[vb3]

Ever since we adopted Layla (~ 2 months ago), Rosco has been incredibly jealous. If Layla is getting attention (petting, laying on someone's lap, spoken to), he has to come over and shove himself into the mix. He will jump on her back, plow into her, gnaw at her ears, etc. When we buy chew bones or rawhides, there is a "good" bone and a "bad" bone. The good one is the one Layla has, even if it is a different bone every few minutes. He will lay at her feet and whimper/bark at her until we tell him to stop, and then he will wander around, moping. Layla, for her part, is bigger than Rosco and can usually push him around, so he might also be feeling a bit lower on the totem pole now.

They get along really well - they fight and play and tear around with each other, and they sleep next to each other when things are quiet. The only time there is any aggression at all is ocassionally over a bone. Layla was very possessive of chew bones when we first got her and she would nip at us when we or Rosco tried to take them, but we have always corrected her by taking away the bone. She seems to be better now and not aggressive with us, but every so often she and Rosco will have a tiff over a bone or a toy. I'm less concerned about these events because they are not out unsupervised, and we can monitor them when they flare up and correct them.

What I was wondering is if there is any kind of training I can do besides telling Rosco to stop being jealous. If I can reinforce the idea that he shouldn't behave this way with some other technique I would like to. They both get a ton of attention, I think he is just kind of a spoiled dog (he's my first, and I definitely babied him). So, any suggestions?

 

[FloppyToby]

that sounds just like toby and hank. when we got toby, he was the only dog in the house because hank was living with my mom. so when hank came back to live with us, toby got jealous. he always goes after the toy in hanks mouth, tries to eat hanks food, take the bone hank has even though they both have the exact same one. he's gotten especially jealous since hank had his surgery and has been getting a lot of attention. i just try and give them equal attention.

 

[Basset Mamma x's 4]

I'm glad you asked that question, because we kind of have a similar issue. When we hand out treats, they can be the exact same size, type, flavor, etc, but Daisy will always want what everyone else has instead of what she has been given. She will go and sit beside another dog (with what you call the 'good' treat) and proceed to make a spectacle of herself by whimpering, flopping over on her side, twit-twit-twitting her tail, sniffing at the other dog, nudging at them with her nose - it's really a bit comical. Except that she annoys the heck out of the other dogs...to the point they snap at her or abandon their treat altogether. It also happens with their toys, and their comfy dog beds. I read somewhere that this is an evolutionary trait called obnoxious submissiveness, but don't have a clue how to handle it. Please help!

 

[vb3]

Treats aren't so bad. Rosco knows a ton more tricks than Layla and I can usually distract him from her treats by making him go through his routine while she eats hers.

 

[Mom2Flash]

Sounds like a lot of bassets have the same behavior. Flash does the exact same thing with our 10 year old Lab. Flash will not "allow" Oscar to have anything in his mouth. If he's carrying a ball, toy, stick, or whatever. Flash constantly jumps at his mouth and tries to steal it or make him drop it. Once Flash gets it, he takes about 4 steps and drops it. He doesn't seem to want the toy, he just doesn't want Oscar to have it.
I keep thinking Oscar will get a little aggressive with him, just to tell him to back off but he never does. When Flash was a pup, I used to scold Oscar when he was too rough with him, so now I'm assuming he thinks he'll be in trouble if he's aggressive with him.
Sometimes I just have to put Flash in his kennel so Oscar can have 15 minutes to eat a bone in peace. Even if I give them each one, Flash will discard his to go after Oscars. Same for petting. If i'm petting Oscar, Flash always tries to get between us and get some attention. Seems my Flash has it all........jealousy, bullying, and spoiled brat syndrome!

