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Do males and females EVER fight?

2K views 25 replies 20 participants last post by  Serbrider 
#1 ·
Oh this is probably such a stupid question but what the heck

So, will male and female dog ever fight? More specifically:

1. Unneutered male and any female
2. With strange females vs. pack mates

I am curious because my male has NEVER gotten into a fight with females. He has gotten into chest bumping scuffles with other rank seeking males but we interacted with some pretty mean females that wanted nothing to do with him and I swear he's like Pepe Le Pew with them, dancing around and asking for their attention no matter what they throw at him. Other times they are the ones following him around enjoying his presence I think. I usually remove him if he starts acting like a jerk but it rarely gets to that point

So it got me curious, will a male normally ever fight with a female? Has that ever happen to you? Who was the instigator? What was the fight about? How likely is a male and female fight to occur?

Satisfy my curiosity please
 
#2 ·
So it got me curious, will a male normally ever fight with a female? Has that ever happen to you? Who was the instigator? What was the fight about? How likely is a male and female fight to occur?

Satisfy my curiosity please


Yes. My friend's male and female Doberman have gotten into several fights where blood was drawn. Their fighting doesn't happen as much anymore because my friend and her boyfriend know what signs to look for and they can stop a fight before it happens. They are also not left alone together unsupervised.

Here is the thread I started about her dogs fighting and she chimmed in to tell people exactly what happens.

http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...month-old-male-10-month-old-female-fight.html
 
#6 ·


Yes. My friend's male and female Doberman have gotten into several fights where blood was drawn. Their fighting doesn't happen as much anymore because my friend and her boyfriend know what signs to look for and they can stop a fight before it happens. They are also not left alone together unsupervised.

Here is the thread I started about her dogs fighting and she chimmed in to tell people exactly what happens.

http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...month-old-male-10-month-old-female-fight.html
Thanks for the link, I'm sure it will be informative :)

What about in social situations with dogs outside the pack? Sounds like male/female fights occur mainly within the pack. What about socially for those who let their dogs interact socially?
 
#3 ·
I had a male and female for years, and they did get into a fight. I always felt like the female was the instigator. She was a pretty nasty animal, and she would always seem grumpy toward my male lab (neutered). One day she was sniping at him and he really went after her. It was terrifying. My guess was that he had just had enough of her attitude through the years and snapped. He never did it after that, and they got along fine. She was nicer for a few days, then went back to her normal grumpy self.
 
#4 ·
Eko is not neutered and 2 years old, he has gone after females, but he shows aggression to any dog besides his female packmate Xena :)

Eko was more often then not the instigator, he pulled and then growled and then started snapping. I think in his case it's just that any dog that sets him off.

When Xena was about 4-5 months old an older male pit bull attacked her over a piece of asparagus :/ He was about 1, neutered. They went after it at the same time.
 
#5 ·
Jäger and Katya have never fought
Jäger has sternly corrected Aska and Aska has "registered a complaint" but not actually fought
 
#7 ·
My 11 yr old female HATES my mom's younger male Lab. He used to annoy her when he was a puppy and when he was about 1-2 yrs they got in a fight. Ever since, Dallas will growl at and bite him if he gets close. I don't take my dogs to my mom's anymore but if I have to we have to keep them separated.
 
#9 ·
My friend has a whackjob dal mix, really fearful and aggressive. There are times when it's unavoidable that her and Rocket have met- such as her meeting me for a hike, when she promised she wouldn't bring her but then did. *sigh*

She bites at Rocket, growls, lunges, charges, the works. Being the Don Juan that he is, he's more "Why you gotta be that way, baby?" than anything. However, he has gotten tired of her crap before and man-- he makes it fairly clear. I called him off fast though, because she didn't look like she was willing to accept it without a hard schooling.
 
#10 ·
My memory has come back! LOL

When I was younger we had a Lhaso Apso mix and we had our female GSD/Husky mix and they did fight, the female used to make puncture marks in the males head. The male was the one that started it, he would usually growl when he was eating or chewing a bone or playing with a toy and the female would go after him and win the fight everytime. :(
 
#11 ·
I've had one set that had to be monitored pretty carefully when outside playing. It often escalated to the point where I had to intervene, and a few times where they had to be separated.

Rough play built to the point where one took exception, and the other refused to back down.
 
#12 ·
When Xena does interact with other dogs the males usually really like her but there are some that get snippy. A weiner dog snapped in Xena's face when his owner held him in front of her, I was totally shocked she did that and we left quickly. A couple other little dogs with big attitudes have ran around her growling and barking, but Xena just sits there and watches. So I think male dogs that would fight with females that they don't know are just overall not dog friendly instead of just not liking females or a particular female. That's based on just my experience, though, I try not to get in those situations :)
 
#13 ·
Yep. Hildy is ALWAYS on leash because she is fear aggressive towards other dogs. There is this one CRAZY unneutered male that lives in the same hallway as us - literally if I walk by the door to their apartment talking to Hildy and Hildy's leash/collar jingles, he will fly at the door and smack into it with all his weight trying to break through and get to us.

Anyway one day the girl who owns that dog had him off-leash for God knows what reason. I went out with Hildy, he saw us and was attacking her so fast I barely had a chance to react. 'Course that could be more to do with terrible genetics/breeding and the fact that his owners tried to train him with a shock collar (timing w/ corrections was awful & inconsistent from what I saw). I mean seriously he was out for blood -- he hit us so hard that he overshot Hildy and ran into my legs so forcefully that he knocked me over; I had bruises for weeks from the impact.

