Things are not always as they seem. In our home, what began as an apparent love affair between two dogs turned into something altogether different. And now, sadly, they’ll never be the same.
Bella and Ruby seemed to get along pretty well those first few weeks. The play fighting was hilarious and entertaining. Ruby brightened up having another dog around, and both seemed pretty happy.
Until they didn’t. Enter Bonegate. A humongous, treacherous scandal over one prized possession. We were watching tv and heard an unusual growling coming from the bedroom. When Michael went to investigate, he found Bella backed into a corner, a bone in front of her, and Ruby in front of them both. All of Ruby’s fur was standing straight up and they were staring each other down. Apprehensive of the escalating situation, Michael walked up and grabbed Ruby by the collar. And all hell broke loose. She lunged for Bella’s head and neck, biting and barking. We finally pulled them apart and surveyed the damage. Bella just had a couple of puncture holes in her ears, and a nick by her eye. We kept them separated the rest of the evening.
We’d never experienced dogs fighting in our home, so I started doing some research and learned that female/female aggression can be a big problem, especially if the two are similar in stature, and when dominance is unclear. We had always been careful in reinforcing Ruby’s dominance. We learned what triggers to watch for, and how to properly train and socialize them to prevent further instances from occurring.
Though the fight freaked us out, the two of them acted like nothing had ever happened. Life, love, snuggles, and play continued as usual. The interesting thing is that the play-fighting, though it looks vicious, never escalated beyond play. They had very specific rules. The real fights were always triggered by something, and happened with very little warning.
Two more mild confrontations occurred in the weeks following. We were doing everything we could to maintain order and discipline, but it appeared Bella was beginning to challenge Ruby for dominance, and when challenged, Ruby was not having it. We learned this is common when both dogs are nearing sexual maturity, as these two are.
A final fight occurred, the worst yet. While not visibly injured, they were both pretty riled up by the whole thing. We decided the situation had reached its climax, and we just weren’t willing to put them or ourselves in danger any more. While we had been successful preventing triggers, this last fight happened, believe it or not, over vomit. Ruby threw up her breakfast on the floor, Bella wanted to eat it, and Ruby was not going to allow it. How can we predict or prevent something like that?
We debated whether we had truly done all we could do. We came to the conclusion that this was simply nature taking its course, and we can’t control nature. If they were in the wild, they would either fight it out (with females, this often means to the death) or one would leave and find another pack.
We chose the latter. We knew if we kept them together, someone would be hurt, (us or them) and it could be absolutely tragic.
So, the domestic violence in our home has come to an end. Ruby is off to find a new family, and Bella is staying with us so we can get her heartworms treated. We’re very sad, but feel we ultimately didn’t have a choice.
Oh man! I’m sorry to hear that. :(
Zeus and Sierra got in some really horrible fights a few years ago, after many years of getting along well. I remember how we would spend the rest of the day recovering from that adrenaline rush. Not fun!
We were able to figure out the trigger (Sierra would jump Zeus if she heard us scolding him for something) but in your case – I don’t know what you can do about that. Sorry to hear she had to leave but I think it’s great that you guys put what’s best for the dogs before what was easiest for you.
Does this mean there’s a MALE doggie vacancy at your house now?
Yeah, oh man that adrenaline rush is horrible. And you’re trying to act calm so they don’t pick up on your nervous energy.
First the trigger was just food, so we fed them separately. Then it was the bone, so no more toys in the house. Then they had a fight going through a doorway (someone went first and shouldn’t have, or something). Over the course of a month, it just seemed to escalate. That last day, they had the “barf fight”. Then two more instances the same day over apparently nothing. It’s like they just couldn’t be around each other anymore. :(
So yeah, technically a male doggie vacancy, but I just don’t know if we can handle any more doggie drama for awhile!
It’s all good. You did good. The doggies will be good. I am glad that you and Michael did not get hurt. We love you!
You should have named this post “Bitch Brawls”- that would have been hilarious.
I would have gotten a big boost in traffic! Dang, why didn’t I think of that.
Aaaahhh sorry to hear about the situation. How scary. At least all are safe now. We dog sat our neighbor’s Boxer. She’s a female like our 1/2Boxer 1/2BassetHound. They play fought the entire week and loved each other! So now every once in awhile she comes over for a doggie playdate. But one playdate she found one of Penny’s bones in the yard and all of a sudden we heard this mean growling and barking. Ya a fight almost started over that. Luckily nothing happened because we took it away.