 

[Mikey T]

Ever since we adopted Layla (~ 2 months ago), Rosco has been incredibly jealous. If Layla is getting attention (petting, laying on someone's lap, spoken to), he has to come over and shove himself into the mix. He will jump on her back, plow into her, gnaw at her ears, etc

First of you do not know the emotional reason for the behavior so calling it jealousy add so much negative conotation that it makes correcting the behavior unlikely. The most insidious part blaming an emotional response on the part of the dog as the problem jealousy, spite etc it exonerates you for the part of the behavior that is learned and unintentionally rewarded which is the far more likely cause. Even though we can never really know the cause approaching it a a behavior problem that can trained allows us to fix it, Trying to use phsycoanlysis on a dog to change its emotional response has never been effect.

Let us take the first behavior,

butting in when another is being petted. What actual happens is the dog is reward for this push obnoxious behavior by getting petted and attention as well. What the dog learn that the best time to get petted or attention is when another dog is. So is this jeolousy or a learned behavior?

Solution is to stop reward rude and obnoxious behavior. Also practice a policy of defference. That is the dog that is sitting quitely is the one that gets the attention not the one rushing to you. It is admittedly hard to too because it is contrary to human nature but it goes along way to creating a peaceful household,

Some ideas on how to stop rewarding the behavior are in the links below
"You Won the Prize!"

He will lay at her feet and whimper/bark at her until we tell him to stop,

He will only continue to do this if it works at least some times. When a behavior is not rewarded over time it will extingush but not often without a extinction burst in which the behavior become stronger and more annoying. Most think when this happens that ignoring the behavior is actual making the behavior worse, which is true to some extent but it also part of the process of of eliminating the behavior as well.

But because of the extinction burst, it is general diffcult to actual stop a obnoxious behavior simply by ignoring it. What general works better is train and then reward consistently an alternate behavior that is inconsistent with the unwanted behavior.
such as teach the dog a specific place to get petted, or to sit quitely to get petted. Keep in mind that this new behavior must be taught to the dog first in a low distraction i.e. no other dogs around before you add aditional distraction and excitement level.
Stopping Negative Behavior Positively,

i just try and give them equal attention

While this might play well for a humans sense of justice with rarely works because each dogs have varying levels of need. Theaching each equally only insures that so of the unique need of each dog go unfullfilled.

 

[Mikey T]

She will go and sit beside another dog (with what you call the 'good' treat) and proceed to make a spectacle of herself by whimpering, flopping over on her side, twit-twit-twitting her tail, sniffing at the other dog, nudging at them with her nose - it's really a bit comical. Except that she annoys the heck out of the other dogs...to the point they snap at her or abandon their treat altogether. It also happens with their toys, and their comfy dog beds

See WHY NOT TAKE CANDY FROM A BABY? (If he lets you!)
Examines manipulation as part of social life, and the dog's need for clear boundaries & leadership.

now if you want to stop sthe behavior here is one approach.

working with each dog seperately theach each of them an indivdual spot the they are to go to get a reward, be fed etc. You can start this with quickly consumed treated at first and move on to longer term ones like bone. When using longer term one reward the dog often with an additional treat at first when they remain in their spot with the bone. If the move return then to their spot but don't reward. Quickly the dogs will learn the benefits in stay in their spot. One the dogs have learned this then you can sart doing this with two dogs at the same time or even multiple dogs they get an extra treat for staying in place while a dog that move get none but is also move back to their spot.

 

[Mikey T]

If he's carrying a ball, toy, stick, or whatever. Flash constantly jumps at his mouth and tries to steal it or make him drop it. Once Flash gets it, he takes about 4 steps and drops it. He doesn't seem to want the toy, he just doesn't want Oscar to have it.
I keep thinking Oscar will get a little aggressive with him, just to tell him to back off but he never does.

you are projection human motications on to a dog. It is also likely this is just play. Much as dogs play chase, they also engage in keep away and/or take it.

