[Simone]

I have four german shepherds. A male, a female and their two 8 month old pups/adolescent dogs, one male, one female. the problem is the mother Pepper who is the pack leader is teaming up with her son Bruiser to completely bully and intimidate the other female. The father Kaiser stays out of this. I have had to separate Bella from the others. What can I do to stop this?

[lucysdoghouse]

My question would be is Pepper the pack leader or are you the pack leader? If you are not the pack leader than that is the area I would tackle first. Make sure your dog's especially Pepper knows who is boss. I personally am a big fan of Cesar Milan when it comes to this stuff and believ in it. Go for walks with Pepper make sure you walk with you in the lead.

With the younger female give her preferential treatment. Spend more time with her, give her more attention than the others. Take her on walks by herself. Feed her first. Show the other dogs that you value her and she is important in your pack.

[german sheep]

That pepper is the pack leader is obvious, but my question is:
in what situations is Pepper attacking Bruiser? What happens before?
Is Pepper in heat at the moment, or maybe the little bitch?

You don't know what will happen in your pack situation, when you work with Pepper, there is a chance that one of the other dogs will take "Mom's" place or that Bruiser and his sister are deliberately or not varivied in their actions, what actions that may be I cannot say from here, maybe it is just their presence.
Because:

With the age of 8 months the "pups" are old enough to live their own live, they have everything they need for survival, all instints are activated and Pepper shows very clearly that the territory is too small for 4 GSD's and she is not willing to share her living area with her descendants.

The situation with more than one dog is a case for a specialist, to train with you together. Otherwise you are taking the risk...

LG
gs

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