So yeah, some males will initiate fights with females. Guess you'd call it territorial aggression, but it could just be that the male in this instance was completely unstable, off-kilter and crazy.

One other male has snapped at Hildy when we met head-to-head on leash before we had a chance to turn our respective dogs around.
 
#14 ·
Wow so it seems to happen more often than I thought.

My male is like freaking Casanova around females. I had been convinced that he will put up with just about anything to get their attention. What a horndog (literally) :) But I guess everyone has their limits I suppose so I'm doing the right thing keeping him away from females who want nothing to do with him.
 
#15 ·
Wow so it seems to happen more often than I thought.

My male is like freaking Casanova around females. I had been convinced that he will put up with just about anything to get their attention. What a horndog (literally) :) But I guess everyone has their limits I suppose so I'm doing the right thing keeping him away from females who want nothing to do with him.

This is why I affectionately call Rocket the Don Juan of dogs. :cool:
 
#16 ·
Otto and Venus will play fight but if it starts to get a little more vocal and serious sounding, I back one or the other of them off. Never have a problem with this pair.

Otto and Morgan, before Otto was neutered? She tried to kill him over an empty box of chicken nuggets and the list goes on and on. Morgan and Luther too. All about Morgan, crazy bitch.
 
#17 ·
My sister's pittie will fight any dog that she decides she doesn't like. She's worse with other female dogs but will definitely attack males; she once jumped out of a car window to attack a male Beagle that barked at her (after this my sister bought a muzzle).

She gets along okay with my dogs (both male) but I think only because she's known them since puppyhood. Otherwise I can't imagine she'd get along with Pongu.
 
#18 ·
Russell (intact 13 mo male) and Carly (intact 4 yrs female) have had a scuffle. Carly firmly believes that everything belongs to her, and finally decided to revoke Russell's puppy pass. Russell wasn't too happy about that. Neither one of them was backing down over some random ratty toy, so I shut it down immediately.
 
#20 ·
I have no major fights in the house, but both girls will put the boys in their place and the boys take it. The girls also seem to have each other's backs and watch out for each other.
 
#21 ·
Some males will let a female walk all over them. Some males will not. I had a male that cut me open and my female when he got his big boy bark going. He did not mean to get me, I got my hand in between them, that was my fault. But the dog wasn't going to put up with my girl, and she was 5 or six years older than him.

He would bound up and into her, and she gave him a corrective nip. And he laid into her.

He got into it with the other boy I had, who was a year older than him, and while that sounded bad, neither were wounded.

I learned to keep him separated. The other dog was a little reactive with outside dogs, but bitches in heat (mine or other people's) where a different story altogether. He was the perfect gentleman caller.
 
#24 ·
Sabi -spayed female- and her housemate Bud-unneutered male- got right into it a few times. The first time was before she was spayed, and she was pure evil with most males. Hated them, in heat she was worse. Anyway they were playing one day and I'm not sure what happened but she laid into him and he fought back. I got bitten breaking them up, and they both had lacerations on their faces and legs.
Second time he got to close to a baby rabbit she was caring for and she levelled him. He fought back again and they both wound up missing fur.
Third time was over a pup she was caring for. We were out for a walk and Bud growled at the pup for something. Sabi charged him and he stood his ground, so they fought. Again I got bitten breaking it up. After that we kept him away from her 'kids' if she was around.

In every fight I have seen between males and females, the female is the aggressor.
 
#25 ·
From what I noticed males are usually more tolerant of snarky behavior from a female vs another male. If there is a fight the female is usually the one to start it. Snapped too hard, made contact with male dog, or full on attacked and the male defending himself. But I've seen many females all of a sudden snap and pin the boys down. All the while the boys are singing "True Love" :rolleyes:

I have yet to see a male full on attack a female the way they would another male. But the females don't care, they will go for whoevers most annoying at any given time.
 
#26 ·
Yes. My dog has never provoked an attack or bitten where she's drawn blood with any other dog or human (she's killed field mice, some birds, and an armadillo in her day... :p ), apart from my brother who was stupid and literally shoved his hand into her bowl WHILE she was eating her favorite food, which was her dog food (before I started feeding her raw) mixed with the juice from our pot roast. Yeah... that was an accident on her part...

But... back to the question. Yes. They can and do fight. My dog as I said has never provoked an attack, but she's the queen bee in her mind. She will ignore other dogs, but if another dog comes at her, she will NOT roll over and submit. No way in **** will she do that. So if another dog either completely ignores her or continues to provoke her, she has gotten in fights before, which is why I don't allow her around other dogs unleashed... because I can't trust THE OTHER DOGS enough to leave mine alone (which my girl doesn't like other dogs, and will completely ignore them after a courtesy sniff).

She's spayed. In almost every single case where she has gotten in a fight/attacked/overly provoked, it's been with a male dog. Either a neutered male or unneutered.

The only time she was attacked by a female... that dog was nuts. I mean... had some major issues. Would go after me, would go after my horse, would go after her owners a few times... just... nutso little jack russell. And the little male jack russell was following in her footsteps. Gosh... it was crazy. After one time of seeing if I could take my dog to the barn with me there, it was like "ok... never again".

But yes. Males and females can and do definitely fight.
 
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