Male Pomeranian Aggression

by Diane
(Omaha, NE)

We have 2 male poms, Joey (9 months) and Bailey (8 month) along with two other olders poms, ages 11 and 8 (older ones are both spayed and neutered). Our pups were the best of friends until a couple of weeks ago, then aggression took over & all hell has broke loose in our house. They have been trying to establish dominance over the other for about a month now, which I know is normal & up until the last couple of weeks it has been harmless with no one getting hurt. At the time they were both unneutered. A couple of weeks ago they got into 2 major fights in less than 2 days & that was enough for me. We immediately got them neutered, but now they can't stand to even look at each other without being aggressive. They have had to be separated at all times for fear one or the other will get hurt. They completely get along with our older two poms which I assume is because they have already established their role in the pack with them.

Our vet recommended "breaking their spirits" & making sure that we are in charge & not them. He also said it would take about a month before the testosterone would be out of their system which may or may not help the problem. We are trying our best in that we have them separated in either different rooms so they can have some freedom or in separate cages directly beside each other so they are forced to get reintroduced & we are giving them some tough love which believe me is very hard on me & my husband. We are also trying choke collars at our vet's recommendation & taking them outside in our back yard on leashes. They still try to go at it though.


Last week my husband put Bailey in our neighbors yard to play with their 3 dogs, 2 of which are males. He then decided to let Joey out in our back yard without a leash & Bailey tried to come at him thru & fence and the neighbors dogs didn't like it & tried to pull Bailey back from Joey. So my husband then decided to put Joey in our neighbors yard with Bailey & they amazingly stood side by side without fighting but with their butts right up against the fence. If I didn't see it I wouldn't have believed it. But as soon as I got home and witnessed this, I went into our neighbors back yard and as soon as they saw me they tried to go after each other again. We are at our wits end with what to do and what's right and what's wrong.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I don't want to have to give up either of them. I have owned Poms for 20 years and have never had this scenario before. Please tell me there is hope for my two sweet boys to be friends again!