Male doberman and boxer fighting

crimsonsunset

Hi everyone

I've gotten great advice here in the past, and I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with a huge problem I've had with two of my dogs over the last week. To give a bit of background I have 6 dogs, 3 mixed-breed terriers, 2 boxers, a male who will be 2 in March and is not neutered, a female who is 1 since October and is not neutered and a male doberman who will be 1 in April and who is neutered.

The boxers and the doberman have lived indoors since they were puppies and there has never been a problem in the house other than the odd play fight, where there was never any aggression. Last week however the doberman and the male boxer were play fighting over a sock when suddenly it all turned vicious and the doberman had the boxer pinned to the ground, while they were both growling, frothing at the mouth and uncontrollable. My daughter was in the room at the time and we eventually managed to separate them, and we kept them separate for the rest of the day. When my husband came home from work he left the two out together again and they got on grand.

The following day though I was reluctant to leave them together when my husband was not there. And when he was home they tried to fight as well but we pulled them apart. Since then my daughter and I have made sure that they have not met at all during the day, we have arranged crate time for one while the other is out etc but it is extremely tiring...The dog who is out growls and barks at the one in the crate usually, we really do not know what to do.

We really want to keep both dogs if possible and we are open to any suggestions whatsoever to help as they got on great until last week and we can't figure out the sudden change in two usually docile dogs.

Thanks for any advice

ABajaninCork

Hi - the only thing I can think of is maybe the Dobie trying to assert himself over the Boxer. I could be wrong though...

Has either dog been neutered?

Zapperzy

Could the female be coming into heat?

Bubs99

Hi op,

My mum has two yorkie cross males who are siblings and have been together since the beginning also, they are now 4. Last year, the exact same happened, for years they always play fighted but all of a sudden the fights got badly vicious including injuries.

We went to the vet and he said instead of getting both neutered, we can only neuter one, as one male MUST be dominant over the other. If we neutered both males, they'd still be level in hormones and still fight so we chose the least vicious of the dogs to neuter and ever since he was operated on, there has been no vicious fights.

Its just back to play fights now trying to get attention for cuddles. It made such a difference though. Good Luck.

belongtojazz

I had a similar issue with my terriers and ended up getting a behaviourist in to resolve it as my old girl got injured and we were all utterly miserable.

They are still not 100% but I can now spot the signs straight away and prevent the fight happening, we haven't had a fight in our house for about 2 months now.

You need to identify what the trigger is and catch the behaviour just before it escalates. With my girls it is usually to do with sitting next to me on the couch. They will eye each other up and then they explode. To prevent this only my girl is allowed sit with me (the other girls are my dads) and at the first sign of any staring she is put straight out of the room.
Occasionally they will pace around each other in the room almost bumming each other and that can lead to problems so as soon as that starts we distract them by calling, making a noise, basically just breaking the concentration.

Don't allow them to growl at each other through the crate. That is incredibly frustrating to them and could lead to issues with getting them into the crate.

Best of luck, it is so sad when this happens but with work it can be resolved.

Honey-ec

Bubs99 wrote: »

We went to the vet and he said instead of getting both neutered, we can only neuter one, as one male MUST be dominant over the other. If we neutered both males, they'd still be level in hormones and still fight.

Sorry, but that is simply not true. I have two male boxers, both neutered, and there has never been a single fight between them.

However, OP, I also have a spayed female and while she and my youngest male are bonded extremely closely (the other male just kind of does his own thing), they have had two or three whopper fights over the years, pretty much exactly what you've described. We've never been able to identify what sparks them, but we can always tell if one is in the offing by their behaviour leading up to it, and we just separate them before it comes to pass and let them each calm down.

They get on like a house on fire 99.9% of the time, so I don't worry unduly about it, I just recognise the warning signs if and when they arise (literally about once a year) and make sure it doesn't get to the fighting stage.

Good luck with your pair.

pinkhappyturtle

As they grow up they are probably getting a little more maturity and there could be a female in heat some were that is sending them a little nutty and so are trying to fight to learn who is the dominant Dog.

Something similar happened when our Jack Russell died, all hell broke loose between the other 7 and once one of they seemed to be the boss it all calmed down.

Roxbb

First thing in my opinion would be to neutered both of them and the female you need to learn to read their body language to recognise what kicks off the fact they kicked off over a sock shows some resource guarding... I have a cav who does it with food so I just ensure they are al feed seperate no food is ever left out for them...you need to recognise the problem and remove it but would seriously consider neutering them