with take it one the dog gains possesion the game is over hence no reason to continue. I knoe with mine in such games that are certain ones in a game of chase that are never the rabbit. etc each dogs will have there individual preferrences and dogs in general are very good at acoomidiating each other so each can be highly satisfied in any social setting.
while not an easy read check out The Social Organization of the Domestic Dog:
A Longitudinal Study of Domestic Canine Behavior and the Ontogeny of Canine Social Systems

starting systems at chaos and observing whether the model predicted the evolution of each new system. The study shows that domestic canine social groups must be viewed as complex autopoietic systems, whose primary systemic behavior is to gravitate as quickly as possible to a stable division of the fitness landscape so that each animal present is sitting on a fitness hill unchallenged by other group members. Aggression is not used in the division of the fitness landscape. It is not possible for an observer to measure the height of respective hills. There is no hierarchy between or among the animals. The organization of the system is based on binary relationships, which are converted by the agents as quickly as possible from competitive to complementary or cooperative binaries, through the creation of domains of consensus. The production processes by which this is done are twofold. The first is an elegant and clear, but learned, system of communicative gestures which enables the animals to orient themselves adequately to each other and emit appropriate responses in order to maintain or restore the stability of their fitness hills and the larger social landscape. The second is learning. It is the learning history of each animal, which determines how adequately the animal can operate within the system and what the components of its individual fitness hill will be, and which, in the end, is more crucial to the animal’s survival than even presumed genetic factors or some human-constructed “dominance” position

There is usually a much simpler explaination for a dogs behavior than jealousy. often it is a learned response that has been unintentional rewards or simply Anthropomorphizing by the owner ( applying human trait to a non-human) when a simplier explaination exists. I am not sugestting dogs are not emotional nor that the arn't capable of being jealous [url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97944783]Dogs Understand Fairness, Get Jealous, Study Finds but rather whey we apply these emotions to dogs as motivation for a behavior that we do not like bad things happen.
from Why Can't a Dog Be More Like a Dog?

Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, when the dog-owner relationship starts to go awry, the owner's anthropomorphism tends to assume a nasty negative hue and now bad human characteristics are attributed to dogs, in fact particularly pernicious human characteristics. Dogs are frequently accused of being spiteful, vindictive and vicious. Rather than even considering our 'poor learner' might actually have a poor trainer who never effectively taught the dog what was expected, most owners insist the dog misbehaved on purpose.

...Assuming dogs have an human appetite for spite and revenge is a convenient excuse for the dog's obvious lack of elementary education. A flagrant advertisement that the owner neglected to teach the dog where to eliminate, what to chew, where to dig, when and for how long to bark, and when and upon whom to jump-up. It is conveniently simpler to blame the dog than train it. Personally I would never insult a dog by even suggesting it has fallen foul of these especially execrable and exclusively human foibles - spite, revenge and viciousness. Whoa! So, a lot of you disagree. But of course we disagree - this is a moot point: None of us will ever know for certain what a dog is thinking, what are its motives, or why it does what it does. What we do know however, is what the dog did. And if for example the dog soiled the house, let's just housetrain the dog and then the owner will no longer be annoyed, the dog will no longer be punished but instead, it can be happily reintegrated into household living and therefore, will no longer be chewing, digging and barking whilst in solitary confinement in the garden. (Or, if you prefer your interpretation, the dog will no longer have any reason to exact revenge.) And once owner and newly-housetrained dog are living in harmony,

The biggest problem with attributing emotions to a dogs behavior is that in the end it becomes a road block for addressing the behavior. There is no easy way to fix an emotion one can fix a behavior rather easily. As I have done above adressed each behavior seperately their are ways to adresses each in a individual and effective manner. When we lump all the behavior together as Jealousy there is now way to begin to address such diverse behaviors. It is much easier and effecient to take a behaviorist approach to learning etc with animals then a psycological approach. While this is general less satisifing to humans which are always on a quest to understand how others think, When knowing this is impossible it is better and easier to find a approach that works regardless of why part of the equation.

for more on behaviorist learning theory see

Learning Theory 101

How Dog Training Works

Clicking With Canines
From Your Dog's Point of View
With a great example of unintentional rewarding of a behavior

The best real life example of this occurs frequently in the fall and early winter when the weather turns rough and limits the amount of time owners spend with their dogs taking them out to go potty. Before bad weather, the owner would take a walk with their dog after it does its business and before going back inside. Then it gets snowy and cold. As soon as the dog does its business, the owner wisks the dog inside.

