[ellen619]

We adopted Lucy, a female chow-shepherd mix 7 years ago as a 4 month old. At the time we had two boxers, a male and female. Lucy quickly became the alpha female. Four years ago, the male boxer developed cancer and we had to put him down. We then adopted a 7 year old male standard poodle, Buddy. Everything was fine.

In January of this year, our 11 year old female boxer developed cancer and we had to put her down. Two months ago we adopted a 5 year old female boxer, Harley, who was described as “exceptionally sociable with other dogs” – she had come into the rescue with her 5 puppies. She absolutely does love other dogs. However, two weeks after we had her, she began to stand up to Lucy’s alpha position. Lucy was none too happy and there have been some scary fights. One resulting in six stitches in Harley’s ear. We don’t know how to stop the fighting. I know we are adding to the situation by being nervous every time they get close to each other. All our dogs are neutered/spayed.

We’d appreciate any help with this. Thanks so much!!