# Our 4 y/o F GSD aggressive towards our 2 y/o F Husky



## Gaia (Jul 9, 2019)

It's a long story, but bear with me:

We had the husky (Ansi) first. Adopted the GSD (Gaia) (already 2.5 y/o) when our husky was ~8 months. They were doing fine, getting along, until the husky had her first heat, and became aggressive towards Gaia. They would get in fights but Gaia was about 3 times the size of Ansi and could easily kill her. So we separated them for a few months, my fiancee and I were living in different apartments, he had one I had the other.
We moved in together and reintroduced the dogs, in a new, neutral territory. They were doing fine again. We got Ansi (husky) spayed, but Gaia (GSD) was still not spayed, but it was coming for her.
At this time we heavily supervised them, they only played together outside while one of them was on a tethered zipline. Inside, we had a gate between them so they could sniff and interact and not hurt each other. There was one day Gaia was outside on the line and I took Ansi out, and I think Gaia was particularly stressed, it was a bad time to bring them together, she had been out there all day while we were at work and hadn't been let off yet or given time to de-stress. And I think out of frustration, she attacked Ansi (who was doing nothing wrong).
Since that point, now any time Gaia sees Ansi, she becomes immediately aggressive.

Gaia has since been spayed so there is no worry of heat-specific aggression. Although I've read that spaying a female dog has a chance of increasing aggression.
We have to keep one of them isolated at all times now. We've pretty much been playing musical dogs for almost a year and I want to try again to do something about it.
Ansi has shown no ill will towards Gaia since the very first instance of heat-aggression. Gaia has now become the aggressor, it's like she remembers "Hey that's the dog who used to fight me, I hate her!"

I've tried taking them to dog parks and putting them in separate fences and Gaia still acts like she knows it's Ansi and she knows that she wants to attack her.
Gaia is not aggressive towards any other dogs. She may act _dominant_ towards other females, but she has consistently backed off if any other dog shows aggression or 'leave me alone' signs towards her.
Her beef is only with Ansi.

I'm just looking for any possible advice.
I want to associate some kind of positive stimulant for Gaia, but I can't even get them in between a solid barrier without Gaia losing her mind and focusing solely on getting to Ansi.


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## Gwyllgi (Aug 16, 2017)

I know how you feel. I've had bitches that were fine together and I've had bitches that wanted to kill each other.

Once bitches fight each other, they will continue until one is seriously hurt or even killed by the other.

Your solution is to either rehome one of the bitches or keep them separated at all times.

Do not trust those days when they seem fine around each other.

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk


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## Gaia (Jul 9, 2019)

@Gwyllgi
I'm trying really hard to avoid having to rehome one of them, mostly because I feel like it would end up being the husky and I know my fiancee would be sad about that because we got her as a puppy (6 mo, but still puppy)
I only say that because I feel like out of the two of them it would be exponentially easier to find a home for Ansi. She's small, ADORABLE as heck, and friendly to everything and everyone. I wouldn't put her in a shelter, but I know that if I did she would be adopted the next day.
Versus Gaia who is more complex and requires an experienced owner. If Gaia ended up in a shelter she would absolutely be euthanized and I'm not going to let her go with the possibility that her next owner can't handle her.

Regardless!! I'm trying to avoid that, like I said.
I'm even fine with keeping them separated for the rest of their lives if need be. I try my hardest to take full responsibility for every animal that we bring into our home. But at the same time, part of giving them a good home is not creating a hostile environment so if I have to let go of someone I am prepared to.


Until I am ABSOLUTELY sure that's the only option, I want to try training again. Because as I mentioned, our husky never starts fights, she even looks at Gaia with excitement like 'New friend, I want to play!' (she's kind of stupid tbh), so in that sense I still see a little bit of hope.
If anyone has had a situation like this that ended in success, I'd love to hear! C:


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

My rule has always been last in first out when it comes to rehoming. You don't get a new dog and ditch your old one. They aren't cars.
As far as them fighting, bitches that fight will always fight if the right circumstances present. They hold grudges forever and just because you forced them to get along today does not mean tomorrow is foretold.
Either get used to crate and rotate or rehome the new one.


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

Gaia said:


> I'm even fine with keeping them separated for the rest of their lives if need be.


honestly, i would plan on this and put any goals or ideals on the back burner for a bit and evaluate things later down the road.

