New Rescue dog and old dog fighting

[AJLB]

Hi all,

I recently adopted a 2/3 year old female dog from Greece. She arrived Sunday, so has been with us for 5 days.
She regularly stays with my grandparents, who have a 10 year old female black Labrador.
Both dogs are "submissive" with people - and our old black lab does have general anxiety. They are both neutered.
However, my new rescue, who is the sweetest dog ever with everyone else including other dogs, keeps going for our old black Labrador.
I'm thinking it's jealousy and possessiveness between them, and they're both fighting for my attention, but I hate seeing them fight like this together.

Any advice would be amazing! Thank you so much.

 

[JudyN]

For now, you need to keep them physically separate. It's still very early days - is it possible for her not to stay with your grandparents at all for a few weeks? Then when she's more settled, they could meet outside the house, and get to know each other gradually, making all meetings very positive.

I have heard that when two bitches decide they don't like each other, then there's nothing you can do to change that and one or both will end up getting injured. I'm sorry that's not what you want to hear. But I'm not an expert & hopefully others with more experience will advise.

 

[merlina]

Like JudyN the only really incompatibles I've seen are two bitches. Certainly you could try walking them together but separate them in the house. In rescue this is not uncommon - you even see it in siblings that have been brought up together. I think physical barriers are the only thing for the time being- especially for feeding and sleeping. Maybe the new girl will settle down and relax though. She'll be feeling anxious at the moment- new country, new home, new people.New language! Good luck and fingers crossed.