the dovells

HELP!!
I have 2 gorgeous 16 month old bassets, Archie & George. They are brothers and always spent lots of time together. Unfortunatly george came to live with us about 5 months ago due to my mum dying and all has been well up untill about 2 weeks ago when George has now took an occasional disliking to Archie. At first I thought it was a food issue, so I started splitting them up when they eat but its getting worse. Now archie only has to walk past and George has a go at him for no aparrent reason. Nothing has changed they have the same routine as before and are both treat the same, they still play fight and get a little bit rough with one another but this is something else when it happens!!! so far neither has been hurt luckly but i just dont know how to help came this behavior down. neither of the boys have neutered, but could this help? I really am getting worried as to what to do for the well being of both of them. Can anyone help please?

MollyMcFrecklesMom

I'm not a behavior expert, but there are several people on this board such as Soundtrack and MikeyT who I am sure will be along with excellent advice.

I have a 9 month old male and when he was getting to be about 5 months, he started getting grumpy and aggressive. He was neutered at 6 months and he's better now. This is probably due to the neutering and his growing up a bit. So, it's possible that the fact that they aren't neutered plays some role. How much, I do not know.

Anyway, welcome to the forum and good luck with the boys. Post pics if you can...we all love to look at the hounds

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Michelle - proudly owned by Molly (21 mos) and Winston (14 months).

Molly McFreckles' World:
The adventures of a Basset Hound living with Addison's Disease and a baby brother named Winston

Mikey T

Before you said anything I was thingking to myself it sounds like two intact males.

Nuetering is quite likely to solve the problem. The one aggression issue that nuetering is well know to help is same sex aggression, the thing is it even after nuetering it takes time for the sex hormones to deminish so you may need to keep the boy seperated for a while. Many a breeder with more than one intact male need to keep them seperated.

Soundtrack

Are they neutered? Male/male aggression is one of the few behaviors that neutering does improve.

First have the vet check to make sure there are no medical issues. They're adolescents and feeling each other out, working out the pecking order. As long as they're not injuring each other I think I'd let them work it out.

Littermate males are the most likely to have problems like this, because they are more evenly matched in size and maturity. When there is a clear leader from the start (usually the older dog) there is less chance of conflict.

And yes, I do keep my two (intact) males separate.

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Mikey T

The reason it may be getting worse is how you handle the situation after word.

Form what you have written george is the agressor and artchie is totally blameless. Keep in mind it takes twqo dogs to fight, unless one is psychotic. That is one could back down and the fight would never happen.

Keep in mind with any dog fight thing happen faster than we humans relize there is much a prelude and bulidup but it can all take just fractions of a second. Thring to pick the aggressor in a dog fight is like trying to pick the aggressior in a sippling "he's poking me contest" you might be able to do so for a specific momentent in time but in the end they are equal contributer. so Punishing one dog etc tend to back fire. Also if you do manage to punish the aggressor often what happen is the dog does not associate the punishemet with its own pehavior but rather the appearance of the other dog. So if For instance George was puinished for acting aggressively toward archie rather than think hey I need to change my behavior to prevent that from happening again they think anytime archie gets close to me I get punished I need to keep him farther away and so the sart acting soon and sooner.

so if You decide to use anyform a punishment for the behavior you want to do so to both dog and general best in each other present such as a time out where each is lying down in realitive preesence of one another. It also lets the dog know it is not the mere presence of the other dog that is the cause of the punishment/

A big problem in using punishment in aggressive behavioral issues is it often makes things worse.

Evaluating the Effect of Nuetering on reducing dog aggression

I debated heavy on adding this link because of some serious factual error the biggest being that nuetering early is more likely to solve sex hormmone related behavioral problems where studies on this have shown benefit to nuetering befor a proplem occurs as bieng more effect than after.

Nuetering Male Dogs

Tean Angst & things to know about your adolescent dog
Behavioral Problems of Unneutered Male Dogs

Soundtrack

True, when Sally and Lucy used to scrap, it would appear that Sally was the aggressor because she was the one that would start the actual attack, but in reality it was Lucy who was posturing and challenging Sally.

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Vina-Ch Soundtrack Grand Illusion
Leila-Ch Soundtrack Almost Paradise
Deela-Ch Soundtrack Wink Of An Eye
Hermione - Soundtrack Spellbound
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Mikey T

Bassets being the supreme manipulators that they are if they find something that will get the dog they don't like in trouble they will geep doing it the punishment of the other dog is enough reward for them

houndmomma

How true. You’ve seen how vocal Lucy could be. She is the ultimate tattle. Before I replaced all the garbage cans on the rare occasion that Flash would go into the garbage Lucy would sit and bark nonstop till I would go into the room to see what was going on. And if I didn’t know better she would smile when Flash got caught as if to say hahaha – you go CAUGHT!!!!

Jen~

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Mikey T

al because flash did let lucy have first dibs one time she knocked the can over.

the dovells

thanks for all the advise its all been really helpful. weve now started seperating the boys when they eat as this seems to be when they start fighting and so far it does seem to be working. Thanks again and I will get some pics put on of my 2 wonderful boys. Also It is very true Mikey T, it does seem that Archie is very good of trying to get his brother in trouble although im getting wise to his antics.

They are currently tucked up together on there beds for the night.