German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America

[spilkysue]

I have two female littermates 6 years old. They began fighting with one another at approx 2 yrs of age. Both are spayed. We thought the first fight was a fluke but as time went on the fights became more frequent and more aggressive. After two years and literally hundreds of dollars in vet bills to have them patched up we put one dog on clomipramine. The fights stopped - for a year. They started again a year ago and have become almost a weekly ritual. One dog (the one on the clomipramine) attacks whenever something out of the ordinary happens (i.e. the cat gets out and is not supposed to be out and we're frantically trying to find him) or when her sister is somehow disadvantaged (i.e., had a stick stuck sideways in her jaw and was acting funny, or when she is reprimanded. All it takes is a stern "knock it off" and she attacks). We have taken to keeping them separated (one in, one out or in diff parts of the house). We have also taken to using muzzles quite a bit. They are both very nice dogs towards people and/or cats. They live on a farm with room to roam at will, can run, swim whenever. They are almost never tied up and I can count on one hand the number of times they have been around other dogs. A neighbor from down the hill had a little dog that came up one time and they barked and chased it away. Their aggression is only toward one another. I am at my wit's end. They have even fought with muzzles on. Most recently the one attacked the other with her muzzle on and the other had it off. She got chewed to shreds and is at the vet now having her eye repaired. We came within inches of putting her down this morning as opposed to patching her up again but I could not handle it emotionally. I know I'm loooking for a miracle but I am open to any suggestions, advice, comments thoughts or prayers. Please help as it will break my heart to lose either of these dogs.