GSD ladies are notorious for having same sex aggression. of course not all, but many, and in situations where housing two girls is unavoidable or desired... owners/trainers are left preventing and/or managing them, usually for life - this is something that needs to be understood from the start. as someone said previously, once the fight happens, they’ll continue and you’re pretty much left with management. that said, training can help with management

as far as success stories... unfortunately my girl only successfully lived with other females (4 different dogs) part time or temporarily. we monitored and prevented fights... things still felt tense at times, but the girls knew how to behave and what my expectations were. they were never left unattended.

in the one instance that the fight wasn’t able to be prevented... i tried for 6 months, ultimately, 3 or 4 fights later, the younger and more adoptable of the two was placed. she was initially a foster-to-adopt but at 20, i knew that my future was not stable enough to manage those girls.


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## ausdland (Oct 21, 2015)

Keep them separated and spend individual time with them if you don't want to rehome the GSD. Once a GSD bitch hates another dog it won't change which is why mine has to be on leash every time we step out of the house.


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## Gaia (Jul 9, 2019)

@Fodder, thank you for that!

I was really hoping it wouldn't be the case but I'm glad I at least asked now.

Rehoming really is my LAST resort. And that's only going to happen in the case of something like, we can't support both of them financially, or we somehow end up in a situation where they can't be separated.
One thing that comes to mind is that I'll be done with school in 2-3 years and we're almost definitely moving out of state, although we won't know where until I find a job. Transporting them is going to be difficult, but not impossible. Depending on how far we go it will be at max, an uncomfortable 3 days. Not enough to rehome.

Despite the unknown, I think we've been doing an okay job with them so far.
We have a 3 bedroom house with a half acre of fenced in yard and no children (hopefully forever!) so it isn't too hard for both of them to have their own space.

Ansi (husky) pretty much has her own room and Gaia's (GSD) crate is in our bedroom on the other side of the house.

I guess then I'll reword my quest to ask:

Any anecdotal advice on improving their lives in the "crate and rotate"? I've been reading a lot about this already ever since the fighting started, but I'm always trying to gain new perspectives!

Edit:

I particularly want advice for improving our husky's life. We have 3 other male dogs and Gaia gets to be outside with them all day while we're at work, while Ansi is in her crate all day.
We tried putting Ansi on the zipline outside the fence so she could at least be outside but Gaia kept trying to dig out to get to her.
Ansi can't be left out in the fence at all unsupervised because she will dig out of the fence no matter what. When we take her potty we have to stand there and watch her and let her back in right when she's done. Even if we put the boys out there with her she still escapes. She's the smallest and pretty slippery so they can't follow her.


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

crate and rotate. It was a way of life for me with three dogs of my own and multiple fosters.
If you own your home, we built permanent barriers between some areas. I had a six foot wide 4 foot high gate that was on a track fastened to the wall. I could roll it out to block the access between my dining and living room and when it was not needed it just sat against the wall. I installed spring loaded self latching gates, with added safety clips, on most doorways. All were mounted 8 inches above the floor and were chest height on me. Spring loaded so if anything went wrong I could shove a dog through and it would close and latch without my needing to have a free hand.
The foster room had a half door to prevent any contact if isolation was needed. The hallway also had a gate in between the back bedroom(foster room) and other rooms, just in case. I had a dog run set up in the basement and a small one in the foster room. My yard had front fenced area, side fenced area and back fenced area, which also contained a large, covered dog run in one corner. 
When Sabs got old, and I stopped fostering, I couldn't let her play with my other dogs because the DM made her unsteady, so Bud in the dog run and Sabs in the yard and Punk(Shadow) in the house, or either Bud or Punk crated, the other in the yard and Sabs with me. Sometimes Punk in the back of the house and Sabs in the front of the house, Bud in the yard. 
All the dogs got yard time and time loose in the house with me. Walked separate, because Bud hated Shadow and Sabi couldn't keep up to either. 
It's totally doable, it just gets really old really quick. However: You need to do some training because if your younger dog is going to be allowed to flip out this will not work.


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## Gaia (Jul 9, 2019)

Sabis mom said:


> However: You need to do some training because if your younger dog is going to be allowed to flip out this will not work.


Yes, I absolutely am committed to this!

It's become especially bad recently, which is one thing that prompted me to join this forum at all.

Presently I'm staying with my parents for the summer (long story and irrelevant) and I brought Ansi with me so she can enjoy one-on-one attention and freedom. But when I go home and take Ansi with me, Gaia will be in our bedroom, in her crate, with the bedroom door closed, and she can HEAR (or Smell??) Ansi in the living room with us and she starts to freak out about it and whine and try to escape to come beat her up.

I go back home in 2 weeks so that's when Gaia's training is going to begin.
My current thoughts on my approach will be to try to distract her with high value rewards and activities while I'm in the room with her and Ansi is out in the living room.
I don't know if I should go straight to .. creating the environment in question, if that makes sense?
As in, should I do anything else before just putting her right into the situation that is causing her stress?


