"My God, this dog is Possessed!"
He was all ready to be Boss Dog, until she started bounding up and down and grinning like a fool at him. He decided that she was so totally weird and unpredictable, that he'd just let HER be Boss of the Beach . . .
Posted on 12/01/2005 5:45:40 PM PST by avg_freeper
We have two house dogs.
One is a Lab mix we rescued from the pound about a year ago. She was picked up as a stray at 8-9 months old and wasn't fixed (she is now). She was always gentle and non aggressive.
In August we picked up a pure lab 1 month old male puppy. At the time we thought our first lab would like a friend. That might of been a bad idea.
They had always play fought and puppies tend to bite at everything. But recently the older Lab mix who's 1.5-2.0 years old has become aggressive against the younger pup.
I can definitely tell the difference between play fighting and the real thing. She'll start growling then spring to kill. There were 2-3 episodes of this last month. This week it started happening every day. Today was the worst. She takes hair and for the first time we found a cut on the puppy.
We just had an attack and the "little" 40 lb guy wont leave my lap he's so frightened. (really hard to type)
The aggressive adult Lab mix is a small dog, about 35 lbs. Although she was very gentle she was territorial, barking at sounds outside our house. She is also very submissive around us, sometimes I think too submissive. As if she had been beat or mistreated before she was picked up.
The puppy had just reached her size and now he is surpassing it. He is pretty laid back but has started avoiding her because of the attacks.
So far we scold the aggressive dog and send her to her crate. That doesn’t seem to be working.
Try this DVD
http://www.cesar-millan.com/?source=adwords
I never allow my children around unknown animals. Our neighbor got a huge dog that alway ran into our yard and was being aggressive toward my kids. I told the owner if it happened again the dog would be dead on site. I also told him if the dog harmed my kids in any way I would make do distinction between the dog and its owner and punishment would be due!
I haven't seen the dog in my yard since
With..
3 dogs,
7 cats,
2 parrots,
2 lizards,
49 llamas,
8 alpacas,
1 bactrian camel,
1 swan,
5 turkeys,
multiple ducks, geese, chickens,
I might know a tad about conflict resolution.
The various liberal jackasses down the road will just have to work things out for themselves.
Are you all on the couch at this point?
Sounds possessive and jealous, of either you, or the couch, or both. She should be stopped from that behavior. She can rule the pup. But she needs to know she doesn't own the couch. You do. It's a fine line, when there's multiple levels of dominance being determined all at the same time.
Since she's a real sensitive soul, a spray bottle or a sharp word is probably enough. Instantly. Don't egg her on though... don't pet the pup without petting her. Maybe don't let him be up there if she's there.
But I guess I'm afraid this new behavior is too violent.
Only you been there, but if there's only now been a small scratch, I'd say it's likely mostly noise.
So I guess the wife and I need to be better about respecting the female's status?
You both need to be aware of what's going on in the pecking order, because right now it's under debate. Whichever comes out on top... yeah, respect it...
If she's that easy to interrupt, then great. Lots easier that way. I'd give her enough correction to interrupt the conflict if it's too rough, but not enough to make her come apart. Don't let her suck up to you.
Afterwards the puppy generaly tries to jump in our lap or hide behind my wife or I.
I'm sure he does... but try to be fairly cool to him. You don't want to reward him right after she's punished him. It's like the kid running to moms lap after you've given a spanking. It undermines your authority.
Heh... I call that 'too many members of the food chain in the house'. Been there, done that. I no longer do birds :~D
The Bush doctrine. Works.
Yup!
There used to be a show on cable called the dog whisperer. He dealt with these kinds of issues and was really pretty amazing. He is out of California..his name is Cesar Millan...just search his name or dog whisperer and you will get a lot of useful hits...his results on the show were amazing.
The female has spent over a year being alpha and with all the attention that the pup has gotten she has been disrespected.
The pup needs to be put in his place.
She is trying to teach him the rules.
Alpha dog chooses the best place, the first food, the first pat, the first out the door.
If you don't follow the rules, she will make sure the pup knows them.
If you want to dote on the puppy then do it when she is outdoors.
Do not reiforce behavior you don't want repeated.
If you are coddling fearful behavior you are going to get a lot of it.
When my girls tangle and it gets to rough, they both go on a down stay.
Time to start behavior training on the pup or both of them if they haven't had it yet.
I thought this was just coming out of the blue. Just today though I noticed the female was making a very low pitched quiet growl. She does this a bit before she attacks. She had probably been doing this for a while at him but we just now noticed it. You never know what a dog is thinking but I guess she's giving him a warning before she attacks.
And the puppy has started to be cautious around her so perhaps it's all falling into place.
I also think the fact that we're still (it seems like it'll take forever) house training the puppy. It might seem like we're giving him more attention, what with all the trips outside.
Do you think longer, more frequent walks for the adult would help balance things in her mind?
Take her along on all the trips outside... You don't have to be unreasonably cool to the puppy or unreasonably doting on her, just make sure she's treated as higher on the pecking order than the pup, up to and only until that changes, if it ever does. You don't want her spoiled or rewarded for bad behavior either. She can be dominant, but she has to be fair.
In my experience, the older female often retains dominance over a younger pup, but a lot of that depends on the constitution of the male pup. My lab male was fairly alpha in new groups of dogs, but was a complete wuss to my older 20 pound dominant female cocker.
Thanks for the ping; I totally agree with your advice about pecking order, and respecting it. Whichever dog turns out to be the dominant one, (and it sounds like it is the older female), that one should be treated with the respect due to the dominant dog, both in discipline and affection.
We often dogsit for friends' dogs. It is interesting and sometimes amusing to see how they settle these things out. Being bigger or male doesn't necessarily mean that that dog will be the dominant one.
That's true... I've seen little weiner dogs that were far more aggressive than they should be for their size, and the funny thing is, bigger dogs respect them! Go figure :~D
"My God, this dog is Possessed!"
He was all ready to be Boss Dog, until she started bounding up and down and grinning like a fool at him. He decided that she was so totally weird and unpredictable, that he'd just let HER be Boss of the Beach . . .
Shelley's funny, I think she's spent too much time around cats. She has very clear notions about what she will put up with and what she won't . . . and it seems odd to me. She adores puppies and will play happily with them for hours, with the bigger ones she will play chase all over the yard, with the tiny fellows (the 10-12 week olds) she actually lies down and lets them run all over her and try to nurse. The only exception was one VERY mouthy little guy whose humans weren't stopping him from chewing on everything living or dead. He started in on her ears, and just in an instant she was all big white teeth and had him on his back with her paw in the middle of his chest. He went "YELP!" . . . but he didn't chew on anything at all for at least ten minutes . . .
With grownup dogs she tends to stand rigid and let them sniff (a submissive behavior I belief) but then frolics and plays. On the other hand, if a grownup dog tries to put a paw on her back, she'll whirl around and give a warning bark and show her teeth. And once when the neighbors' totally untrained and unconfined 90-pound Golden male had the chutzpah to come up to me and bark right in my face in my own front yard, she just flew at him without any warning and put him flat on his back. She caught him by surprise, you could see him thinking "How did that happen?" But he has never barked at me again.
BTW, my take on the situation under discussion (from my limited experience) is that the puppy is starting to feel his oats a little and become an adolescent. . . like all adolescents he's pushing the envelope to see what Big Dog will tolerate. I think he's reached her limit . . .
I think Gidget is the alpha of the Homer/Gidget pair, but only slightly and neither is very territorial.
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