Help with my dogs behavior

My dogs have lived together for 9 year. We got Kika (female Shiba Inu, fixed) when she was three...well, a month away from three. Kenzo (male Shiba Inu, fixed) we got when he was 16 weeks. They mated, we had a liter, three pups, all was well. We had then both fixed after that..neutered/spayed. Kika has always been alpha, and they never have been good buddies, Kika loves me so much and is very attached to me and is very high strung. You would never know she was 11, she acts likes a 2 yr old. Kenzo will be 9 in a week and a half and he has slowed quite a bit. He's very slow and she is very high strung. Recently, they have been fighting. I'm not sure what is causing this. He is on Prednesone for his allergies. We need to figure out what is triggering her behavior. She is a really good dog, but is very high strung. They have been fighting a lot recently. He wont back down. Help!

I'll have to get back to this post, dinner beckons.

I had the same thing happen. vet said the younger knows it's alphas time to go and it is their nature to fight for leadership. the only way deal is to separate them

OK. There's a lot I'm not going to say, and some things I am.
Dogs do realize a changing of the guard. My oldest (I live with three) lets my youngest get away with stuff she never did with my middle dog and my deceased dog. She knows it's easier for her to just let him have his way, but she does still let out a snarl once in a while. And I let it happen. Reason being, dogs left to their own devices will pretty much sort things out on their own. While you should always be boss, they still need to feel like one of them has a higher ranking in "the pack". And if they are fighting in front of you.. I mean, all out fighting.... you are not boss or have not let them decide who is top dog amongst them. Because once they decide who the Omega is, there should only be a snarl to remind the other one. They would never get "into it" in front of the Alpha, you. That's a little bit about being a pack.
The other thing to consider is that Inu breeds have a tendency to have attitude changes when there is a thyroid problem. And for some reason, vets do thyroid checks as a last resort to determine a skin or attitude problem. And 9 times out of 10 the dog has a thyroid condition that a pill clears right up. (BTW, the neutering and spaying will have zero effect on an adult dog's behavior once they have developed. And your two have even mated, which does compound things.)

So I guess I would ask myself a couple things;
Are you the boss? If they are fighting in front of you, you've got a bigger problem.
Do you let your dogs bicker amongst themselves or always intervene? If they can never figure out who is top dog by themselves, each fight will get worse.
Have you had a full blood panel done on them recently? Or at least the female? The thyroid problem is probably not too high on my list though, but it still happens frequently with that breed type. And you did say several times how hyper she is.

Just some random thought...

Thank you so much for your reply!

I always let them battle it, but if it starts going on too long, I'll intervene. This lengthy stuff is just recent.

I have never had a thyroid check on her...but I will.

They went at it again when I was walking them this morning. The vet says it's behavioral and gave us numbers to call for training...but as you all know, we can't afford that right now.

Any suggestions on training we can do at home????

I wish I could add something constructive. Our new dog Izzy (the JRT) challenges every animal he see's. He is 5.6 pounds of badass, and we are constantly seperating him from our other dog/cats, and he absolutely will not back down. To make matters worse, his new little "sister" (Vegas) arrives in about 2 weeks, and all the information we have says she will be the same way.

FWIW, our vet warned us strongly about prednasone when it was prescribed for our older dog, Sasha. She said it was not something that you wanted to keep a dog on for any length of time. I don't know that it causes aggression, but it may be worth a phone call to find out. Good luck Angie!

Bob Jack Russell's are naturally aggressive as least mine was. My cat had a litter of kittens that took the meanness toward cats out of him as they could do anything to him right up till he died at 18. He treated those cats like they was his but him and the mother never did get along well.