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

I wouldn't bother with distraction, she knows that the behavior is unacceptable. I would be giving a correction, and one she is unlikely to forget.
Hire a trainer. But this is 100% or nothing because both dogs lives depend on it.


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## Kazel (Nov 29, 2016)

Gaia said:


> @Fodder, thank you for that!
> 
> I was really hoping it wouldn't be the case but I'm glad I at least asked now.
> 
> ...



Can you get a dog kennel setup like the big dog panels? Put chicken wire/hog wire underneath and a cover on top so she can have her own dog run separate from the others. Can't dig out and can't climb out.

Additionally you could muzzle train(basket muzzle) both and as others have said have firm corrections for both is a fight breaks out. Perhaps set up baby gates if you have them in separate areas of the house. But honestly crate and rotate may be the safest. Just give them a couple hours with the family when relaxing and switch it out. The biggest issue would probably be not having a fight in some time and so getting lax because you haven't had a fight in some time, got comfortable and then aren't as on top of it so you get more fighting seemingly out of the blue.


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## tc68 (May 31, 2006)

5 dogs and you decided to get another? Wow, I don't know how you guys with multiple dogs do it. One is more than enough for me, especially this one that I have now. I just can't see myself walking my dog for an hour, then crating, then walking an hour with the other one, then crating. Then feeding dog #1, then crate. Then feeding dog #2, then crate. Then playing/training dog #1. Then crate. Then...I think you get the picture. It just sounds exhausting to me. Not to mention, I won't have time to do anything else. Y'all are better people than I.


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## sebrench (Dec 2, 2014)

I have two males that I keep seperate. It is definitely extra work, but it's do-able. It was hardest in the beginning; now it's just habit. I keep one dog in the upper level of the house and the other in the main level, and I switch them out every couple of hours. There's a babygate in the stairwell (put there for my kids, but good back-up for the dogs).

I work weekend nights and my husband works business hours/weekdays, so someone is almost always home. Also, we have enough property that I can exercise the dogs without leaving home if I'm so inclined. Fortunately, we don't have to walk one dog for miles and miles, then turn around and walk the other one. If your situation requires that, and you have a partner, perhaps each of you could go out separately, each with a dog? 

I try to make things as fair as possible. For instance, Dog 1 gets to sleep in the bedroom with us one night, while dog 2 has the run of the house with a comfy dog bed. Then the next night, dog 2 gets to stay in the bedroom. Also, if I take Dog 2 hiking one day, on the next outing, dog 1 gets to come along, and so forth. 

This is certainly far from ideal and not what I envisioned, but the dogs seem happy and well-adjusted. I've never noticed in them any signs of stress or anxiety, and since it's a situation we seem to be able to manage, and since I've bonded to and made a commitment to both dogs, it never occurred to me to re-home either of them.


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## Gaia (Jul 9, 2019)

@tc68
Haha! Well it was more like "we had 3 dogs and then 2 puppies showed up on our doorstep and never left", but it's not so bad as it sounds. Having a big yard helps. The boys are all mixed breed and lazy and barely any maintenance at all. We just put them out during the day, they play and get tired, and come in and sleep when we get home.
The girls are the only trouble! 
@Kazel
We do have a lot of those things already! We tried keeping Ansi in an outdoor kennel but she just kept digging until she could get out. It wasn't staked to the ground so I think she lifted it to get underneath it. We could try adding some adjustments to the kennel and putting her in it again. I just worry a lot about putting her outside because she has run off and gotten lost once already and people like to drive 100mph down our road.
I'm considering moving our zipline to someplace Gaia wont be able to see her but there aren't enough trees on the other side of the house :c

We have lots of baby gates! And we do have a muzzle for our GSD but I dont think it fits her properly. I had it custom made to her measurements but the muzzle it straight and her nose curves downward so it fits awkwardly on her.
If you have good muzzle recommendations let me know!


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Welcome to the life of Crate and Rotate and two separate packs in your home. I did it for years and we still do with my daughter's husky and my shepherds.


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## Gaia (Jul 9, 2019)

@sebrench
Luckily exercising them is not much of an issue. Where we live isn't necessarily safe enough to walk them, it's out in the country but there's still a good bit of traffic, no sidewalks, and tall grass along the roads.
But! We have a big yard so I just take them out and throw a ball or frisbee until they get tired. Ansi gets exercise inside playing with the boys.

Hearing stories of similar situations makes me feel a lot better! Glad I'm not the only one having to deal with this.


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