Fighting for Dominance? Now what do we do?

I’m glad I’m not the only one with this problem. I’ll share my experience and maybe it will help you. I have an EB that is 4 years old and an OEB that is 2 1/2 years old. Both are female and both are spayed. I had them both since they were puppies. I took the EB to obedience classes when I first got her so she is very well behaved and listens to command. I also took her to doggie day camps so that she can socialize with other dogs. The EB is the sweetest thing ever. When I got the OEB I did not do that. That was my first mistake. I figured the OEB would learn from the EB whenever she would see me give commands to the EB but that was not the case. I also never socialized the OEB with other dogs which was my second mistake. The OEB who’s the younger of the two has always been the more dominant one. They get along well, play together, sleep together, walk together etc. But when the OEB was about 1 1/2 years old she started displaying some aggressive behavior. She would guard her food, her toys and even me. Then she started attacking the EB for no reason. The OEB does not attack the EB all the time, something has to happen to trigger that behavior. It could be anything from sitting on the couch with me or even me giving attention to the EB, just something that sets her off. She also became dog aggressive with other dogs. I realized I couldn’t take her to other family members or friends houses who had dogs because she would attack them. Even though those dogs were not unfamiliar dogs to her, she knew them and grew up with some of them. To combat this behavior I ended up having to hire a dog trainer to come to my house to work with her. I used Bark Busters and they send a trainer to your house. With the trainer we were able to set boundaries with the OEB and the attacks are now far and few between with the EB. They still happen but now I can manage the situation better and I’m able to identify the triggers. Once you’re able to identify the triggers you can minimize the frequency of attacks. So in my case what the trainer taught me was that areas where frequent attacks would occur should be off limits, so no more sitting on the couch at all, with or without me. And whatever rule I apply to one I must apply to both. So if the OEB is not allowed on the furniture then the EB is not allowed either. When I’m in the kitchen cooking neither is allowed to be in there. And small spaces such as bathrooms are also off limits. Neither can sleep in my bed with me anymore. I have water bottles all around my house that I can spray either dog with. Whenever the OEB starts to show signs of aggressive behavior she gets sprayed with the water bottle and there is a word the trainer taught me to say that the dog could understand. So I spray and say the word at the same time and that’s every time I need to correct her behavior. The OEB hates it. It doesn’t work with the EB so I do not use it on her since she is trained and understands when I tell her no. I also had to show the OEB that I was the alpha in the household and make her earn everything she gets. For example, if she wants me to put her food bowl down so she can eat, she has to perform the command sit. Once she sits I give her the “good girl” for listening and her bowl comes down. If she wants me to pet her, she has to sit. If she wants me to open the back door so she can go outsider she has to sit before I’ll open the door. Little things like that have helped to establish my alpha role in our house. It was hard to get her to do this at first but I just kept working with her and now she does it with no problems. Whenever she does attack the EB, I have to maintain control. I use to scream, pull her collar and drag her off the EB, I would hit her mouth and tell her no but none of that ever worked. In fact it made the attacks worse. It’s like I gave the OEB anxiety or something. So now when an attack actually happens I tell her the word the trainer taught me, if I can I spray her with the water bottle I do but normally I separate them or rather get her off the EB, then she goes into her room. Basically she gets timeout until she has cooled off. The attacks have never drawn blood. They look worse then they actually are but none the less I don’t like them. But now I’m able to correct her at that moment so she knows that behavior is not acceptable and now the frequency of attacks continues to diminish. So I’m certainly seeing a major improvement. The trainer was worth it but I honestly feel if you implemented a spray water bottle and some boundaries you could do it without spending a bunch of money. My OEB is not allowed to socialize with other dogs yet. I am still working on getting her to be able to do that but overall in the last 3 or 4 months she has improved tremendously and I feel like I have my old dog back. If you get other responses from people with different techniques I would love to know what those are.

Don’t let them sense your anxiety! These dogs sense and feed off your stress so quickly! I have an OEB who is very territorial and can be aggressive, especially when on a leash. If I stay calm, he’ll stay relatively calm and look at me for direction. This has come from no formal training. I rescued him and firmly believe he was used as a bait dog before I got him. Now he’s a couch dog! But is protective of me if another dog is over and I’m on the couch first. The other dog isn’t allowed to look at the couch if I’m on the end and my OEB is in the middle. Just stay calm!