Carol Miller said,

I have to female golden retrievers that I do breed with two males I also have. My youngest golden retriever tends to attack my oldest golden female at certain times. The latest attack was when I was preparing the whelping bed for my oldest golden to deliver in two weeks. The youngest female seen the bed and just attacked the pregnant mom. Could she still be remembering her birth which was about six months prior? My oldest females delivered her litter nine weeks ago. All of them but three have left for their new homes. I have completely kept all but mom away from the pups, but tried to introduce them finally to the three remaining puppies and in an instant the youngest female attacked mom. It is so ferocious. The oldest female is an angel and so obediant when I yell for them to stop she is willing to stop, but she has to protect herself. I am getting my oldest female fixed next week. Will having the youngest fixed stop this hostile behavior? There was one time I brought the youngest home from her vet check and as soon as we walked into the home she immediatly attacked the oldest female. These dogs cohabitat usually very well, but there are those times when I think the two females could kill each other. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Carol,
I’d say it is very likely that she was extremely territorial about the whelping box when she was pregnant and still has those feelings about it. Dogs change a lot when they are pregnant and their hormones go wild. That and the fact that you probably really reinforced that she was in charge of that area with the other dogs helped make her feel that she should defend that area. Fixing her certainly won’t do any harm, but you may want to talk to a behaviorist, too, especially if you continue to breed your other dog.

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