[Whitsuntide]

Can anyone help me with this aggression problem. We have a household of 7 border terriers, one castrated male, one older spayed female, and five other females three of which are under 18 months and the other two are 6 and 3 respectively. The aggression is between the last two. The older of the two dogs, Dolly, is a rescue, having been systematically neglected and abused since we got her 18 months ago, when I went to pick her up I was told she had not been touched by a human (her then owner) for approx 2 years. She was kept in a kennel the size of a small kitchen table, filthy, terrified, you could not touch her, she was starved, every bone showed, you could not walk near her without her dodging behind you (?kicked), terrified of brushes, sticks .. you know the scene. Since then we have rehabilitated her, she loves humans as long as we don't move quickly or "flap about", loves being cuddled, brushed, walks on a lead and goes out for walks, sits on command, looks like a different dog. In the last 6 months however she has taken a great exception to my 3 year old, a very happy cheery dog who was born in our house and has never been abused or had a cross word spoken to her. However, she was the alpha female before Dolly arrived. Now Dolly has attacked her with varying levels of violence over the last 6 months, at first it was managable, but over the last 2-3 weeks has escalated. It appears to be a mix of dominance aggression (she shows no aggression to any of the other dogs, allowing them to take her food, lie with her in a basket, mutual grooming takes place frequently), and resource aggression with myself being the resource. She has a very strong attachment to me and objects to the other B**** approaching me, especially when one of them is in season.

We have asked advice, tried to apply behavioural techniques to reinforce her dominance, feeding her first etc, but this has not worked, we have tried to rehome her but she is desperately needy and her behaviour when removed from here is pitiful (she lays prostrate on the ground, shaking and hyperventilating, urinates herself and then starts howling - the only time we succeeded in a trial rehome she howled on and off for hours and they begged us to take her back). As a last resort we have now had her spayed, but today, one and a half days after the operation, she has attempted to attack the younger B**** again. We did not even realise that she was mobile enough to do this! I know it takes a while for the levels of hormones to subside, and my local hound kennels advised me that spaying reduces aggression in their females, but I am in despair. Worse, I love this little B**** with a passion, but the other dog is my son's, he is only twelve, and I cannot bring myself to rehome his dog. Sadly also, Dolly cannot understand children and this means that she isn't reliable with them, and who wants a border terrier who cannot be trusted with children (even if it isn't her fault).

Currently we are managing this by separation (she goes into a kennel with her sister for company) and when in the house wears a soft muzzle unless on the lead. Our options are narrowing and we have had to discuss humane destruction with our (very supportive) vet, should we be unable to rehome/the spaying not work. Dolly is really happy with us and her quality of life is good, can anyone suggest anything to help with this problem.