Olde English Bulldogge

**kingston** · 10-06-2011, 06:06 PM

Hi, hoping some members on here could give me some advice.
I have been a dog owner for over 20 years, I currently have two English Staffordshire Bull Terriers(Kingston 10 yrs, Jess 5yrs).
Olde English Bulldogge (Lexi 2 in Dec).
I have always owned Staffies, but decided to get a bulldog.
We live on an acreage so they have lots of room to run on 5 acres.
For the past few weeks Lexi has been attacking the other 2 for no reason? Jess and Lexi was both sleeping on the bed they share, when Lexi attacked Jess. Yesterday and today Lexi attacked Kingston for no reason?
Kingston is neutered, but Jess and Lexi are not. Lexi is usually very laid back, I am wondering if any member has ever tried the e collar to treat aggression? I need advice to help Lexi, the other 2 are tolerating her at the moment. Lexi will come off worse if the other 2, react fully to her aggression.
I know bulldogs can be possesive to humans, as Lexi has shown this to my husband. If Lexi was to meet any other a dogs, I know she would be aggressive towards them too. If I am watching dog whisperer or any animal program she dives at the T.V, almost knocking it off the stand.
I am thinking of having her spayed, but hate to do this unless it the last resort. Kingston was neutered because of his age he had a tumour.

Any advice would be grately appreciated, as we love all our dogs unconditionally.

**Karen** · 10-06-2011, 09:05 PM

Absolutely get her spayed. Otherwise she will continue to fight for dominance, why is she not already spayed? And why is the other dog not spayed? If they are not show dogs, it is far better for their health to get them spayed for many reasons. At 2 years old, she's got all her growth she will get in her bone structure, etc. Spaying her now will calm those raging hormones, and once that is done, you can address training issues.

**kingston** · 10-07-2011, 10:53 AM

The reason Jess was not spayed is that she was bred to be in show or agility.
The reason Lexi is not spayed is that I have breeding rights, if I want to breed. I don't like to spayed or neuter unless it is needed, Kingston was neutered, when I got him home he crashed on me; It was a emergency drive back to the vets to save him. As I now have no plans for breeding Lexi; will be spayed. Jess has never had a problem with aggressiveness to any of my other dogs, she is very calm and placid to all dogs that she meets. I don't have any issues with training a dog its the first dog I have had; that has been aggressive. Thanks for your advice

Originally Posted by Karen

Absolutely get her spayed. Otherwise she will continue to fight for dominance, why is she not already spayed? And why is the other dog not spayed? If they are not show dogs, it is far better for their health to get them spayed for many reasons. At 2 years old, she's got all her growth she will get in her bone structure, etc. Spaying her now will calm those raging hormones, and once that is done, you can address training issues.

**Karen** · 10-07-2011, 11:06 AM

That's for the best, and once she is spayed, you can do some obedience work with her, and remind her that you are in charge, not her, and she needn't battle anyone else for control, it's all up to you!

**kingston** · 10-07-2011, 12:09 PM

Yes Lexi knows I am the leader of the pack as do the other 2 dogs.
When she is being aggressive, I only need to stand up and she submits it stops. My dogs are very obedient and I have been complemented on how good my dogs are trained. As I said its only been in the past few weeks Lexi as started to do this. When I go to the vets the vet things its brilliant how my dogs at the click of my fingers will lie down, roll over with their heads back and let the vet treat them. I have trained many dogs, friends and my bosses dog.

**Karen** · 10-11-2011, 08:50 PM

Let us know how it goes with her spay, and whether that helps eliminate the new aggression, as it likely will!

**B&Baussies** · 10-19-2011, 11:35 PM

This is not anything that I have any experience personally but someone who replied to one of my posts about neutering my males dog said this “In males, I have seen no difference in temperament after the male has been neutered (in other words I'd tend to agree with your vet, that neutering a dog who has developed hormonal behaviours will not make the dog any better after the hormones are cut off -- they have to be cut off before the hormones have already started to take affect on the temperament -- hence why we see some late-neutered studs who will still try to breed females). I HAVE seen some signifigant changes in FEMALES who were spayed after showing bad hormonal behaviours (dog aggression, etc), but alot of the changes were unfortunatly not ones that the owner wanted”(wolfsoul).
I have little experience with female dogs but that might be something you would want to look into. Most aggressive behavior is related to testosterone, it stimulates the aggressive part of the brain. It could be that your dog has an estrogen deficiency or an abnormally high testosterone level for a female. Which if you cut out the estrogen source would explain why this has been seen as negative in some females. I’m sure your vet can test their hormone levels just to be sure before the surgery. The solution could be as simple as an estrogen supplement.
Usually this kind of behavior is derived from the dog wanting to be the alpha, but it sounds very apparent that you are the leader. This makes the scenario all the more unusual. Because of the odd circumstances you might want to check out any kind of possibility, not just the seemingly obvious. If I thought you were just a normal pet owner I would recommend the spaying, but since you obviously aren’t and you clearly have plenty of experience you should probably investigate it further.