Older female being aggressive with female pup

[AdoraBell]

So, we have four dogs. The eldest is 4 yrs old and female. We got puppies, one of each, a few months ago and now the older female has started being aggressive with the female puppy, 7 months old. All are German Shepherds.

Recent examples, I caught the puppy's paw in a door and she yelped like crazy. Older dog immediately gets right in the puppy's face and starts snarling and snapping. Then all dogs were chained up, only for a few minutes, I let the older female off first and she did the same again with the puppy because she was still on the chain.

She's not aggressive with us or with the two male dogs. Am I reading too much into this or could there be something going on that I need to tackle?. Both are spayed.

I would suggest seeing a behaviourist now, a good one from www.apbc.org.uk

It may be that the problem just stops by itself, but it may escalate, particularly as your bitch pup matures and if bitches start to fight or have a fight they often never let it go and I know many people who are extremely experienced dog owners that have had to keep bitches permenantly seperate due to fighting. I am one of them.

Thank you, I'll see who I kind find to assess them. We're abroad but I'll look at that website anyway.

I would also advise getting this sorted asap. I didn't and now my two bitches are kept permanently seperated. The last time they were together, I thought the older one (GSD) would kill the younger (HuskyX)- it was close, pup was badly hurt - and I was badly injured in stopping it, but there was no way on this earth I was letting go of her collar until the pup could get away.

It unfortunately over stimulated my GSD boy, who joined in biting the pup (they were and still are inseperable so this was a frightening development as well).

Life is now a complicated set of rules and dog gates, that I get seriously arsey over when DH cuts corners - i.e. he opened a gate between them with his hands full, if one or both had gone for the gate he could not have stopped them.

This may be a red herring, but are both boys neutered? We think the catalyst was our unneutered boy joining us.

Good Luck in sorting it.

That sounds very frightening MrsZoidberg

Yes, all are neutered. To complicate matters they are currently confined to the garden with no separation areas. We need to sell the house and OH has had new cream carpets fitted. The garden is large enough for them to run around, but at present I can't seperate them. I've only seem a problem when the pup is either unable to defend herself or run, which to my mind is a huge problem.

I'm stuck in today waiting for estate agents but will take the adult to get her checked as soon as they've been.