# 2 Dogs in same household? Male/Male, Male/Female, Female/Female??



## Anna (Jan 13, 2010)

I have 2 pits, male & female. 
We got the male first, and when he was 1 1/2 we brought home the female. 
She was 8 weeks old, and for the first few months I believe puppies have a certain scent that lets the older dog know they are young and they don't get mad or take it personal or whatever.
Today they are 3 1/2 & 2 and they still get along really well. They play & sleep together everyday, of course they fight sometimes but its never serious and at the end of the day its all love. 
I believe this relationship worked because the male is older and he is very passive, whatever she wants she gets (except for bones, he draws the line there). We could put a steak on the floor and they would each pick a side and eat till the middle. They share a food bowl and if one is eatting the other waits their turn. If she had been older its possible he would have just fallen in line, but she looks to him as her protection but at the same time is in charge. Like a typical human male/female relationship. 

My questions is for anyone that has 2 pits, how do they get along? More importantly, do you have a male/male or female/female combo? I think I would be nervous to have 2 females, just because whenever I get my female around another female dog (no matter what the breed) she gets protective and standoffish. Around a male she is more calm. 

How do your same sex pits get along and interact with each other?


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## pitbull951 (Jan 22, 2010)

HI!
I have had all of the combos...and haven't had much luck with any of them. 
I have an old female "Ivy" that stays inside all the time. I let her daughter "Tiger" in from time to time and they do fine. Ivy will get along with male or female as long as they leave her alone.
I have 15 dogs total and can't do that with any of the others.


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## reddoggy (Jan 31, 2008)

Some may get along, some may not. Never take your eyes off them, always have your break stick and first aid kit ready, and resort to crate and rotate if things turn sour.
I've had bitches that got along just fine, till a small variable caused them to HATE eachother from there on out. I've had males that didn't get along with females too.


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## geisthexe (Jan 18, 2007)

In all dogs you can have them together to a certain point (eg. Age, Temperament, Dominance etc) but once that point comes about then you should really watch or separate. 

Female/Female Male/Male will fight 

Male/Female will also fight if both are very dominate

I have had my male Presa's in the past together w/o females when I would take them hiking and they got along fine but in the home where territory is .. would never do it.

Even dogs that been neutered or spayed can still want to fight.


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## TashasLegend (Jun 7, 2006)

I've had 3 dogs-2 pittys 1 GSD(female). Had to run a very tight ship. Not one was to get out of line unless told to do so. I've also have had 5 in one household.


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## bullybabe (Mar 2, 2006)

I have 2 males..They get along 99.9% of the time...only had a few small issues but nothing major. I have had 3 males at once. Jesse was fine with it as he was a pup, but Luke you had to keep a close eye on.. He tolerarted him but only to a certain extent.


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## bahamutt99 (May 14, 2008)

I think the best rule of thumb is to set the dogs up for success, pray for the best, expect the worst. No matter what combo you get, you have to reconcile the idea of living a crate & rotate lifestyle. I had 3 dogs and every possible combination ended up fighting under the right conditions. My girls fought my boy and each other. Now that said, the best combination was the male with one of the two girls and no high-value toys or treats around, _*always supervised*_.

When you get into a breed bred to fight his own kind, unfortunately you always run the risk of something happening. Some people are lucky and never have their dogs throw down. I prefer not to rely on luck.


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## Ottis Driftwood (Mar 16, 2006)

bahamutt99 said:


> I think the best rule of thumb is to set the dogs up for success, pray for the best, expect the worst. No matter what combo you get, you have to reconcile the idea of living a crate & rotate lifestyle. I had 3 dogs and every possible combination ended up fighting under the right conditions. My girls fought my boy and each other. Now that said, the best combination was the male with one of the two girls and no high-value toys or treats around, _*always supervised*_.
> 
> When you get into a breed bred to fight his own kind, unfortunately you always run the risk of something happening. Some people are lucky and never have their dogs throw down. I prefer not to rely on luck.


