We have 2 females and 3 males; 4 black labs and 1 german shepherd.
Rain is never good (and it's been raining), our floors get trashed in two minutes flat. I already have to vacuum every other day to keep the hair under control and rain brings in the mud. Well, to add to the chaos our two females have started fighting.
Lucky is originally my dog. She is probably 8 years old by now. (I never really knew, she was a rescue.) She is a full breed English Black Lab. Shorter and stockier than her American counter-parts. Her size and shape comes from being bred to pull nets out of the ocean and up the beach. It's a long story (which you can read here) but I found her with a broken leg, had her all fixed up and she's been my girl ever since. We've been through a lot together and she truly is my best friend.
Gretta is a full breed German Shepherd. She is about 4 years old. Gretta was the last piece in a nasty divorce. Her previous owners couldn't decide who got to have her so they went to the vet to have her put to sleep. Luckily one of my husband's friends worked at that vet clinic and told them that no one was going to put her to sleep and took her home. She knew my husband had lots of land and called and asked him if he could take her. So she became dog number 3 for my husband. Gretta is a wonderful dog but we all agree that she may have a screw loose. She is very hyperactive and a little bit of a handful from time to time. When she is quiet and calm she is very loving and sweet.
So. for the past two months or so Gretta has started picking on Lucky. When she gets really excited, ever since I've known her, she would put Mick's (the skinny black lab mix) head in her mouth. I always imagined her saying "oh my god, oh my god, I'm. just. so. excited!" Well now she makes a bee-line for Lucky and starts "dominating" her. She bites her (not hard) and forces her to the ground where she stands on top of her and bites her some more.
In the beginning It scared me so bad to see this and I would break up the fight however I could. Which usually meant throwing rocks at Gretta. So for the past couple weeks I have been trying to ignore them and let them do their dominance thing and it seemed like Gretta had won and everything was fine.
Until today.
I was walking back from the studio to the house when Gretta made a bee-line for Lucky. No big deal, I thought just ignore them. Well, this time Gretta was more aggressive than usual and Lucky started to cry. I yelled at her to stop but she wouldn't give it up so I ran inside and put the baby down. Ran back outside and Lucky was still crying only now Bob had joined in and had bit Lucky on the leg and was pulling on it. I lost it and started yelling at the two of them. As soon as I yelled at Bob he quit and backed away but Gretta wouldn't stop so I threw rocks at her again and as soon as she let go Lucky ran inside.
Based on the way Bob was acting I think he just got caught up in the moment and went a little too far but the fact that they wouldn't stop when she started crying worries me. What if I leave one day and come back to find her seriously hurt, or worse dead?
So for now they are separated.
Talk about an adrenaline rush...
I'm still recovering.
xo
2 comments:
I've recently started having our dog, Lucy, trained for her aggressive behavoir toward other dogs. I've been working with Tara, of trainingbytara.com. I think I remember that you're in Colorado (and we're in Texas), but you might email her and see if 1) she can offer any idea of what you might look for in a trainer in your area to help you or 2) perhaps give you some ideas of what to start doing. I know she's been awesome for me, and my dog has really improved. It just sounds like it might be good to do something like this since you're now worried and anxious (like I was everytime my dog was around other dogs). Hope this helps.
~Karen
Is it possible that your dogs are suffering from "odd man out syndrome?" Maybe you need to even the numbers out with another dog!!
Once we move there, maybe Cocoa can come play. He's going to need new friends too!
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