My female dog is aggressive to my male dog during heat. What to do?

If this is real aggression, you may need to separate them until after the heat cycle and hope for the best. Sometimes problems can persist beyond that. Typically, households with altered dogs will have a lot less conflict than households with intact dogs. There are many benefits to spaying and neutering and I recommend to discuss this with your veterinarian: https://www.petcoach.co/article/spaying-ovariohysterectomy-the-benefits-in-dogs/ Canine aggression is a complex behavior as it can stem from dominance, possessiveness, fear, anxiety, resource guarding or a combination. Most people are not familiar with reading canine body language and training. Because of this, I recommend to work with a professional trainer. Researching on your own will also be helpful. Familiarizing yourself with canine body language and dog training can help you to recognize what your pet is trying to say. You can find many books written on the topic and there is a trainer named Victoria Stilwell who I think is particularly helpful. Best of luck.

I'm sorry that you're having this problem! Aggression between dogs in the same household is a complex behavior issue that is a bit beyond the scope of what we can effectively help with in this format. Treatment for this problem involves identifying what triggers the aggression (which often takes a bit of detective work, and observation by an expert) and then finding ways to avoid these triggers, or working with the dogs over time to teach them to respond differently when these situations occur. It's not a simple process, unfortunately, so there's really no quick and easy answer to give. Your best option would be to make an appointment with a veterinary behaviorist who can evaluate the dogs in person and give you some hands-on guidance in dealing with this problem. You can search for a board-certified veterinary behaviorist in your area here: www.dacvb.org

Spaying both dogs is going to help, as it will take hormonal cues out of the equation. You may need further socialization and dog-dog aggression help as well. Please consult this fantastic dog behavior website for more information and free tips: www.dogstardaily.com.

All you can do is keep them separated - best to take one of them to another location (a family or fiend's house). I suggest you have them spayed/neutered (or at least one of them) or this will be an ongoing problem.

That’s hard to say. Certainly her hormones can make her more unpredictable and prone to mood swings. If only she could talk and tell you! There could also be an element of her maturing into an adult dog now and this will sometimes change things in her idea of the human pack structure. Because of situations like this, I recommend to spay or neuter all pets who are not intended to be breeding animals. It tends to keep them more even keel and generally exhibit less signs of aggression or dominance. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Unfortunately male dogs can smell females in heat up to two miles away and they will try to break in. It is the responsibility of the owner of the male dog to keep him under control. I would call the police telling them that this stray dog is damaging your house and trying to get in and you need it moved as you are also afraid that it may attack you. I am not sure if they will do this, however since property damage is involved, they just might take the case.

When you have two bitches together, they will show aggression to compete for territory and intact males especially if they are in heat. The best thing to do is to have both of them spayed. This will reduce the aggression between them as it is most likely hormonally related. It will also eliminate the risk of a pyometra, which is a life threatening infection of the uterus. Without spaying them, you will have a very hard time reducing the aggression because it's hormonally related. Removing the source of the hormones is the best way to stop the aggression.