Household rivalry

[lyndzbrown]

Our 5 Year old spayed female BC is fighting with our 6 month old neutered male pup. It is usually during the evening and when the pup wants to play with a toy etc. and she does not. I'm not sure if he is having a problem being submissive etc. Any input on helping this not to happen would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks

[martySQ]

I'm not one with answers...but I bet they would like more info on what the fighting going on is... what do you mean? are they just showing teeth, growling and barking at each other, drawing blood????

[Ms.DaisyDuke]

I agree, more info would be helpful. Is this the only time this happens? Or are there other situations as well and what are they? Is it always over toys? Specific toys? Are they actually fighting or is she just getting irritated and barking or growling? What is the adults history with other dogs generally speaking?

I would be inclined to think that if this is only happening in the evening because the youngster is playing, I would create a quiet space for the adult so she can have some quite time on her own.

I have a dog-reactive dog who tends to be a bit bossy with other dogs. Sometimes when they are playing with toys she will growl a little, whine and sometimes bark. I usually solve this by making sure they each have their own toy or by doing something else with her when the other dog is playing. Since she's reactive, I usually use this as a great time to work on her impulse control by rewarding her for being calm and quiet while the other dog is playing.

[lyndzbrown]

It usually starts out as playing, and I think sometimes escalates as too rough. They havn't drawn blood but they tumble around, so not just growling at eachother. Our adult Female has the mindset that what is hers is hers.. and what is yours is hers.. So she tends to want whatever toy the pup has and vice versa the pup usually wants her toy. (No specific toy either like a ball or a stuffie) We try to solve this by incorporating other toys to "distract" from the one they want.

Paige the female we have had since she was tiny, and we socialized her everywhere and took her everywhere with us. ( I was doing lots of horse shows at this point so she was taken a lot) However Paige has never liked other dogs except the ones living in her house and the neighbors, she isn't scared or aggressive towards other strange dogs she just doesn't want anything to do with them. (Ignores them)

I think we need to just watch the excitement level between them, and not let it escalate to the point of someone getting irritated.

 

 

Thanks again for your guy's input!!

[hsnrs]

My intact girls do that sometimes. I just ignore it. If it escalates my DH fires off his gun; that always stops the fighting. I did keep the girls separate for awhile but that didn't solve the problem until my hubby said to ignore them. Guess they were doing this because of me.

[Izzysdad]

Is the puppy being rude in any way? If he is, then then your girl could be trying to teach some manners. Toby did this with Izzy when she was little. She would terrorize him and he would finally let her know enough was enough. It was never a fight, but more a correction, I never had to get involved.

 

Tim

[Ms.DaisyDuke]

The best thing to do is to interrupt when the play starts getting out of control and get them to do something else. And teach Paige to share.

[SincereArtisan]

If you're shoving more toys in your dog's face when they're trying to get a toy that doesn't 'belong' to them, the only thing I see you doing there is rewarding bad behavior. Adding more toys to the picture is not likely to decrease the resource guarding issues you are having.

 

Tweak is a 6mo foster in my house. A certain time at night I'll pass out rawhides for each of them. Her first experience with this was chaotic, because being a greedy puppy who didn't know how to share, she immediately tried to grab up everyone's rawhides and hoard them herself, to the point of hovering and pawing to get the others to lose theirs. I swooped in, gave her a firm NO, handed the others out and made her 'work' for hers with a few tricks.

 

The next time she tried to abandon hers and swoop in for some one else's she got a swift pop on the butt and put in her crate with NO rawhide.

 

The next time, she chewed on hers a bit and tried this again. Another pop, another time out with NO rawhide.

 

And so on. After a week of this, she finally figured out that the only way she was going to be permitted to enjoy her rawhide was to mind her own business and her OWN rawhide.

 

 

I have applied this rule of conduct for all my dogs when they were growing up. No one is allowed to bully another dog out of a toy, and no one is allowed to guard said toy. The way I see it, they're MY toys, I bought them, and my dogs are borrowing them. I get to say who gets what. If Ido is chewing on a toy, and Rune pounces in and tries to grab it, Rune gets told off and put in a time out with no toy. If Ido tries to blow up about it, they BOTH get a time out with NO toy. I do not dish out more toys for them to fight over.

 

By time out, they're put in a crate that is isolated from people/dogs/activity for a good 10-15 minutes to cool off. You don't want to crate your dog within sight of the winner/loser so they can give each other hairy eyeballs until you release them.

 

If I were you I'd start by teaching them their own space. Each dog gets their own corner, and their own toy. Start with JUST two toys, one for each dog, same size/shape/toy. As long as they mind their own business, keep to themselves and avoid bullying one another, they get to continue to play with their toy. Consistence is the key.

 

Also keep in mind that your female could just be irritated by your puppy and trying to instill a lesson. Take a step back and put yourself in your adult female's position. Would YOU tolerate a 6yr old kid bouncing around your face, poking at you, begging you to play when you are just trying to enjoy a good book? Would you tolerate them picking food off your plate? I do not expect my adult dogs to entertain the whims of a puppy. The puppy best learn to respect the adults and their wishes the hard way and absorb some manners fast. A well mannered puppy gets played with, and a well mannered puppy plays nice. At the same time, I do not allow them to correct the pup if it is not deserved. This means if the puppy is only walking by Ido while she's chewing on a bone, and Ido growls/bares teeth, Ido loses her bone and gets a time out. (I take up the bone, I do not give the bone to the puppy.) If the puppy jumps on top of Ido while Ido is sleeping, the puppy just earned herself a correction.