I'm living with my folks for a bit. I brought my dog (who grew up and is well acquainted with their dogs), but she has a habit of being 'bossy' when there is a high energy situation or we let them outside. She'll run up and softly bite at their faces while growling. It's gotten to where the other dogs don't want to go outside with her, because she tries to control them on the way out. And one dog (she's older/arthritic) doesn't react well, and then they get in a tussle where neither will let go of the other one, because my dog *will not back down.* Separating them is a task, and they are hard to calm down after (they have to be in separate rooms for awhile).
She's not generally super aggressive with other dogs. She does get huffy when we're walking and a strange dog acts excited or aggressively towards her, but I've let her smell/meet many dogs without any real issue. She will bark at people if they are approaching (pretty sure she is near-sighted, because as soon as they speak and she recognizes their voice, she just wants belly rubs), but she has never, ever hurt a person. She's even really patient with kids (although she would prefer to avoid them). She goes everywhere with me (work, camping, volunteering, etc.) and she has never had a major issue other than some anxiety when stationary in an unfamiliar place.
Just some background, she is an almost 3-year-old heeler. The other dogs are a 2-year-old heeler and two Australian shepherds who are approaching 10. She, the male aussie and the other heeler play often, though mostly the two heelers with the aussie barking at them. The female aussie doesn't like to move a whole lot due to the arthritis, and this is the dog she has the most confrontations with. The others will shy away from going outside if she is waiting for them.
How do I deal with this without putting more frantic energy into the situation? I tell her no, and she does 'soften' the approach a lot if I am there to do so, but that's not a great solution. I just don't know how to explain that she can't boss the other dogs around, and she isn't the rule maker of the pack.
Thanks
tl;dr My otherwise great dog will bully the other dogs of the household by running at and biting at their faces (not hard, but annoying), and she gets into conflicts with one of the other dogs every few weeks. I would like to break her of this habit.
[link] [comments]
from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/b9zxyu/my_dog_is_bullying_the_other_dogs/
No comments:
Post a Comment