wirehaired pointer

[lahunter562]

I have a two year old female wire hair pointer that has been challenging/fighting my 7 year old dog (a gsp) female for the last two weeks now. When they fight neither dog is backing out. They never fought before. All of the fighting is going on in the back yard, now I keep them separated. No problems when I hunt them together. This is getting me frustating. I need some wisdom folks.

[RoostersMom]

I would not find this behavior atypical for the breed. GWP's are more prone to be aggressive compared to your average GSP. As females mature, they can have some serious issues with other females as well. We had a similar problem with our GSP and Chessie. When the dogs matured, they just never could be left alone together. B-itch fights are the worst - worse than males fighting. Females seem to be willing to fight to the death or at least go a lot longer than any male fights I've seen.

I hope you get some better ideas on here, but we just finally had to keep our dogs separated totally. We had a few trips to the vet before we gave in and decided on the crate and rotate plan. It wasn't that bad - the GSP passed this year and so now we don't have the issue.

I have a co-worker who has a year and a half male GWP and he's having problems with his dog and his brother's Vizsla and dad's GSP. The GWP won't start the fight, but he won't tolerate any offense and he won't stop fighting once he's started.

[lahunter562]

I see what your saying. I have been separating both females from now. I won't tolerate this behavior. .. When I hunt both of them. They wont fight and they back each other when they go on point. I did an experiment with the wirehair pointer and place another female that my sister in law has and removed the gsp from the back yard to see if she was going to get aggresive with this female that she has seen alot times too. The WP come over did the sniffing ritual and started playing, left them for 45 minutes in the back yard and no fight, no sizing up just your typical easy going dogs.

[RoostersMom]

Yep,

I never had any problems with any dogs while hunting - just when milling about or at home or in the yard. Both backed and hunted together well.

Good luck with them! You can do it, we managed it for 6 years before we lost our GSP.

[Steve007]

I don't know that it's the breed,though obviously wirehairs are not always the mildest of dogs. I've had other breeds in multiples as house dogs, mostly bitches, for many years (GWPs now). When two females don't like each other, strictly speaking of them as house dogs, you're out of luck. Keep separated permanently or sell one.