[mudEpawz]

Looking for a little advice on raising two female dogs.



Chloe (the golden retriever) is 1 year, 8 months old. I got her as puppy at 8 weeks old. She was spayed over a year ago, very friendly, very well socialized but has selective obedience. We moved into this house about two months ago, that has a decent size backyard for her to run.



I had been considering different options to get another second dog when I came across “Lady” (original name Charlie, which we decided to stick with). Charlie is a yellow female lab approximately a year old (I might even say younger than year). She has had a rough first year into this life. In the first family she received no excerise, was under fed and not socialized. The second family only had her a month. Charlie stole bacon off of the kitchen table and that family decided to give her up. She was surrendered to the Humane society but did not pass the test for adoption. A local rescue organization stepped in and saved her life. She remained at the humane society for over a month as there were no foster homes available. She stuck in a pen for 23 hours a day. Charlie is a good hearted dog who just lacks manners and socialization. The previous owners must have done some obedience with her since she knows basic commands and is house broken. She will be spayed on Tuesday and I am hoping that will help with the following issues.



On Monday of this past week, we brought Charlie home. Chloe and Charlie seem to be getting along, however I have some concerns.



Aggression in Play
Charlie can be very aggressive in play. I assume this is because she lacks practice. Chloe will walk away if the play gets to too rough. There have been times where Chloe will play just as aggressively and rough back to Charlie.

Questions/Concerns: I wouldn’t allow either dog to be hurt. I also understand that the dogs have their own way of dealing with issues. When do you know to step in? How do you step in? Do you blow a whistle to get their attention? Yell? (I quite the squeaky voice/soft voice and my yelling doesn’t have much effect unless I REALLY yell).

Humping each other
Charlie is not spayed yet and sometimes playing turns into a bit of a hump-fest. Earlier this week during play, Charlie was trying to mate with Chloe. Chloe, not particularly happy about this, would correct her and/or move away from her. The past couple days, Chloe has tried to hump Charlie during play.:doh:

Questions/Concerns: Im hoping that after the spay, this behavior will decrease. In the meantime, do you correct this behavior or do you let the dogs correct it themselves. Similar to the above-questions, how do you go about correct this?

Leaving the Dogs Alone in the house
My dad was gracious enough to puppysit this week during the day while I was at work. We had concerns about how the dogs would interact with each other and wanted to make sure that someone was here to observe them. So far, so good (except for the issues noted above). I took this week off of work to do the same. Chloe has had free range of the house (except for bedrooms) during the day. Charlie is crated at night. I wouldn’t feel right about crating her for a portion of the day as well. Charlie is new and she is house broken but I do have concerns that they will play too roughly, Charlie will get bored and chew furniture etc. My initial plan was to leave them alone during the day in small increments and slowly increase to a full day. Another idea I had was to block off access for half of the basement for Charlie (which is about half the size of the whole house). There is not much furniture in the basement and in fact, there is not much at all she can get into. I was thinking that I could leave her in the basement with the entrance blocked as a test to see how she does. Chloe would still have the entire upstairs to roam free. The two girls can still see each other but wouldn’t be able to reach one another (maybe they could sneak a lick or two).

Question/Concerns: Any idea, thoughts or concerns with my idea? How did you incorporate two or more dogs during the day by themselves?


Thank you for making it through this huge thread You_Rock_). Any thoughts, ideas or concerns are welcome.

ps who does like dogs pictures? hehehe i posted some of my little rugrats.

 

[Phoebe's mom]

Dogs are dogs, the humping between 2 girls is dominance. They are just trying to figure out who is going to take that roll. It should decrease once Charlie gets spayed or once they figure out the pecking order. If they do get into a fight it generally only lasts a couple seconds then it is over. If it lasts more then 5 seconds I would say make a very loud noise like 2 pots slamming together, that should stop them. Girls are very tempermental I find. Give it time and they will get to know each other. If Charlie gets too rough in play and your dog walks away and Charlie follows and plays more you should give Charlie a little time out as she isn't getting the signal to stop.
Hope this helps. She is beautiful!! They both are.

 

[Phoebe's mom]

Oh and feed seperately

 

[mudEpawz]

Dogs are dogs, the humping between 2 girls is dominance. They are just trying to figure out who is going to take that roll. It should decrease once Charlie gets spayed or once they figure out the pecking order. If they do get into a fight it generally only lasts a couple seconds then it is over. If it lasts more then 5 seconds I would say make a very loud noise like 2 pots slamming together, that should stop them. Girls are very tempermental I find. Give it time and they will get to know each other. If Charlie gets too rough in play and your dog walks away and Charlie follows and plays more you should give Charlie a little time out as she isn't getting the signal to stop.
Hope this helps. She is beautiful!! They both are.