:goodpost: i will say this Male Female great no problem Female and more then one male then you are asking for it period unless the female is fixed


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## Pitcrew (Jan 19, 2008)

I have always found it best to have a male and a female together and not same sex at all. There just comes that certain age that it just won't work for the most part. I know there must be exceptions however.


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## Anna (Jan 13, 2010)

Thanks for the replys!
The whole idea of "crate & rotate" is just crazy to me. That would be an absolute last resort if the only other option was give one away.
I would love to have 2 females, even though I know that will probably NEVER happen. Our female was fixed after her first heat. We wanted to mate them but it was just to much to keep them apart when she was in heat. It has definatly calmed them both down. 
I may be nieve, but I just can't see them ever to a point where they need to be seperated. Except for bones, toys & treats are always shared, and if she wants the toy, he will just give up. I am sure a big reason why they don't fight is he just doesn't care much for toys, also he has always had the senority & we recently moved into a new house so they came here together. Maybe they see the house as shared and not ones territory or the other?
Anyway heres hoping for the best!


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## SARGEnNIKITA (Jan 3, 2010)

I have had every combination of pits in my home at one time or another and American bulldogs too... I only had one set of males that couldn't be anywhere near eachother... Of course this doesn't include the rescues that we have adopted out since I didn't raise them... However only one adoptee was so severely aggressive she couldn't be around any other animals dogs or cats... I have not had any other issues but I have also only let them together when I am present... Sarge and Nikita both APBT and both still fairly young have never had issues and neither of them have had issues with the Shih Tzu... But when no one is home everyone gets crated both for their safety and for my home to stay in one piece lol their still young they chew... Anyway I don't think it's quite fair to say the same sex will never get along though... In most cases with this breed it won't happen after a certain age but it can happen with the two dogs being of the most imaculant temperment...
Also crate and rotate is honestly very tough but once it's part of your schedule then it's nothing... It's also works much better with a yard so that they can be rotated all around... Jmo


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

Male female combo has the best chances of them getting along but you have to remember what breed they are.

I have had dogs get along for 7 years then one day they decided to try and kill each other. I am lucky I have 4 sets of females that can be in the dog runs together without fighting. Now at some point this may change and I NEVER leave them along. They are only together when we are home. I think it just depends on the dog and genetics has a little say in it as well. My "pet bulls" with no peds and we know they have bad breeding are less hot and tend to be easy going. The working dogs and gamebred dogs tend to have to be separated.

so I think it is great that they get along but I would NEVER leave them along together. Too many times you hear of ppl coming home to dead dogs.


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## bahamutt99 (May 14, 2008)

Hoping for the best is a good thing. Just don't let it lull you into a false sense of security. Take precautions. Don't leave your dogs unsupervised together, don't feed them together, monitor closely with toys and the like. Oh, and if they aren't altered (spayed/neutered), do that as well. (Just good policy and decreases certain types of stress.) 

Crate and rotate is not as bad as having to "get rid of" a dog or coming home to a dead/bloodied dog. With any luck you will never have to do it, but you should still mentally fortify yourself for that possibility. Our first two street-bred females got along just fine. Then later one of those same females duked it out with her year-old daughter. The year-old daughter lived her whole life with her littermate sister with no problems. I kept a female APBT with a male Dogo with no problems. Then later that same female APBT duked it out with another year-old female APBT. The latter year-old APBT got along well with our year-old male APBT, then one day they got into it over a trigger and it happened more readily after that. I've seen all kinds of combos succeed and/or spectacularly fail.

My point is simply to be prepared and smart. Don't let yourself get complacent although indeed it happens to everybody. Don't just hope it wont happen to you, because if you aren't thinking ahead your dogs will end up paying the price. Ours did in the first fight scenario I described, because we weren't prepared for what eventually happened. We figured only people who allowed aggression ended up with it. Little did we know. Years later on when my threesome stopped living harmoniously, I'd already had the experience necessary for me to make the transition to crate/rotate.


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