hi all, i need some advice!

i have two springer spaniels that keep fighting each other all the time.

my bitch is 3 years old, and my dog is 5 months old.

the dog has a habit of wanting to play all the time (as pups do) but my bitch is a little grumpy and has some mental problems and is not a very playful dog.

when the dog wants to play he tends to jump on her back and nip her fae and ears, and she then retaliates by snapping and snarling, this does not deture the dog he just carries on jumping on her, then fights begin.

this only started a few weeks ago, we have had the dog (sam) for 3 months and this has never happend before.

please help, any advice welcome.

Its up to you to stop the pup jumping all over her I'm afraid, it may be thats she is just fed up of his behaviour, many older dogs will repremand a pup, if it is going too far, but some do not know how hard to do this, a 5 month old fighting is not a good thing, IMO you should not let it get to this stage.

Mo

I'm with Mo.

As the dog is starting the scuffles, he should be retrained. Being younger and more 'with it' it should be relatively easy. To be honest as long as they're not likely to rip each other apart, I'd probably let him get the warning snap from her and see if he learns that way

The fighting started to happen over night.
My pup will not listen to my bitch when she snaps he starts to snap also.
I pull them apart but I cant be here 24 hours a day at the moment I am, I was upstairs leaving them alone for 5 minuites and I heard the snarls the growls and had to run down stairs to prize them apart.
Im at my wits end, My husband is considering getting rid of the puppy I dont want it to get to this stage! I dont want this to happen.
Any constructive advice welcome.

when you can't be with them, either lock one or both into crates. this would prevent fighting occurring. i wouldn't leave them unsupervised at all at the moment.

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I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

Did you read my top post?
Before you post in future please read in depth.

Im sorry I dont agree with crating animals, especially dogs/puppys. As luck would have it either me or my husband is always home to be with one of them at the moment.

but you just said that they were unsupervised? they must be supervised at all times at the moment, cos it could quickly turn nasty. there are incidents where dogs have kill each other.

__________________

I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

Baby gates? Maybe she could do with a bit of time away from him if he's trying to play when she doesn't want to

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When you say fights, do you mean draw blood?

HAve you tried not intervening but walking away? if so what happens?

Unless you have fighting breeds or the dogs are different sizes then I would not worry. They need to sort it out amoungst themselves. The bitch is telling the pup that she's had enough and the pup needs to learn.

Unless you actually fear that one of them is going to get really hurt, then I would leave them to it.

Are they getting enough exercise?

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