[zuskamiller]

I have 2 Australian mix dogs, a brother and sister that were rescued from a vacant lot in a neighborhood in Mexico. Neighbors verified that they were dumped at 2 months old. They continued to live there until they were 7 months old with the neighbors putting food and water out for them. They would not come anywhere near people and were very afraid of them. Also they were very afraid of other dogs. At 7 months, a woman sat with them for 5 weeks gaining their trust, talking soothingly to them and coaxing them with hot dog pieces. She placed a kennel for them to go into at night and replenished their food and water twice a day. Yes, she has a heart of gold! After gaining their trust, she started her journey of finding someone to take these two dogs together. My husband and I met her at the vacant lot and slowly the dogs gained my trust but not my husbands. We were heading back to the states for 6 weeks so she fostered the dogs until we could fully take them in as ours. We visited them everyday for 2 weeks at her house until we left. She had 3 other dogs and these 2 rescues lived with her for 6 weeks. During that time the foster mom noticed that the female was the dominant one. After we got back 6 weeks later and took the dogs to our house, the dogs stayed very close to me and it took a month for them to accept my husband. They seem to be very afraid of men. I seem to be the person that they consider the pack leader. AS I said before, the foster mom determined the female the dominant one but as 3 months have gone by I am having a terrible time determining which is dominant. There are times that she seems dominant but more times that I think it is him. To me, he seems to boss her around, he tries to horn in on her food while she is eating and he steals her toys and bones. She just lets him and over the last month, I have had to step in and correct him. He finally sits and waits until she is finished eating and if I am present he clearly knows not to take anything from her. OK so here is my question... is possible for dogs to change dominant roles once they move into another home environment?