Some advice needed please?

[bxr4me]

I have an almost 18 month old female spayed girl, love of my life. I stay at home, have a husband who travels quite a bit, one son in freshman year of college and another a senior in highschool. There is a female boxer available 2years old, spayed and microchipped and up to date on shots. They are looking for a home for her due to a new baby coming. I am so tempted to go and see her and see how she gets along with my girl. Apparantly she loves other dogs, both sexes. My girl gets along with everything on four legs. Do you think it would be a mistake to have two females? Bailey is quite submissive, wants to play a lot. Our neighbours have two females who come up and play and they get along great. What would you do? Any advice welcomed. She is not free, she is advertised in the paper and comes with her crate and her bed.

 

[Claudia807]

Personally, I would not attempt it - particularly with the girls being so close in age. The problem with female Boxers is that they *can* (and often do) get along great for weeks, months, or even years. But if they do start to fight, most of the time they will not stop until one of them is dead or gone. Seriously, when the girlies fight they are not kidding around! Most dog owners are not prepared to have to keep dogs separated for the rest of the dogs' lives. I had a female Boxer and one time we had a female foster dog who did not get along with my girl (and vice versa). We had to keep two closed doors between them at all times. With only one closed door, they would still try to reach through and grab the other one's neck. Not fun!

 

[bxr4me]

Thanks Claudia, I guess I will put her out of my mind then. I don't want to bring her home and then find there will be problems maybe a week or two down the line (sometimes the first couple of weeks are like a honeymoon period I think?) and then I would feel bad if I couldn't keep her because of it. I would hate to have brought her home as a playmate and then have to keep them separated. Thank you, I appreciate your honesty.

 

[sawcut64]

Well to be honest I have two females and one is submissive to the other one and there is no problems. They have been togather for about 3 years and they are fine. My mother also has 4 females that have been togather for over 7 years and other than an occassional tiff they are fine. The girls are all close in age and size and they have had occassional tiffs or as I call it sibling tiffs, but no fighting till the death or anything like that. It is usually stopped with yelling stop or no or something like that same as she did for us as kids. I would do more research instead of just putting it out of your mind. I don't mean to argue with the person who posted before me but I don't agree. I have not had problems with my females and one is a chihuahua and the other is a boxer. The chihuahua is the dominant one and the boxer submits to her at all times. There have been no fights with the girls as the chihuahua lets the boxer know to back down and she does back down. We keep the chihuahua dominant in that she gets attention first food first and things like that and all the dogs know we are dominant first not them. The only fighting I have is with my boxers and the female kicking my male's butt or the male's arguing, just letting you know my experience.
Laura

 

[gmacleod]

I think Claudia has given you very good advice. Not every multi-bitch combination fights, of course. But the problem isn't rare - and *if* it occurs it is extremely serious and one of the hardest things to stop. There is more than one member of this forum who has lost a bitch that way, and several others who DO live the musical dogs lifestyle where the two cannot ever be together.

To put it into a bit of context - many rescues and breeders won't place a boxer bitch in a home that already has one. Not just because of the frequency of the problem - but because of it's seriousness.

 

[Brynn1508]

Claudia who posted a few back works with a rescue also- so I will also speak from seeing many many dogs, as I am sure she has... Some females are fine together. But in my opinion from experience there is a 50/50 chance they will fight. And Females fight to get rid of the other female. This often happens once both females are over the age of two. It can get very ugly as often they will both end up hospitalized if this happens. Now that being said there is always a chance of dogs fighting but a male/male fight is over dominance as is a female/male. Usually one will submit and that is that...

I would recommend you do your research but if you check some passed threads you can get a good idea of how ugly these fights can get. If you want a second pup why not contact your local rescue and work with them to find the perfect little boy? the great thing about rescues is they will make sure it is a perfect fit and you have a large network to fall back on for training tips and any help
Best of luck in whatever you decide!

 

[Claudia807]

The last poster is correct - I do volunteer for rescue and have fostered a lot of dogs. This does not make me an expert by any means. But, I have found that this is one of those things where people never seem to believe it until they see it in action. Once the girls draw blood, they will not stop fighting. I have just seen enough cases of inter-bitch aggression that I can't, in good conscience, recommend that someone just give it a try and hope for the best. I have been on the receiving end of too many phone calls from people wanting to surrender a female because they have two that aren't getting along . . .

My Lucy died in November and I've adopted a young male. It's weird not having a female around now. Lucy was feisty and I loved her for that. The last female foster I had (before Lucy died) was an adult Boxer named Belba. Belba and Lucy got along great for several weeks and then bam - no more Mrs. Nice Girl. We had to keep them separated a lot of the time until Belba got adopted. I had other female fosters that got along fine with Lucy and vice versa. She had a much higher tolerance for the adolescent girls. Once they hit adulthood, not so much.

 

[tazmom]

That's funny about the chihuahua! We have a female pug/chi mix who is the dominant dog in the house. She bosses the 95 lb boy around and our new female rescue. Even when I had my elderly female boxer, the most we had was some occasional growling. Of course, I've never had two female boxers. In fact, when I was looking recently, I was worried about getting a second boy thinking they would fight.

 

[Claudia807]

I meant to add that the issue is mainly with female Boxers and other female Boxers (not Chihuahuas and Boxers, in other words). Our rescue has placed female Boxers in homes with females of other breeds. It really depends on the other breed and whether inter-bitch aggression is common in that breed as well.