# 7 Month Old Male & 10 Month Old Female Fight



## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

My friend has a 7 month old male Doberman (Ace) and a almost 11 month old female Doberman (Addison), they get along wonderfully, they play, sleep, run, lick and lay with each other. They have never had a problem with each other. They have had Ace since he was 10 weeks old and they got Addison when she was 8 months old.

My friend and her boyfriend practice NILIF, they work on basic obediance with their dogs everyday, in separate rooms and they switch dogs after 10-15 minutes. 

I spend alot of time with these dogs, we take our dogs to the beach a couple of times a week and I bring my GSD to their house almost every saturday. All 3 dogs get along wonderfully.

Yesterday my friend and I took the dogs to the beach like we always do and they ran, played and swam together. When we were making our way back down the trail to our cars, Addison started making these weird barks at Ace, then Ace's hair went up and they got really loud with each other, Sinister went over to them to join in and it became 2 on 1, Addison and Sinister VS Ace. As soon as we saw what was going on we stopped it. My friend leashed Addison and the boys continued running and playing as if nothing happened.

After about 10 minutes my friend let Addison off leash again. Addison and Ace started running around and playing while Sinister and I took off jogging (bugs were attacking) the next thing I know I hear a dog fight. I turned around to see Addison on top of Ace and she had him by the skin on the top of his head. My friend was trying to pull them off each other so I made Sinister sit and stay while I ran towards the dogs, my friend managed to get them apart right before I got to them and she immediately leashed them. She walked them side by side, they were fine and licked each other. Addison had no marks but Ace has a fingernail sized cut on his head. 

Ace and Addison are not spayed/neutered. Addison will be spayed next month on her 1st birthday and Ace will be neutered in 5 months on his 1st birthday. Addison finished her 1st heat cycle almost 4 weeks ago. We did not have any treats or toys with us.

Why did this happen? How can we fix this?


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## Girth (Jan 27, 2011)

Sounds like a dominance issue to me. About 3 months ago I had the same issue with my oldest male (7 yrs) and female (5 yrs). They got into it, I broke the fight up, and then it started right back up. I seperated them again, threw one into the house and then kept the other with me outside for 30 minutes or so. When I brought them back together some licking and then they wouldn't have anything to do with each other for the rest of the day. Ever since then the female has assumed the alpha role amongst my three. I have never had any issues with them since that day.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Girth said:


> Sounds like a dominance issue to me. About 3 months ago I had the same issue with my oldest male (7 yrs) and female (5 yrs). They got into it, I broke the fight up, and then it started right back up. I seperated them again, threw one into the house and then kept the other with me outside for 30 minutes or so. When I brought them back together some licking and then they wouldn't have anything to do with each other for the rest of the day. Ever since then the female has assumed the alpha role amongst my three. I have never had any issues with them since that day.


My friend was just telling me about 2 weeks ago that she believes her female is the dominant one in the house, from what I saw yesterday the female started the fight.


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

Just a guess, but the male may be getting to a size and age that threatens the female and she is making sure that she remains dominant. The male may have set her off and she just put him in his place. But then, I wasn't there.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

LaRen616 said:


> My friend was just telling me about 2 weeks ago that she believes her female is the dominant one in the house, from what I saw yesterday the female started the fight.


LaRen - IMO, I think the "dominant" one changes regularly. We have 3 females. Banshee is the queen. Always has been and NOBODY is allowed to even look at her funny (our rules). The other two switch "dominant" roles. Given our experience with "dominance", I think that whole theory is bunk.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Jax08 said:


> LaRen - IMO, I think the "dominant" one changes regularly. We have 3 females. Banshee is the queen. Always has been and NOBODY is allowed to even look at her funny (our rules). The other two switch "dominant" roles. Given our experience with "dominance", I think that whole theory is bunk.


Oh alright, Jax what do you think caused the fight? What do you think we should do?


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## vomlittlehaus (Aug 24, 2010)

Female is taking a dominant role. My six month old pups here, I have to keep in check when together. Bella is a dominant bitch, has been since she was 3 months old. She starts it every time. I am very aware of my dogs behaviors and I nip it in the bud when she gets the idea of starting trouble.

Most people misunderstand animals and think the males are always dominant, when it is the females that are. Females rule the roost.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

When we had littermates Bandit and Banshee, Banshee would snark at Bandit. In that case, she was the dominant one and he was just a goofball that didn't care. I don't know what started the fight. 

If she was in heat 4 weeks ago, are there left over hormones? A breeder can answer that. 

Maybe something set her off the first time and she was still in an agitated state for the second one?

If she's 11 months, is she starting to mature?

Just an FYI...Banshee was spayed as a puppy so if the vet tells you that will go away after the spay, they aren't 100% correct.


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## gsdraven (Jul 8, 2009)

Jax08 said:


> LaRen - IMO, I think the "dominant" one changes regularly. We have 3 females. Banshee is the queen. Always has been and NOBODY is allowed to even look at her funny (our rules). The other two switch "dominant" roles. Given our experience with "dominance", I think that whole theory is bunk.


