G
Guest
·My friend Von has a beagle that has suddenly been very aggressive to the other dogs she owns...I told her some of the ideas here...this is what she found, and I am passing it to you all, it is very interesting!!
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We've been reading everything we could get our hands on and even bought a dvd of the Dog Whisperer and while they gave a bit of insight, they sure didn't give any direction. This guy did.
He was very calming and explained everything so clearly. He gave us very good direction and things we can put into practice.
He said that like it or not a 2 year old strong-willed beagle is going to be the alpha dog over a 13 year old laid back lab mix so what we need to do is help that along.
We are to give Stella first attention, feed Stella first, etc. and make it clear to the other dogs that we believe Stella to be the alpha dog. That was not at all in my head to do that. I was giving Socks extra attention because she has been the recipient of several butt-kickings, but the way he explained it we were only making things worse by doing that because that told Socks not to surrender and for Stella to try harder.
We are not to allow the dogs on the bed any longer. Socks doesn't sleep on the bed, but Stella and Bagel do. The dr said that height is power so even if Socks doesn't sleep on the bed, Stella is claiming power by being above her. To further show that we believe that Stella is the alpha dog, she can stay in the bedroom, but now in her kennel. Socks and Bagel have to stay outside of the bedroom. We've put two dog beds in the hall just outside our bedroom door. And of course there's a new gate because they'd come in within 30 seconds of us telling them to stay in the hallway because they've never not been in the room with us.
Oh, the same goes for the livingroom furniture. These guys have always had the run of the furniture, but not now.
Stella and Bagel play non-stop with squeeky furry toys. Those toys are now in a basket and put up. They only get to play with them for a few minutes and only when the dogs can see us giving the toys to them. In a few minutes we pick the toys up. This, like the other things, is to show that WE are in charge.
Another thing we're to do is to put a 5' leash on Socks and Stella when we're home and leave the leashes on them. This gives us something to grab if they fight. He said that every now and then we should grab the leash and tell them to 'come' or 'sit' or any command we want. Again, to show that WE are in charge.
Lots of things, but they all boil down to showing all the dogs that Stella is the top dog. It's not that we do anything TO them, we just do whatever we're doing to Stella first.
This dr. was really good and I liked him and like other things, liking the person giving you instructions makes a huge difference (or at least it does to me). He said we could call him anytime we find ourselves struggling and that he'd call back in two weeks to check on things.
I'm not sure who's learning (or struggling) more... the dogs or us.
**************************************************
We've been reading everything we could get our hands on and even bought a dvd of the Dog Whisperer and while they gave a bit of insight, they sure didn't give any direction. This guy did.
He was very calming and explained everything so clearly. He gave us very good direction and things we can put into practice.
He said that like it or not a 2 year old strong-willed beagle is going to be the alpha dog over a 13 year old laid back lab mix so what we need to do is help that along.
We are to give Stella first attention, feed Stella first, etc. and make it clear to the other dogs that we believe Stella to be the alpha dog. That was not at all in my head to do that. I was giving Socks extra attention because she has been the recipient of several butt-kickings, but the way he explained it we were only making things worse by doing that because that told Socks not to surrender and for Stella to try harder.
We are not to allow the dogs on the bed any longer. Socks doesn't sleep on the bed, but Stella and Bagel do. The dr said that height is power so even if Socks doesn't sleep on the bed, Stella is claiming power by being above her. To further show that we believe that Stella is the alpha dog, she can stay in the bedroom, but now in her kennel. Socks and Bagel have to stay outside of the bedroom. We've put two dog beds in the hall just outside our bedroom door. And of course there's a new gate because they'd come in within 30 seconds of us telling them to stay in the hallway because they've never not been in the room with us.
Oh, the same goes for the livingroom furniture. These guys have always had the run of the furniture, but not now.
Stella and Bagel play non-stop with squeeky furry toys. Those toys are now in a basket and put up. They only get to play with them for a few minutes and only when the dogs can see us giving the toys to them. In a few minutes we pick the toys up. This, like the other things, is to show that WE are in charge.
Another thing we're to do is to put a 5' leash on Socks and Stella when we're home and leave the leashes on them. This gives us something to grab if they fight. He said that every now and then we should grab the leash and tell them to 'come' or 'sit' or any command we want. Again, to show that WE are in charge.
Lots of things, but they all boil down to showing all the dogs that Stella is the top dog. It's not that we do anything TO them, we just do whatever we're doing to Stella first.
This dr. was really good and I liked him and like other things, liking the person giving you instructions makes a huge difference (or at least it does to me). He said we could call him anytime we find ourselves struggling and that he'd call back in two weeks to check on things.
I'm not sure who's learning (or struggling) more... the dogs or us.