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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Elaine has been training dogs professionally for 14 years. She is a CPDT as well as an endorsed member of NADOI. She is also certified in narcotics detection and is one half of a (twice) certified explosives detection team - the other half being her Dutch Shepherd Spawn, who is also titled in several protection sports. Elaine is the owner of Canine's Best Behavior, a Los Angeles based training company, offering Basic Manners, CGC, K9 Games (soon!) as well as behavior modification for aggression fears phobias etc.
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[Edit]
12/16/2005
I have 3 Dobermans; one male and two females. They are all from the same litter. They will be a year old in December. My two females keep fighting. They have no aggression towards anyone or anything - besides each other. It is not a daily thing but it does happen often. And when it happens they go out for blood. I love them dearly and don't want to get ride of one of them. Please if you have any suggestions - I will try any thing!!!! (Angel0914, New York)
ed note. Any information on the pupforum website does not substitute for
sound advice and recommendations from an experienced dog
training professional who has evaluated your dog in person. Please read the rest of
our disclaimer here
I am so sorry you are having a hard time with all those Dobes.
Aggression is something that we have to be really careful speculating about in an online format, so first and foremost, I suggest that you have someone knowledgeable in aggression (and familiar with the breed) evaluate your situation in home.
Based on what you have written, what I am seeing are two competing adolescent females cut from very similar cloth. In general littermates do better apart and if they are in the same home-different sexes and temperaments help as well.
It has been my experience that in aggression
(with males) most of the time it's bluster, insecurity or a lack of clarity. In other words they are confused about their role in the house. Sadly, my experience with females fighting in home is that they usually mean it. No bluster, no confusion of any kind.
One big question to ask is: do they only fight when you are there or do you find evidence of fighting when you come home? If they are fighting when you are not there then they must be separated when left alone and managed when you are there. If they are fighting in your presence or another defined trigger (food, space etc) then you can work towards diffusing that trigger by training for incomparability. Example: if they compete over food bowls, putting the food bowls farther away from each other or in another room, fed separately. Short of crashing through a wall to get to the other dog eating, it's pretty incompatible with fighting.
I know you mentioned that they don't do it everyday and that you don't want to give either of them up but what I think you may be looking at is the tip of the iceberg. This kind of aggression follows a fairly predicable timeline. At 14-15 months, they might escalate and then again at 18-24 month. Things will settle down and all will seem OK and then BLAMO back bigger than ever.
And no, I do not advocate, "letting them sort it out". Female dogs retain their status their entire lives.
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