problem.
We may have made a rod for our own backs, but when the right dog comes along...... well we went with our hearts, and didnt consider hormonal problems!!
Hopefully as suki gets older, and when they are both nutered, (and with a little reinforcement that this behaviour is not acceptable) we will be ok!!
When we first got Airen (husky) she wouldnt play and was very timid, that has started to change and sometimes she will initiate play with Suki, as you say, maybe now Airen feels more secure she is exerting her authority.
Thanks all

Hello Midge sorry but I don't think I am going to be a lot of help to you either ..as I see it you have introduced two other dogs into the GSDs home and she has tolerated them, now she is in season her hormones will be making her less tolerant. I have noticed 'nudging' the neck is sometimes done by bitches in season to others in a 'come on 'gesture but as Mo says it can also be an aggressive gesture...It is hard to say which it is unless you can observe the dogs other body language. Also I do not think having the bitches spayed will necessarily alter the aggression between them, dogs have a natural hierarchy and one bitch has to be the 'leader'. As Mo says I would try to keep the bitches apart while the one is in season ..as to a long term solution that is more difficult and if one bitch is constantly reinforcing her position you could have a really serious fight one day.

I agree with Mini, I don't think getting them both spayed will be the end of your problems to be honest. We had two toy poodles, both bitches and as they reached maturity they started having major fights, even though we had them both spayed. Sometimes having two bitches can work out especially if one of the bitches is maybe quite a bit older but I think the less the age gap the worse they are.

We had to rehome the more dominant female because she was very jealous of the smaller one and was forever picking on her and starting fights. She got a wonderful home with an old lady who ran the local post office and she used to take her to her bungalow at the seaside nearly every weekend.

Could you not try rehoming the female because I doubt they would ever get on together.

well, thanks anyway, it seems that everyone thinks the only option is to 'get rid of one of them' I am not happy to go down that road until I have no options left - I have all my dogs because I love them, and before anyone says that if i love them i would do the best for them and rehome one, I will if there is no other option, having only had the husky bitch for 4 months, i want to give them a little more time to settle in - im not sure how long it usually takes, but 4 months is not very long.
They have had 2 fights where they have actually made 'contact' once in one of the kennels we have, when the husky got one of the kids little cuddly dogs and my GSD/husky wanted a look and they them both could not get away from each other, and the second a few days ago, but nothing since. since the last fight we have kept the 2 huskys in the kitchen at night and the GSD/husky upstairs and they seem to be getting on better - maybe I was a little dramatic before, they do still play with each other and the male husky too (the two huskys have had a litter together before I got them) so we originally presumed that now the GSDx is in season the females were vyng for his attention (even though he is now castrated).
My GSDx is 19 months old and is still very puppy like the husky bitch is 3 or 4 (no papers so not sure exaxtly - will ask the vet) and seemed not to know how to play - in fact was VERY timid, and not wishing to cast dispusions on the previous owners (who seemed very nice) we get the impression that at some stage she has not been treated very well, for instance if we were all sitting in the living room and you happened to move your foot, the female husky would cower - she is gradually coming out of her shell and getting more confident, and maybe this has something to do with it all.again i must stress that i dont think for a minute that her previous owners treated her badly but something made her act like that, im not an expert so i guess it could have been anything that frightened her

Thanks for the advice anyway.

Debbi

I really hope everything works out for you and your dogs Debbi and that rehoming is a last resort. We didn't go into it lightly they had fights for about 3 years before we decided to rehome one of them and it was a hard thing to do but the best thing for her. We have had two bitches together (one collie cross and a collie but the collie cross was about 10 years old when we got the younger one who was a rescue collie and was only 10 months old when we got her, so there was a big age gap and I don't remember them ever fighting at all, they got on really well and they were both spayed.

Best wishes xxx

thanks, im sorry that you had to rehome your bitch, and i know that these things cannot be done lightly. I guess time and perserverence will tell, our vet didnt seem too concerned when we asked for advice but we are having the husky spayed next week, and the gsd x in a couple of months so we will see what happens after that.

thanks