i once had two bitches that fought and i swore i would never ever put myself or my dogs in that position again [where same sexed dogs are concerned] once it starts it very rarely stops it only ever escalates over time, i called a behaviourist in to assist with my two and she was very little help, infact useless. in the end i had to make the decision to rehome one of my girls didn`t feel like the right decision for me, certainly was the right one for the dogs. i`ve never ever kept same sexed dogs together since.

Sadie is a 4yr old GSD, spayed. Piglet is a 4yr old basset, spayed recently.

I have only had piglet around a month. There have been the odd snap but nothing i wouldnt describe as 'teething' issues with a new dog in the household. Mainly the snapping has been from piglet to maverick my young male, not really so much to sadie.

With regards to things between ripley and sadie...things have calmed down recently, no posturing and/or growling at all.

The best place to rejoin two fighting bitches aftre a speration is where there are other distractions, out walking somewhere they really like to sniff, or investigate.

Walking side by side on lead to start with, slightly out of range of they are calm and farther apart if they are not. Watch to see if the tension lessons and they are happy to take their eyes of one another and relax into looking around the environment.

The initial meeting after being apart is usually very telling. Sometimes it is clear that they have actually missed one another. Sometimes it is clear that they are still thinking of last time they where together! This first intro is somethign worth really preparing for, maybe even having a video recording of.

That is the place to reintroduce, walking. Ideally you will need two people one for each dogs lead.

Again I wish you luck.

oh thats scary

whilst i defo agree when bitchs do not get on it can be a recipe for disaster,i do want to add two of mine really had a big dingdong once,i thought the worse but they are ok now...........

eta.... piglets hormones may still be a bit 'messed up' so could still be due to that.

I aquired my small dog Coo because the bassett in the house had attacked her---with apparent help from the GSD bitch. That bassett was also pacing and trying to get into the area Coo was in. I took Coo and a year or so later the Bassett had a humdinger with the GSD.

You must feel awful but you need to think of Sadie and her security and stress levels as well as your own.

Keep us posted.

rune

I am so sorry how horrible for you

Guess Piglet is finding her feet - possibly might have been resource guarding you - or sadie may have looked odd at that angle - but its not nice

agree with them meeting again on a walk or something - and see how you feel about it

I am so sorry, I know how rubbish, hyped, sick you will be feeling and dog fight is a horrible thing to see - when its your dogs its a million times worse

I agree...Jenny and Poppy's fight was awful. It was Poopy who was nipping Jenny's legs in play but she had enough and went for her big time. It's only happened once and she stopped as soon as I pulled her off Poppy. But there hasn't been anything since and that was a few weeks ago. In fact they make an effort to lie with each other curled up.

I really don't have anything different to add other than I agree with the advice you've already been given.

My 2 bitches are now almost permanently separated because of the fight they had. They are walked together, side by side by me alone and are fed together. They are allowed occasionally to play "gently" (which is something neither of them seem to understand ).

My biggest problem is that it's my GSD bitch who starts the fight and my Lurcher won't stick up for herself (which is probably a good thing). But then the 2 boys get involved. Fortunately, they were trying to help but I have seem GSDs gang up on another dog and it's horrible to see.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Well, this morning i decided to stick to my morning routine of letting them out and feeding, they all went out in the garden together and both sadie and piglet ignored each other.
I let them back in and piglet had a real go at ripley as she was coming through the doorway.
I seperated piglet from the others for breakfast (as i always do).
A while later i took them for a walk together as normal and they all seemed relaxed, though sadie was very clingy to me (more so than normal).

I do think it is a case of piglet finding her feet and becoming more confident. This is obvious with my cat too as when she first arrived they could be in the same room together but now im pretty sure piglet would kill her if she got close enough. My poor cat is scared to come downstairs!!

I've heard of hormones "peaking" after spaying/neutering but not sure if there's any truth in it?

I had two bitches suddenly fall out when the second came into season (yes, not ideal that she wasn't spayed but that was thanks to my dad dumping a dog we didn't plan on us shortly before my parents seperated ) and things escalated after spaying rather than improving. We probably could've done more down the behaviourist route etc. but with money and time being shorter due to my parents split, and not actually planning to have a second dog at the time, let alone a bitch, we found the second dog a home with a friend.
Not to say it can't be worked through though, sounds as though things have settled down again today so hopefully it was a total one off.