? for dog experts---sensitive issue

[everywoman]

I have two dogs. Prissy is a yorkie--about 41/2 lbs. Prissy is a American Hairless terrier (a Rat terrier with no hair). Both are female....or so I thought. Prissy is in heat. We thought Pinky might be also. They have always been in heat together. Today I caught Pinky trying to mate with Prissy???? What is this? A dominance issue? Gender confusion? Prissy had been mated prior to coming to live with us. Pinky has not. We got her at 6 months. What do I do????

 

[Hound dog]

Oh. lol It's ok. Usually a dominance issue. Someone is hoping to show someone they're boss. Most likely triggered by the heat.

Betsy does it because she's low dog in our "pack" of 3. (Rowdy, Molly, and Betsy) Although she's learned not to dare do it to Rowdy or Molly, she will on occasion try a pillow. At least until I correct her.

It's normal. If it becomes a real pain, I seperate the dogs for a bit. Although I correct Betsy with a stern No and a pat on her fanny.

 

[Shari]

Altho it is a little disturbing, I don't think there is anything wrong with either dog. Female dogs sometimes do this.

I don't know if its dominance or what makes them do it, tho. Thru the years, almost all of our female dogs have mounted another dog at some point in time (sometimes even male dogs).

 

[flutterbee]

Yep, it's normal.

Jewel is a spayed female and she does this with Abbey, her favorite cat - or tries to.

 

[klmno]

My female trieds to "ride" our male when she's in heat- as in now. Our male doesn't like it- he knows how to turn it around though! (He's neutered- nobody told him)

 

[donna723]

They all do it and it's annoying but perfectly normal. Some of it is hormones and some is dominance issues. Ragan, my oldest Boston, was very dominant and pushy with other dogs, when she was younger. She never did "that" but I'd take her to my brothers house and she'd bully his two older neutered very laid back male dogs! She'd eat their food and wallow in their beds and tease them with their own toys ... just daring them to challenge her! She does it a lot less now that she's spayed, but she still wants to be #1 Dog!

For a lot of reasons, I would highly recommend that you have both dogs spayed. They do NOT get fat or lazy or any of the other bad things you've probably heard. There are a lot of health benefits for them including a greatly reduced risk of breast cancer which can spread quickly and be fatal in dogs. That way there's no chance of an accidental pregnancy and you won't have to contend with dogs going in to heat all the time!

 

[witzend]

It's dominance in our experience. Bubba the m. dal and the neighbor dog Jazzy the f. shepherd loved to play, and they were about the same age and played the same way. Then Jazzy's family got Riley the f. black lab, who is sweet as can be but much bigger than either. She's massive, in fact. Bubba was unimpressed, and he and Jazzy stopped playing. Then we got Mandy the smaller f. black lab. Riley and Mandy play exactly the same and they just run and romp until they are literally laying on top of each other on the ground. Jazzy is kind of bossy, so when Riley and Mandy are running around and nipping at each other, Jazzy mounts Mandy. Jazzy doesn't do it with any other dog, just Mandy. It's got to be dominance. None of these dogs were ever bred.

 

[nvts]

hmmmm, evolution perhaps? Amazon Dogs From Mars? Maybe they're keeping male slave dogs (potentially named Raoul?) hidden under the house? Could they be the first mammals that have decided that the famales of the species should be dominant? hmmmmm

Nah, our vet told us it was a dominance thing.

Beth

 

[Suz]

Yep, it's normal and it's dominance. Get them spayed and it won't become such an issue.

Suz

 

[Star*]

OMG LET THE LESBIAN DOGS ALONE -

FOR heaven sake - they come out of the closet as lovers and everyone thinks they are being weird... Are they watching LOGO when you aren't at home? Get them spayed, no more humpopotamuss'es.ssssssssss.

Right after we had our older Pit neutered due to severe aggression issues - he would hump air in the yard - and Dude would say "Momma what's he doing?" and I would say 'I bet he hears an Elvis song."

 

[Kjs]

so...if it IS a dominant issue, what do you do? You can say no a hundred times, then what?

 

[donna723]

Kjs, get yourself a spray bottle - one that shoots a long, thin stream of water. No, I'm NOT kidding! When they do that and as you tell them "NO!", squirt them right in the face, or where ever you can hit them with it! They HATE that! You can control all kinds of bad behaviors with a squirt bottle! It really does work.

Or get an empty plastic milk jug and drop in a handful of pebbles or pennies. When they do something and you tell them "NO!", give it a good shake. They HATE that too! You can use a metal soft drink can too. It will make a horrible loud noise that startles them and it's usually enough to stop them dead in their tracks.

 

[hearts and roses]

Ditto what Donna said!

We had a neutered dog, 9 years old, who 'relieved' himself every morning (NOT urination). The only thing that worked was either squirting him with water or shaking something loudly next to him.

When I asked the vet about it, he said although he'd never heard about it before, it didn't seem that unusual to him. H thought it was pretty awesome...snicker.

 

[klmno]

When I asked the vet about it, he said although he'd never heard about it before, it didn't seem that unusual to him.

Does it seem unusual to any man?

 

[donna723]

OMG! I can just see myself asking our vet a question like that! He has quite a sense of humor and I would never just hand him a line like that! That would just make his day!

The squirt bottle really does work at stopping bad behavior though. It doesn't take long before they associate the word "No!" with being squirted and pretty soon just telling them "No!" is enough to get them to stop. If they blackslide, just get out your squirt bottle again.

Kind of makes you wonder if it might work with kids too!?!?