Hi all,

Fantastic forum with fantastic information!

A little bit of background, my wife and i live in Sydney, Australia we currently own 3 dogs. Bronx a 4 year old male English Staffordshire who is a outdoor dog and desexed, Rogue a 2 year old female french bulldog who is our indoor dog non desexed and recently we purchased Indie a female Siberian Husky from a repeatable breeder who is currently 8 months old and non desexed.

Indie is such a beautiful dog, she is indoor/outdoor at the moment. Indie and Bronx get on fine with no issues at all, same can be said for her and Rogue but that was up until we went overseas and put her into boarding/obedience for 3 weeks.

When we got her back the first day we went for a walk with them all to get them back into the groove of being with each other but as soon as we got back to the house indie attacked rogue which is something she has never done before. We thought this was a one off but it seems Indie does this every couple of days at least once and im at a loss as to why all of a sudden she does it. She stands over Rogue also which is also an issue. When this happens we separate them but Indie hasn't gotten the hint that bad behavior gets her time out.

It's even more concerning as we had just found out my wife is pregnant.

It seems Indie is trying to assert her dominance over her, all it takes is a stare to set it off, her hair on her back neck is up and she goes into defense mode. Id say her and rogue are good together 80% of the time.

My concern is that Indie had a bad experience at the boarding :/ which they tell me she was fine.

Another issue we have is when she is outside she whines and scratches at the doors non stop to come back inside.

They all get regular exercise so that shouldn't be an issue.

Just looking at some advice or tips, we are thinking of getting a behaviorist to come to the house and work with her and us to solve this problem.

I'm gonna' bump this - not many people around on weekends.

Thanks Amie, I read this shortly after it was posted and wasn't sure how to reply - still not too sure but ...

@Delzio, If everything was copacetic before you went on holiday and it's not now then I think your comment that Indie had some sort of ?bad? experience at the boarders might be appropriate.  

But I really have two takes on this situation.  Indie is (and I'll be corrected if I'm off too far) in her "doggy teen years", since she's now entering adolescence she may just be exercising her "so you think you're boss here ..." challenge.  Which, to a degree, is perfectly normal and should settle down as they determine who outranks whom in pack order - but it'll drive you nuts in the meantime.  That may have been instigated by her being challenged by some completely unrelated dog while in boarding.  

While my pups (at around 5 years) are all considerably older than yours, I recently added a third to my small pack.  For about three months there was a confrontation between my existing female and the new female (both desexed) (( my male had the sense to stay out of it )) if not every day then every other day or so.  Add to that the fact that the new girl wasn't house trained and she was rapidly becoming a candidate for full time outside living (she didn't but man did I feel like it)

The fact that your wife is newly pregnant (congratulations, btw) may be playing into this since dogs can sense it and Indie may be feeling she has to protect your wife ... stretching this a bit since she's the newest member of the pack.  If you had said that Rogue or Bronx was the instigator then I'd be more emphatic.

Given the circumstances, I'd let it play out for a few days, but if it doesn't at least start to settle then I'd agree with your comment about calling in a behaviourist.

And since I'm going at this backwards, welcome to the forum.  You have a beautiful little lady there (if you can get her to act like a lady!)  How about a picture or two of Rogue and Bronx - we don't mind if they're not Sibes, we tend to like all dogs here.

Welcome to the forum. I agree with Al, however i will add a couple other things you may have to look into. I am not a big fan of board and trains. Issues arise from them, from mistreatment out of the not so good ones, to the fact that there is no training amongst the owner and other dogs. Secondly, although I like the mention that she is 8 months old and probably a teenage issue, she is challenging the pack. I will also make mention that both females are not fixed. It is not a secret, in the dog world 2 females will tend to have arguments over 2 males. Getting them fixed may ease the tension in your home. Lastly, do you have any background on either of the females? If you have breeder info that may be something to look into, call the breeders and ask about temperament between females in their established lines. If you can't get that info, sadly I will say that, same sex aggression has been seen in husky females. Not all, and quite honestly, don't believe many of us here have that issue, but it is something that has been seen in the breed, especially females. I don't feel a behaviorist is the route, I believe a spay, and see what happens first. If the issue continues you need a trainer who specializes in dog aggression or same sex dog aggression, or also called dog reactive. She is a lovely girl, and I really do believe working with her at this age is best, she is 8 months old which is an indicator that she is testing her boundaries, or may be close to coming into heat.

thanks for the replies and the welcome ...

a couple of things to add:

