Any advice for fighting girl dogs?

We had a weekend visit with my mom at her place. Violet and mom's dog, Daisy, have never really got along. I tried some herbal calmer on them this weekend and also tried to exercise both of them as much as possible. It worked a bit, but they still got into some scraps and that just stressed everyone out. Just wondering what else I can do? It seems to be that Daisy will stare at Violet and then they will fight. We try to break up the staring and catch it before it starts, but sometimes human intervention makes them fight even faster. Kind of at my wit's end, since we are expecting our baby in October and I'm really nervous about having them around each other when the baby comes along. None of my dogs fight like this with each other. It seems to be a girl thing. When they are in the fight, the only way to stop them is pull them apart, which has resulted in bites. They don't live together, thank God, but just a bit worried about visits from now on. It's not pleasant. Any advice would be helpful. Violet has done basic obedience, but those commands go out the window in the fight situations.

SIGH. Adrianna, I don't have alot of advice. They don't call them bitches for nothing. Honestly, if I'm going to have problems with fighting it's almost always with girls.

I try to always be ahead of the game--I keep myself between the combatants and learn what are the things most likely to set them off. And I learn the signals that battle is about to ensue--and some of those early signals are subtle. Stiffening, looking sideways at each other, etc. If I see the early warning signs, I divert them and then make them do something like sit or shake a paw and I reward that behaviour.

You might be able to get them to tolerate each other, but don't expect miracles or even much success. If they've been doing this for a while, they now have a behavioural pattern set.

Divert, divert, divert. Anticipate, anticipate, anticipate. And reward the good behaviour.

Hopefully, Karen will see this and have some suggestions.

Blanche, you're on the right track. I had two bitches here last summer that fought any chance they got. By the time they left, they were better because I got pretty good at picking up the precursors to a fight and diverting before they got into it.

I'd see them puff up, or give that little hard stare and I'd try to divert them. If they continued cruising for a fight, this is one of the times I would use an aversive. I have zero tolerance for fighting dogs, and if they continued to give each other THE look, I'd bust out Mr. Squirt Bottle.

The key being to break it up before an actual fight broke out. These two girls had a long history of fighting and really liked it and nothing would stop them once they started brawling. But after they'd been squirt a few times, it got easier and easier to divert them since they knew what was coming if they kept at it. Some people use air horns, but I like the squirt bottle because you can blast the offenders and not scare everyone else.

Do reward any instances of playing nicely together but it takes a dog longer to learn a non-behavior such as not fighting.

Bitch fights are hard. Many times when two bitches are fighting in the same household, one needs to be rehomed. If it were me, the two dogs don't live together and are only going to be around each other for a limited amount of time, it might be easier for you to manage rather than try to retrain, especially since you're going to be frazzled and sleep-deprived. If I have two dogs that don't get along and it's a temporary thing, I use baby gates to keep them apart, and crate one when the other is out.

I don't know what your situation is but it might be even better if one or the other stayed home so you didn't have to worry about them. I remember when I bought my son home from the hospital, I was so frazzled and sleep-deprived those first few weeks, dealing with fighting dogs would've put me on overload, especially if the situation could've been avoided in the first place.

thanks for the advice, ladies. i feel like we are trying to predict when the fights will happen, but don't always get there in time. they are not even really that sensitive to the squirt bottle anymore. they don't live together, so this is only when we visit each other. i think separation will be the key. we did a lot of that this weekend, with one upstairs and one downstairs, but they still got into it a few times. ugh. very annoying because it makes the visit unpleasant for everyone. i guess we will just have to manage them and supervise and just deal with it.

I don't even think it's necessarily gender-induced. My Gooey and Farnsworth hate each other and try to have a go each time they see each other. I say "try" because Gooey is virtually immobile and both of them are vision impaired so actual damage doesn't result. But the only thing that works for me is to keep them separated and avert any potential encounters.