Do female Australian Shepherds get along?
have one and am planning on adopting another. my current aussie is 7months – the one i'm looking to adopt is about 4 months…
I know some breeds dont get along well with the same sex, is this the case for aussies? I cant seem to find any info
thanks
It very much depends on the temperament of your dogs and what they have learned about other dogs throughout their lives. To decrease the competition between them I would advise having both of them spayed (and to prevent unwanted litters, uterine/ovarian and mammary tumours and pyometras) as oestrogen can decrease the threshold for aggression.
As long as they both get on with other dogs in general, and you try to decrease any points of competition between them by having enough resources (beds, food, toys, human attention) then shouldn't have a problem.
Good luck!
i have 4 intact females and they get along well…. i am the alpha in the pack,, they are trained,, i show them,, and there is never a problem..
not sure about adoptive ones though,,, temperaments usually suffer at the hands of irresponsible breeders
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Yes they should get along fine. You have to be careful putting an older dog with a pup but the ages of the two you are talking about will be fine together. Just be sure to watch for jealousy. All animals can exhibit that behavior.
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I raised them for about 15 years.
It very much depends on the temperament of your dogs and what they have learned about other dogs throughout their lives. To decrease the competition between them I would advise having both of them spayed (and to prevent unwanted litters, uterine/ovarian and mammary tumours and pyometras) as oestrogen can decrease the threshold for aggression.
As long as they both get on with other dogs in general, and you try to decrease any points of competition between them by having enough resources (beds, food, toys, human attention) then shouldn't have a problem.
Good luck!
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Veterinary behaviourist
It's less a matter of breed than of personality – theirs, and the owner's.
If you intend to have just 2 pooches then, regardless of their breeds, it is always safer to have them of opposite sexes so that there is never any rivalry as to who is alpha in that sex. When I have had a true alpha I have been able to run up to 7 GSDs together. Without a true alpha there are same-sex fights by the age of 3 years.
It is also advisable to get them half a life-span apart, so that when the older one has to be put down you have a fur-therapist right there to help you get over it. And no way do you want the second one dying while you are still grieving for the first!
Also remember that no herding breed is designed to be mere couch potatoes – they need training, or their initiative will have them develop a range of behaviours that might or might not fit in with the lifestyles of you & your neighbours. Training is not an over-night thing, so you should train your first pooch as far as you intend to go before starting with the next one. Agility ought to suit an A.S. quite well, but there are other training competitions that you might both enjoy.
Ideally, each pooch should have its own "pet human" who trains it and feeds it, so that there will be no jealousy about which pooch gets the human's attention.
Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_Friendly
"In GSDs" as of 1967
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