Our personal experience with two female dogs has been mixed. We had a boxer who was around 9 years old when we brought a French Bulldog home. Those two got along wonderfully but that is because our boxer put the frenchie in her place immediately. She also was the most well behaved dog we have ever owned. She passed when our frenchie was 3 years old. We waited over a year and brought home another female boxer puppy. Initially things were wonderful. They cuddled and loved on one another all the time. They played well. Then gradually growling started happening which ended in all out fight to the death matches on multiple occasions. Our Frenchie can do some damage, although she did come out with the worst damage. We spent months keeping them completely separated. They couldn’t be in the same room. Even walking past each other was enough to set them off. My husband was able to start bringing them in the same room separated (the boxer on the dog bed, the frenchie in a lap). Eventually we were able to get them to where they can lay next to each other chewing a bone if we’re in the room. We remove the bones when we aren’t there. Up until this past week we had gone a few months without an incident. Then suddenly our boxer started growling at the Frenchie while on the couch with me while I was on the phone. I think it was over a bone. It was a great reminder that while they tolerate each other, we can never trust them alone with bones OR in the backyard. I can not even walk them together because if another dog gets them riled up, they will turn on each other. What I think started it is a nice older gentleman who walked his dog by every day and let the little dog “say hi” when our dogs were in the backyard. He obviously did not know enough about dogs to know he was causing ours to red line. I only caught him with the dog by the fence once and he was gone by the time I got out there. But he walked by frequently so I know it happened more than once. This trigger from someone just walking by caused their first scuffle and it went south from there.
All that to say… don’t do it if you have the choice! We spent many days crying, trying to decide whether to rehome the boxer because she hadn’t been with us as long as the frenchie. We are stubborn and I am a stay at home mom so I was able to make it work, but it caused SO much emotional stress, marital stress, and our poor kids were afraid our dogs would kill each other.
We previously had 3 females all together, one who was extreme alpha (she marked while lifting her hind leg), the original boxer in this post (so well behaved), and an adopted puppy mill boxer with no manners. The two former attacked the no manners one twice in 5 years and the well behaved one attacked her once horribly during a daytime thunderstorm when I was gone at work. She pulled through and they were fine after but we kenneled her during the day regardless to ensure it didn’t happen again. All the fights were years apart, and we decided would never have two large females again. But apparently small girls can be typical females as well. 😂
