as most of you know, tyler & i have 3 dogs; brewsky, bailey, & benson. if you didn't know that, check out my first post "must love dogs" to see them and learn more about them :)
benson is our newest addition, and hasn't been well-received by bailey. she was okay with him for the first few weeks but once she realized he was here to stay she made it known she was not a happy camper. she & benson have had about 3-5 "encounters". right after christmas she became aggressive towards him. she would attack him, unprovoked, and shake him like a rag doll. i never witnessed it (thank god). it always seemed to happen when my dad & tyler were around which is a blessing in disguise because they are the only 2 strong enough to make her let benson go. tyler talked to a parent of a child he gives lessons to who is a dog trainer. he told us that female dogs, especially ones who have never had a litter and are spayed don't have much tolerance for puppies. he said it would take some time for her to adjust and in the mean time, try to keep them seperated when they're inside (this is when we would have problems, they're fine outside), reward her when she interacted with benson appropriately, and punish benson if he tried to pester her. we did just that, and it seems to have worked. she & benson get along fine now; they even play on occassion. she plays very gently with him and now walks away if she doesn't want to play instead of attacking him. they cuddle every evening and she licks his head and ears. its kinda cute :) (in case you were wondering, benson is perfectly healthy and has no scars or issues from his encounters with bailey)
BUT euphoria can't last forever... bailey's aggression has a new target, brewsky. we've had brew & bailey for 4 years, and they are the same age. we have never had a problem with the two of them not getting along.. EVER! bailey seems to have developed a food aggression. ever since brew was a puppy he would eat at his leisure, never rushing to eat just because there was food in the bowl. bailey is the complete opposite. brew likes to lay in front of his bowl whether its full or empty. this seems to have struck a nerve with bailey lately because that is where he has been both times she has attacked him.
the first time she attacked him was march 31st. he was laying in front of his food bowl, she walked over to him, stood over top of him, growled, he never moved a muscle, and she attacked him. unfortunately, neither my dad or tyler were home and my brother didn't hear me yelling for him so i had to break up a dog fight between 2 80lbs+ dogs all by myself. it wasn't pretty. i ended up with more injuries than the dogs (neither of them had a single mark on them).
the second time she attacked him was thursday. same EXACT scenario. only this time i realized what was about to happen so i grabbed benson, shut him in my bedroom, and started screaming for cole. thankfully he heard me this time. i threw water on them (quite a few people told me to try this when dogs fight).. it might have worked had i not soaked brew's back and cole. OOPS! lol cole helped me pull them apart and he took bailey outside. this time, no injuries to any humans were sustained.. except for my nervous breakdown afterwards. brew & bailey each have 1 puncture wound; brew's is in his right "armpit" and bailey's is in between her two front legs. they're both fine. they licked their own wounds and they're starting to heal.
i've contacted dozens and dozens of dog professionals to see if they can help, most of them being owners of obedience schools. none of them have dealt with this time of situation and don't know how to handle it. i FINALLY found a dog behaviorist in ironton, ohio BUT she is unable to help us until august because she had surgery. i'm not comfortable waiting until then to do anything about the situation.. so at bailey's regular check up this morning i told our vet about the situation and he is going to do some research on different medications to help her aggression.. think puppy prozac. i'm not 100% comfortable with the idea of putting her on medication but i will consider it after looking at the pros & cons and discussing the possible side effects with the vet. i wouldn't be using this as a permanent solution, just a helping hand until we can see the dog behaviorist. if anyone can recommend any time of dog professional that might be able to help us, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! shoot me an email (jseaton61@aol.com) with their info.
also, at bailey's vet visit we discovered little miss heffer is a whopping 86.1 lbs. i walk in barboursville 3-4 times a week and bailey will now be my new walking partner to get her some exercise. along with cutting back on her food intake. this will hopefully benefit her in 2 ways; lose weight & make her less aggressive. i watch the dog whisperer a lot and the first thing he always recommends to owners with aggressive dogs is more exercise. it helps them burn off their extra excitable enery and puts them in a more calm and submissive state which in return, makes them more receptive to training and discipline. so we're going to give that a try...
here are a few pictures of my injuries... beware: these are gross and not recommended for those with a weak stomach.
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