1. the training center/kennel assured us that nothing happened during her stay and they saw no signs of aggression (but how would we know whether or not they are telling us the truth)
2. when we leave the house we keep the dogs in the laundry where they have access to the side yard, we have cameras in there to monitor them and knock on wood but they seem to get along fine whilst in there.
3. If Indie is on the bed first she growl at Rogue and almost everytime a fight almost starts, eventually when i take control of Indie and stop her from going to that next level she is ok... but come morning if rogue goes out to the toilet and comes back Indie will snap at her and same thing happens all over again. But on the couch its fine.
4. When she is in the back with Bronx she is fine and doesnt do what she tries to do with Rogue.
5. At the moment its impossible to leave her outside as all she does is whine and howl and scratch at the doors to come in, could go on for hours.. she just dosent let up!

We are going to call our vet today to have her spayed and hope this helps a lil in calming her down.
We are trying to do all the right things to solve the issue but its becoming very frustrating, hopefully like some mentioned she might be going through a phase being the age that she is.


anyways here are some pics of Rogue and Bronx and some younger ones of Indie =)

This sort of reminds me of Archer when he hasn't been here in a while.  Archer is my son's dog that we dog sit when son is out of town.  Or he just comes over to romp with my boy, Ami and visit with Grammy and Pa.

When Archer has not been here in a while, he can be quite territorial with Ami.  Just a few days ago, I brought him over, before he was even out of the car,he started growling at Ami, hair up on his back.  The same when they both go out the door, or the funniest is when we go to bed.  Archer ALWAYS sleeps with us, Ami, meh, sometimes yes, sometimes, no.  If Archer gets up on the bed before Ami, he stands at the foot and blocks Ami, growling, shackles raised.  

The funny thing is, they are fast friends.  Its almost like the have to establish hierarchy every single time they've been away from each other for more than a day or two.  So far, I've managed it with a resounding "Archer:  NO"  And even weirder is, there is no issue with feeding.  I fill Ami's bowl, then Archer's bowl - Archer waits patiently until I put his down in his spot.  But if Ami leaves any food......

The spay may well help with this.  Or maybe not.  Both Ami and Archer are neutered.

yeah Indie seems to be displaying alot of dominant traits all of a sudden (almost like a switch was flicked), dominant play, dominant growls, hackles raised and every time we see this intervene to stop it.

Just odd that they use to get on so well and Indie has known Rogue since she was 10weeks old.

Lets see what spaying does and see if that calms her a lil, her age has alot to do with it from what im gathering but its taking its toll on us having to be on edge every day and constantly worried when the next fight will be, but we wont give up we will keep trying to solve it and get everyone living in harmony.

While she may not have had any issues, problems, or incidents at the kennel, she may have picked up some bad manners.

Rorschach (almost 5 month old puppy) is a very affectionate, kind dog. Most of the dogs in this town are not and are VERY territorial. You walk by their yard and they charge and bark and owners do nothing.
Rorschach has started to pick up on this as normal behavior. He never reacts to other dogs being territorial, but he has started to bark at dogs that pass our yard now. He witnessed a behavior on a daily basis and has started to repeat it himself.

It could be that she was on the receiving end of some dominance behavior or witnessed enough with the other dogs that she decided to try these tactics out herself to get her way. Coupled with her age (an impressionable teenager basically), and you have some new issues.

Just keep working with her. Reward good behavior, correct bad behavior.

thanks for all the feedback! =)

from what im gathering it could be a combination of things, alot having to do with her age which im reading is the terror age for huskies! that and the fact that she hasnt been spayed yet could be playing a role.

Ill never know what happened while she was boarded but that could also be a contributing factor.

Ive been taking her for longer runs every day and that has seemed to tire her out more so ill keep on it.

Question, how has everyone stopped there husky from crying and whining, scratching doors while being outside? She goes nuts if left outside for a while, even tho she has Bronx there to play with...

I want to get her use to be outside more than inside since we have a baby coming along in May.

I have one who's been spending more of her time outside - I get tired of mopping up after her. I'm having the same problem, she wants to come in where the rest of us are, so she scratches - I'm lucky in that it's metal and glass but it still gets irritating. And, no I don't have a solution for you (or me!)

yeah she could be outside for hours ansd go back and forth the whole time without rest, completely ignoring Bronx outside, yet if im outside she is happy to be there or if she goes to the back on her own accord she is also fine.

Unfortunately we have wooden stacker doors at the back and she tries ti scratch her way through them, thats the only reason why i usually give in and bring her back inside. :/