Thanks Phoebe’s mom, your comments have been helpful. So far, the girls haven’t got into an actual fight, they have just play fighting. Today has been a break through day! Charlie hasn’t been too aggressive when playing and they have been laying down together more. Chloe seems to really like and appreciate the company. She just doesn’t like being “bullied” when playing. I know this will take time and patience to show Charlie how to play politely. They are still trying to hump each other, but like you said it is likely dominance.

 

[Sally's Mom]

Animal behaviorists will say that spaying a female dog does not improve aggression like it does with male dogs. All of my dogs hump each other when they are excited... 2 boys are neutered(long term), 2 girls are spayed(one recently), and 2 are unspayed.... it doesn't make any of them "angry", but I do discourage it...

 

[Sally's Mom]

And if my guys seem to be aggressive in play, I break it up.

 

[fostermom]

Humping is very seldom about dominance, it's usually excitement that they don't know how to express appropriately. Almost every foster puppy I have humps Danny at some point or another. I tell them to knock it off and pull them off as many times as it takes for them to get the point. Some get it more quickly than others.

Generally, when they play and it gets too rough, the one being bitten too hard will let the biter know, either by yelping or snarling and correcting the biter. If the one being bitten doesn't correct because they are too submissive, you need to step in and do it yourself. My mom's golden gets way to rough with Danny and I have to step in. Luke knows immediately what I am saying and all I have to do is hold my hand out and tell him to knock it off and he backs right off. But I have been doing this since he was 4 months old and he's 2 1/2 now, so he knows what I expect from him.

If they haven't been fighting, I don't see any reason not to leave them together when you are gone, though to start I personally would crate Charlie for a couple of weeks until you have a full feel for their relationship. Once you do start leaving them alone together, I would suggest taking their collars off. If they get to playing, one could get their jaw caught in the other's collar and that could have deadly consequences.

 

[mudEpawz]

Humping is very seldom about dominance, it's usually excitement that they don't know how to express appropriately. Almost every foster puppy I have humps Danny at some point or another. I tell them to knock it off and pull them off as many times as it takes for them to get the point. Some get it more quickly than others.

Generally, when they play and it gets too rough, the one being bitten too hard will let the biter know, either by yelping or snarling and correcting the biter. If the one being bitten doesn't correct because they are too submissive, you need to step in and do it yourself. My mom's golden gets way to rough with Danny and I have to step in. Luke knows immediately what I am saying and all I have to do is hold my hand out and tell him to knock it off and he backs right off. But I have been doing this since he was 4 months old and he's 2 1/2 now, so he knows what I expect from him.

If they haven't been fighting, I don't see any reason not to leave them together when you are gone, though to start I personally would crate Charlie for a couple of weeks until you have a full feel for their relationship. Once you do start leaving them alone together, I would suggest taking their collars off. If they get to playing, one could get their jaw caught in the other's collar and that could have deadly consequences.

Thanks Fostermom! The girls are great together, no fights and no issues really other then aggressive playing and humping. I have been correcting both of them when they start to hump. It makes me feel so much better to hear your stories about your dogs. Thanks so much for sharing. I think I will separate them for the next couple weeks while I am at work until I feel 110% comfortable with the girls. I always make sure that they are collar free inside the house. When I was a kid we had an incident with two dog that were playing while wearing martindale collars. The one dog got its teeth caught in the chain part and kept pulling to get lose. The other dog was scared and assumed that the first dog was attacking. We finally got the dogs apart and learned a very valuable lesson!

 

[Charliethree]

Just wanted to mention the 'rough play' may be a 'lab thing'. I am fostering an amazing lab mix, don't think he was socialized much if at all, and his 'play style' leaves a 'bit' to be desired. High energy and lots of contact, and vocal, which doesn't sit all that well with the others- they have 'told' him on a few occassions. We have had the occassional skirmish, one which resulted in the lab being pinned by my golden,-- over and done in less than a few seconds, no fuss, no blood, and a lot more 'respect' coming from the lab. He had a lot to learn coming into a 'pack' of three male and two female dogs, but he learned fast and they get along great. However I do monitor their playtimes closely as the lab can become more than a little annoying - so he gets to cool his heels back inside. He's a bit of work, but he has made a 'lab lover' out of me,-- affectionate, attentive and smart!
Hope you and your girls have many happy healthy years ahead!

 

[LilTuffGirl]

I feel REALLY bad for Hayden when the puppy is all over her chewing on her. But she does put the pup in her place when she's tired of it. Granted half the time the pup doesn't listen.. but.. lol

Sounds like they are on the right track though!!!