just got a new female puppy, my 4 year old female dog attacks her every chance she gets, how do i stop this?

Question

i have a 5 year old male dog and a 4 year old female dog and i just brought a 2 month old female dog into the house... the older male is a rat terrior the older female is a small mix and the pup is a beagle. any time the pup gets near the food, or the older male or her (the older female) she flips out and attacks her (the pup)... i dont know what to do to get this to stop. i have to keep them apart and keep one in the room while the other is out. what do i do ?

Answer 1

You obviuosly do not have control. Dogs see us as other dogs. You need to be the pack leader.

Answer 2

I must admit I have just been through this and man is it scarey to see the dominant dog being the boss.

First off it all about introduction. How did you introduce them?

One good way now is to reintroduce them. Put them both on a lead and go to a neutral place outside of your property. Somewhere where the older dog does not regard as HIS.

Keep them apart as you are walking. This will take a little juggling one lead in each hand and make sure you keep them apart.

Once they are more settled after the little walk and on neutral territory let the introduction begin.

How? do dogs do this. Well first of all they smell each others bottoms. this is a good start. They need to know how each other smell. Then kind of keep them apart gently for a minute. Then relax and see what happens. One may try to mount the other. this is normal and part of the introduction be ok with it if it is going smoothly. No blushing when this happens ok.

they are establishing a dialogue and who is dominant. the puppy will soon roll over and display his belly and this is a doggy sign of submission. This is very good. He now knows his place.

The puppy now may crawl up to the other dog and lick him as another sign of I know you are boss.

It may lead to a little play time but don't bet on it.

Once the above happens go for another little walk and go home. Make sure the older dog gets his space. One way to do this and I use it. I put the puppy on a let that is attached to the wall. This way they only have a limited range. the older dog soon learns this and relaxes and gets used to the puppy.

You may have to do this for a while but I am sure you will have a good result if you persaver .

Answer 3

You need to prevent this from happening. Dogs just get better at behaviors they practice. The 'attacks' may indeed be serious and scary, or they may just to teach the pup boundaries. Either way if they continue they can make your pup scared or aggressive.

Keep them apart whenever there is something valuable to the dogs around (food, treats, toys). When they are together reward the female when the pup gets near her. If the female growls at the pup when she has something special (a toy, food, even you) take away whatever it is she is guarding. This is punishment enough. You want her to associate the pup's presence with good things, not with getting yelled at and punished. There are some good books on managing multi-dog households. You can do a search on dogwise at this site

www.fearfuldogs.com/books.html

Answer 4

Had the same problem with my four year old Pit when my grandson brought home an eight week old Pit puppy. If we tried to get th puppy close to the older Pit she would growl and snap at the pup. We had to keep a close watch and keep them apart. My grandson happened to come upon an episode of "The Dog Whisper" where Ceaser was teaching a dog to not want to attack a rabbit. My grandson used the technique on our older Pit and in less then an hour he had them getting along. They are best buddies now, the pup is six months now.
The way he did it was to take the older Pit and put her in a submissive position, on her back on the floor. Then he brought the pup close. If the older Pit growled or snapped he put his finger hard into her chest and said Shhhhh. It took less then an hour and the problem was solved. Like I said before they get along great now.

Answer 5

Return the puppy.

You already have a male and a female, and there is no third gender.

From your description your 4-years ****** is not temperamentally fit to be in a pack - she is what I call an uppity-beta, a pooch that wants to be the alpha-****** (= leader of the bitches) but doesn't know to go about it. That in itself is not unusual, although very difficult unless all other bitches in the pack are non-threatening gammas (natural followers, and submissive). She is also the reason that the word "******" has a pejorative second meaning.

What IS unusual is for a 2 months old pup (of either sex) to not be "untouchable", and to stay untouchable until its sex hormones start turning it into an adolescent & alter its natural odours.

Some possible reasons that come to mind:
● Mz 4y was an only pup and you took her before she was 7 weeks old, as a result of which she didn't learn "puppy language", which consists of a host of behaviours and postures to show that it accepts the warning from another pooch and submits to that pooch's authority/wishes.
● Mz 4y is a border-line psychotic.
● Mz 4y is smaller than Mz 2m and is "getting her defense in first".
● Mz 2m is an obnoxious hooligan - but if so I would expect Mr 5y to also be offended by her.
● Mz 2m is an orphan who didn't learn the proper submission postures - but again, that would probably get her into trouble with Mr 5y.

Whatever the reason, it is definite that YOU are not going to be able to raise Mz 4y with any other ******.
You are probably very attached to Mz 4y, which is why I said that the pup has to go. But logic says that it is the aggressive trouble-maker who needs to go. Whether "go to be an 'only' dog" or "go down" depends on her other behaviours (with people and with animals).

In an ideal household each pooch has a different "pet human" who has consistently trained it since Day 1. And so Mz 4y's owner would put her under control and Mz 2m's owner would put HER under control, and then the two bitches would find themselves having lots of short sessions being walked on-lead towards & away from each other and being sat facing each other at various distances, with praise & reprimands depending on what each does while walking & sitting. And once that "THIS is your god's will" concept has been established, each would have its own mat on which to lie or sit near its "god". But I deduce that this does not apply to your household.
Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_Friendly
"In GSDs" as of 1967

Answer 6

First I am going to assume she is not actually hurting the puppy. All yelping aside, if she wanted to hurt or kill the puppy she probably could, that is a different story. I assume you have not had to drag the older female off the puppy and rush it to the vet and have ears reattached or something.

I had the same thing happen to me. I am an avid Animal Planet, National Geographic etc watcher for years. We have a large Female black lab who was 4 when I brought home a female "mutt" puppy. We had rescued Cassie only 6 months before. She was suddenly VERY aggressive. Biting and nipping the puppy, Maya. Rolling her over on to her back, "herding" her, controlling her every move. Did not share anything, did not let Maya do anything, showed brutal domination. BUT she NEVER actually hurt her mind you. Oh Maya yelped and hollered like she was being killed.

Cassie was (and is) H.B.I.C. (Head B*tch In Charge). At least in the animal part of our family. I am the top of that food chain. If you watch wolf packs teach and raise their young you will see the exact same thing. They are brutally firm but they are fiercely devoted and loyal to the pack. Maybe it is living in Alaska for 27 years and being around that kind of stuff.

My husband and kids were in a panic! But I explained it and they watched her, convinced I was going to let this 85lb lab eat this new puppy. (They know me better but were not buying my story) I am no "Dog Whisperer" but I was/am comfortable enough with my animal experience to trust my gut. I knew Cassie well enough to know she was not a "mean dog". If Cassie wanted that puppy dead she was more than capable.

She was setting the ground rules when Maya was a puppy so she did not have to deal with a "teenage" dog that behaved badly or an adult dog that would challenge HER position in the pack. (H.B.I.C.) There is a reason the term B*tch is used in the context of referring to certain women. (Like myself, but I'm ok with that)

Maya is about a year and a half old now. Cassie still puts her in her place now and then. But pretty much Cassie has her trained pretty well.

Bottom line, it has to be like this because it has always been like this. This is 1000's of years of instinct. Supervise closely until you feel comfortable. But don't reprimand the older dog, she is doing her job.

This is all void if the older dog IS a "mean dog". If she rips holes in the puppy and "goes for the throat" then you need to take her to obedience class and reinforce to her that YOU, in fact are H.B.I.C.

Answer 7

You should try to keep them apart and supervise them when they are together. Its not fair your puppy should get hurt and if it gets serious you will need to think about rehoming one of them. Do this as a last option and try just limiting the time they spend together and improving the time each week in the meantime.