Should i be nicer to one dog in front of the other?

Question

I have two dogs. One i love a lot because she is well behaved and doesn't bite. She knows who is boss. The other thinks she is the alpha of the group. She treats her sister very bad and doesn't even let her eat. Do you think its okay for me to be nicer to one dog in front of the other?

Answer 1

Be careful treating one dog better than the other. This will cause the "alpha" to act out in order to PROVE she is the queen pup. Your "aggressive" dog is trying to prove to you and your other dog that she is the alpha. If you neglect her, she will only try harder. Make sure you are feeding them in seperate bowls and even at seperate times. I would try this: Let the alpha do everything first: feed her first, let her in and out the door first, pet her first, acknowledge her first, etc. See if this improves the behavior. This is how dogs work in the wild. Make sure she knows you are the alpha, and then her, and it may cause alot less stress to everyone.

Answer 2

I wouldn't say be nicer to one or the other, but you get to decide what the ranking order is in your home, not the dogs.
When one of mine steals a toy from the other, sometimes i take it and give it back to the first dog, sometimes i let the other keep it. One week, i let my smaller dog off her leash or out of her crate first, other times i switch it up.
It's not that you should be nicer to one, but don't let the other get away with acting like that. Feed the well behaved dog first, and if the other even thinks about not letting her eat, handle that immediately.
If you bring her down a few notches and treat the more submissive dog as more dominant for a few weeks, she will realize that it is not her place to not let her sis eat, it is your place.

Answer 3

Ahh no thats probably why the social hierarchy is all screwed up... you as the leader have to be impartial and leader to all. You see dogs dont see your excess affection towards another dog as a sign of dominance they see it as submission.. the leader of the pack does not do that, they let others lavish affection upon them while they cultivate their calm assertive demeanor.. then when they feel like it they dole out some affection for the day and thats it.

In effect when you are fawning upon one dog the other is looking at this and losing respect for you because its seems as though you are subordinate to that dog when you should be being properly subordinate(in the dogs eyes) to the alpha. In reality both dogs should be fawning upon YOU as the aloof, detached alpha who only deals out affection when it pleases YOU and not them. Love your dogs like people but treat them as dogs... they do not live like we do, you are either the boss or not. You arent the boss if your dog does not let the other dog eat and bites too.. your dog doesnt think she is alpha she is the alpha as far as behaviour and social status is concerned.

Answer 4

You should treat them equally. If you start the give the "alpha" dog less attention, she will most likely act out even worse just to get more attention. Dogs are weird like that. They think that being bad gets them attention...and it does, but not the kind of attention they are looking for...I would say, treat the alpha dog with more love and affection and see if that changes anything..

Answer 5

I know it's hard. I have two dogs that stay in the house. One goes to work with me every day and the other stays home. I try to spend more time with the one that stays home just for the fact she is alone all day. But my 'office' dog, she will let me know if she wants more attention. So I do try to be more equal. I believe dogs are sensitive to situations like this. I even think they show signs of being sad. So watch your alpha dog to see if she is behaving notty to get more attention. Good luck!!

Answer 6

Dogs have feelings too. And if anyone (human) thinks that a dog is incapable of thinking and retaining what it has learned or seen, I would like to give them a little advice I recieved from my father when I was young. YOU HAVE TO BE A LITTLE SMARTER THAN THE DOG. Neither of your dogs are actually the alpha omega. You are. The more you try to respect their habits and instints, the more they will try to respect you and trust your guidance. The only way any dog will learn to demonstrate good behavior patterns is if they are trained and shown praise repeatedly for their good behaviour. Thus, the dog with the more calm nature should be praised for being lucky enough to be born with this type of personality. Or perhaps you should thank God that you were lucky enough to have found the dog. However, by the same token, the dog with the undesireable personality trait can not be expected to solve it all by herself. Whenever my 2 bloodhounds (which are sisters) have a conflict over their food and I am there to see what is occurring, I simply tell the more aggressive one that she should be nice to her sister because Mommy (me) loves both of them and I want them to both have plenty to eat. Then I tell her to come and see me instead of fighting and that seems for the moment, to sound like a better idea to her, simply because she loves to have my attention more than she wants to bicker with her sister over food. And of coarse, her sister is happy because she can have something to eat. And then I tell them they are good and smart and I hug both of them. Now, if I happen to notice any conflict between them, I can just holler out the door and tell them that I want them to be nice to each other and that seems to be a sufficient solution to them. I think they are both looking for my love and praise more than their own self centered wants because they both have the respect for me that the true alpha omega of the pack deserves. But you can never forget that dogs have a definate set of instints that they have lived by for thousands of years. We as humans can not change that fact. We can only try to convince them with the proper care, love, respect, affection, and constructive, repetitive training to want to do the things that please us (the leader of the pack) and show us the respect that we can only earn through the hard work and effort that we must be willing to put into our pets. Although some dogs may be a little harder to train than others does not warrant treating it like an outcast. On the contrary, maybe those particular animals may just require a little more time and effort. It is all up to us to decide how much we are willing or able to give.

Answer 7

Doing that would only cause jealousy on the part of the other dog. You need to establish yourself as the alpha of the "pack" so that both dogs look up to you and you can make the rules.

The alpha mentality of dogs is part of their nature and the one who establishes that alpha rank is the leader. To set the alpha dog straight, you need to give that animal more training. Good training books can be found at your local library. Once trained well, both dogs will look to you for leadership and will accept your commands.

Answer 8

To a certain extent I think it is. Maybe the other dog will be smart enough to realize "oh hey, she acts better and gets treated better, maybe I need to be nicer." However, you might want to try the other dog harder. You don't want to make it feel left out or it will most likely worsen the problem. Think about it this way, when you feel neglected, do you feel like being nice?

Answer 9

First of all, you are the alpha and you need to make it clear to the second dog that you won't tolerate misbehavior. If she wants YOUR attention, she's gonna have to kowtow.

Correct her. If she keeps on thinking she's the alpha and the top dog, you will have other problems later on. She might even try to put a kid in its place.

Answer 10

its simple instead of saying whos the alpha dog blah blah, i know its true but both dogs become jealous, how would you like it if your best friend gave all of his/her attention to there best friend, you get jealous and hurt right? same situation, give them both equal love if one comes by your side while your petting the other you have 2 hands pet both!! hope that helps