pandasmom Posted April 4, 2007 Report Share Posted April 4, 2007 Hey Everyone, I have another question! Is it normal for a BC to kind of... bully her siblings? I have four dogs and three are all around the 1 year old mark and Panda kinda bully's them. She's always picking on my sheltie and even the bloodhound sometimes. She gets in there face and barks and wrestles them even after they make it clear that they don't want to play and when one of them comes to me to play, she jumps on them. She's never mean, she's just kind of a bully. Is this normal for a BC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shetlander Posted April 4, 2007 Report Share Posted April 4, 2007 Is Panda one of the dogs around a year old? I would not allow Panda to pester and bully the other dogs when they've had enough, especially the sheltie who is probably at a physcial disadvantage. Even if Panda isn't being "mean," she is being rude and could be causing your dogs stress. I see some of that behavior as controlling, especially her interfering with the other dogs when they come to you. My thought would be that the dogs all need to see you as the one who is in charge, which means you get to say who you will play with and you will protect a dog who is feeling harrassed. The dogs are at the stage where they will start asserting themselves more and can develop some bad habits. You don't want any of them to start acting agressive in an attempt to make Panda back off. What might begin as Panda being pushy could end up with dogs who have serious issues with each other. Until just a few weeks ago, I generally let my dogs "work it out for themselves," within certain parameters. This only worked about 50% of the time and one of the times it didn't work out, the situation became very, very dangerous between two dogs. Do you have the pamphlet "Feeling Outnumbered" by Patricia McConnell and Karen Landon? I just picked it up a few weeks ago when I realized that I needed to do something about the interactions between Quinn and my Lhasa before things got worse. I was surprised to find that according to the booklet, I had 6 of the warning signals that there may be a serious problem. My dogs rarely have actual altercations, teeth almost never make contact, but I did have issues with hard looks, bullying, some resource guarding, growling, snapping, pushing others aside for my attention, trying to restrict where the other dogs went (Quinn), and basic jealousy. Fortunately, I have a very talented obedience instructor who has helped me realize that I need to do a much better job of being a leader and give very clear limits and consequences for my dogs. I'm now aiming for zero tolerance with any posturing and resource guarding. I'm already seeing great improvement in both dogs. The attempts are resource guarding me are way down. They are politely (usually) waiting their turns for attention from me and visitors. And they're playing more with each other and my sheltie. I think that by my making it clear there were no openings for Alpha, they are now feeling more relaxed and secure. Anyway, personal testimony aside , my recommendation is that you stop Panda when you see her bullying or pestering your other dogs. If the other dogs don't want to play with her beyond a certain point, then maybe you can play fetch with her or take her for a walk or do a little training to help her expend some energy. Quinn would love to play more than my dogs are willing to engage in with him because he is just too rowdy for them. But they're happy to chase their own toys together or just hang out while I play with Quinn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandasmom Posted April 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2007 Liz, THanks so much for your thoughts on Panda's bullying. It has been really worrying me alot and I think I know what I need to do now. I definetly need to monitor her and when I catch her in the act, I need to stop her, cuz it does stress out Hank (the sheltie mix) and he's quick and he can get away from her, but the "herder" in her, won't let him go and she keeps after him until he bites her. She's just a year old (bday - March 15) and so full of energy. I used to think that the "bullying" was kinda cute, but now it's become a problem, so I am definelty going to do what i can to fix it. THanks again for your thoughts. -Mandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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