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.
MichaelandSharon.com 