I agree given my experience as well. I would typically say that Raven is the dominant one of my two (and certainly with fosters) but when Raven and Kaiser have arguments, Kaiser is always the one that ends up in the "dominant" position. I think it totally depends on the situation on who is more "dominant". In normal day to day life, Raven can (but gets in trouble for) take anything she wants away from Kaiser and he lets it happen but Kaiser wouldn't dream of taking it back from her and will just sit there and bark at her until she walks away or I go get whatever it is for him. 

Something caused the fight and apparently the humans missed it (we just aren't as observant as dogs). It could be that they both are coming into maturity and are feeling out their position or it could be something stupid. I wouldn't leave them alone together for a long time (and only if it never happens again), would step up leadership and just keep a close on them.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Any other opinions/ideas?


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Why do people do it ON THEIR BIRTHDAY, like it is a big present or something. I will NEVER understand people who do that. 

It is possible that the female is getting close to going into heat. If he made any advances toward her when she is not ready to stand, she can get pretty bitchy -- yeah they do not call us that for no reason. Hard to say, as you really did not see the whole of the episode. But it is always possible that it is near her heat cycle. If that is the case, I would not be surprised if she started bleeding within days. Or she could be in a silent heat -- I have no idea how common those are, never had any, but I have heard of them.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

LaRen616 said:


> Ace and Addison are not spayed/neutered. Addison will be spayed next month on her 1st birthday and Ace will be neutered in 5 months on his 1st birthday. *Addison finished her 1st heat cycle almost 4 weeks ago.* We did not have any treats or toys with us.
> 
> Why did this happen? How can we fix this?


Sue - since she just finished her heat cycle a few weeks ago, is it possible she could be coming back in? Are there left over hormones from her heat cycle?


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Yeah did not see that. Only if it is a split heat. Sometimes they bleed for about a week and stop, and then they come in several weeks or a month later.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

If it is not a split heat, I doubt it has anything to do with sex-hormones, more likely in that case just to be getting into her I think I'm an adult dog now so I can do what I want phase. And what she wants is to put the pesky boy in his place.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

selzer said:


> Why do people do it ON THEIR BIRTHDAY, like it is a big present or something. I will NEVER understand people who do that.


Sick sense of humor?


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

Sue - could it be because a third dog was sent into the mix? Two dogs have already established a relationship between each other, and then a third dog comes along and sets the balance swaying a bit? I realize that they know Sinister and all three dogs get along fine, but could that sort of set up for a fight in that moment in time?


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

sometimes three's a crowd..And you've got a female in the mix who's likely maturing and well, they don't call them bitches for nothing..Females usually like to make the rules, and maybe she was making her own rules. 

I had two males, both neutered when I brought a female in, the 'boyz', never had a tiff in their lives, EVER, (they were at the time 6 & 3 yrs old),,bring that girl in, and I had a few good boy fights, the "girl" was in there instigating. When it was apparent this 'girl' was not going anywhere things settled down quite nicely.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Lilie said:


> Sue - could it be because a third dog was sent into the mix? Two dogs have already established a relationship between each other, and then a third dog comes along and sets the balance swaying a bit? I realize that they know Sinister and all three dogs get along fine, but could that sort of set up for a fight in that moment in time?


I never really thought of it like that.


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## x0emiroxy0x (Nov 29, 2010)

Maybe the male just did something to piss her off. I mean, my boyfriend does that from time to time and I snap at him then love him after


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

It is hard to tell. I agree adding a second male into the mix can mix it up, but that is an outside dog. Pack aggression USUALLY not always happens within the pack. The young male could plow into her or take the spot beside the human, and that could be enough. Sometimes when there are females in heat, males will go at each other. Three IS a crowd.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

All 3 of them spend alot of time together, I would think they think of each other as "pack members" but those are just my thoughts.

I bring my dog over to their house and I am not there for just an hour or 2, I am there for several hours, these dogs have never had an issue. They share the water bowl, they can take treats together, we've done basic training with all 3 at the same time, they share toys, they run and play. 

It was just a shock to see them fight and I do not want to see it happen again.


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

Dogs fight. I have not found it to be that uncommon. Multi dog households can be a challenge depending on the dogs involved.


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

LaRen616 said:


> I never really thought of it like that.


I was curious if it could be a slight form of resource guarding with Sinister being the resource.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Lilie said:


> I was curious if it could be a slight form of resource guarding with Sinister being the resource.


Addison likes Sinister very much, she's very flirty, happy and wild around him. They get very licky and silly with each other.

We have all noticed the difference between her and Ace and her and Sinister.


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## valreegrl (Nov 11, 2009)

Do you know if this was truly a 'dog fight' or was the female simply putting him in his place, a little rough?

It doesn't sounds like aggression as they could quickly be contained as well as shrug it off through licks (language for everything is cool). 

Without seeing the fight, and only going by what was said here, I would have to guess that the above is the scenario. Especially since each dog shrugged it off and went about their business.


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