my girls have startedto fight help,

Hi alli have a female 6 yr staff cross and a 11 month staff both females and recently theyve started to fight it seems to be since the pup had her season and has started to instigate the fights they are absolutely fine after and even lick eachothers scrapes theres been no real injury so far but it is starting to become more often and scare my 2 young children please anyone got any advicexx

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Firstly, don't be too worried about your children - I don't know how old they are, but if they're old enough just tell them that they must stay away from the dogs if they start to squabble, and they mustn't try to intervene. That would be the only way they would get hurt.

Do you leave the dogs on their own together? If so, I'd stop that right now.

What actually starts the squabbles? What do you do when they spark off?

How much exercise do they get & what sort?

What are they fed & how are they fed?

Is the older bitch spayed?

Phew. Sorry about all the questions!

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear you are having problems. Does there seem to be any other reason why they are fighting, toys/food etc. Does one dog seem to be worse than the other, and how do they generally play? Also, when they start to fight are you able to break it up and calm the situation?

Sorry for all the questions.

All excellent questions. The more information you can provide the more help and advice we can offer. It could be caused by diet, exercise or simple disagreements between the two. Also make sure they aren't left alone together unsupervised to prevent a small disagreement turing into a big one.

Welcome from us and Suki

hi and welcome how about popping over and intruducing your self after this ?

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/f7-new-member-introductions

Alot of people do advice against owning same sex dogs but its happened so let see how we can help

is there a differance between there play fighting and new fighting?

Iv never owned two dogs before but a few members have who can advice on the best way to go....

Hi all they get around 2 hours run aday there mostly off lead apart from the road there fed burns food from the vets the older bith is spayed and the pup will b asap they tend to fight over a toy or more recently me wen they fight I split them up and put them in the crates they sleep in and are left in inever leave them out of crates. It seems to be the pup that starts and wont stop wen I shout but im not sure if im missing body language or not my youngest is only 20 months and very close to both dogs so gets himself very upset and tries to grab them. They used to playfight but notso much anymore the real fights are getting more frequent we had 2 in a day yesterday one at home and 1 on our walk

Sorry I missed a question there fed together and never seem to fight over the food

To be honest, I think you're going to have to watch them like a hawk, at least for a while.

Watch for the slightest hint that one is unhappy about something & step in straight away. Also, you could try reinforcing the "Leave" command so that (hopefully) one shouted word can stop them before they even start!

It's possible that things will calm down after the pup has been spayed, but there's no guarantee of that.

Is there any particular time of day that seems to trigger fights, or is it random? When did the youngster finish her season?

Its completely random they are both usually so well behaved and leave wen told she finished her season a few wks ago x sumtimes a shout stops them but recently ive had to seperate them physically by choking there collars which I no sounds horrible but it makes them let go x

My two went through a spat phase (little triggers like a stick or food) and we just watched them carefully , they still play very rough whilst out and have a pop at each other but don't get "stuck in" if you know what I mean. You may well find a lot is the 11 month old pushing boundaries but just exercise lots of caution and as above ( I follow this advice ) never leave them alone together whilst you go out

Thanks guys x I neva leave them out there crates so il just have to watch and hope it stops soon x

Keep us updated as to how it goes!