After a few days of this, the owner starts to notice that it is taking Fido longer and longer to do his business. A five minute wait becomes a fifteen minute wait. Then on one particularly nasty weather night, the owner becomes frustrated after waiting with the dog for 20 minutes and comes inside with the dog, figuring it doesn't have to go. Then, to the dismay of the owner, the dog immediately does his business on the living room rug.

What has happened? Has the dog forgot its housetraining? No! Instead, COSEQUENCES DETERMINE BEHAVIOR... The dog has been taught, albeit unwittingly, by the owner that the CONSEQUENCE of going potty outside is: THE END OF OUTSIDE ACTIVITY. So the dog modified its behavior and waited longer and longer before going potty. Then, once inside, the dog said: "Gee I've got to go to the bathroom awfully bad," and an "accident" occurs. But it really wasn't an accident. The dog was taught to hold its bladder in order to gain the reward of being outside. Very clever, these dogs!!!

 

[Basset Mamma x's 4]

working with each dog seperately theach each of them an indivdual spot the they are to go to get a reward, be fed etc.

You know, they all have seperate corners of the kitchen where they are fed their wet food/kibble mix in the morning - we never have any trouble with Ms. Drama Queen Daisy Duke during meal time. Is it the same principal?

How about when she annoys her siblings to death until they abandon their doggy bed for her? Is there a way we should be intervening? (We are guilty of laughing sometimes - I know that we often misinterpret the intent of canine behavior, but I swear it really looks like the other dogs literally sigh, roll their eyes, and surrender their bed in disgust to their annoying little sister...)

 

[Mikey T]

You know, they all have separate corners of the kitchen where they are fed their wet food/kibble mix in the morning - we never have any trouble with Ms. Drama Queen Daisy Duke during meal time. Is it the same principal?

Exactly if the already have predetermined spot for meal time I would further reinforce this with treat dispensing. On a side this usually result is the dogs getting to their spots even quicker during meal time because the behavior is more ingrained.

How about when she annoys her siblings to death until they abandon their doggy bed for her? Is there a way we should be intervening?

When to intervene is a particular individual choice. I generally do not intervene in dog v dog disputes unless I believe one is eminent danger of being injured. That does not mean that it is the right approach. If her behavior is annoying to you then you should intervene but you must do so consistently but as said before intervention is not likely to stop the behavior. Because the behavior will also occur when you are not around and be reinforced, when one of the other dogs moves. So the only way to stop the behavior it to train a more rewarding alternative behavior.
Keep in mind this may not involve daisy but all the other dogs. But keep ithe biggest reason the behavior continues is because the other dog are willing to reward Daisy for her behavior. My point of view generally is if the dogs do not have a problem with it , then should You? If however there annoyance some times involves more aggressive act to drive her off and you are concerned about it possible escalating to the point one get hurt then certainly intervene,


The same can be done with dog bed etc as above with dog treets dog get rewarded for being on their own particular bed and only on their bed The are also not allowed on other beds and will be move if found there.


Keep in mind most basset have other even more deceitful and manipulative tactics to getting a desired spot. The classic is the false alarm bark. That is dog use an alarm bark and runs to a spot IE. window, outdoors, etc like they normal do but there is nothing to be excited about. When the other dogs respond by getting up to see whats up the Original barker slips into the desired spot. In dog society possession is way more than 9/10 of the law. Keep in mind such manipulation is a normal and necessary part of any society human or other animal.


How old is daisy? if less than 6 months part of the reaction of the other dogs could be puppy liciense, ie she gets away with thing they would not tollerate in an adult. This liciense gets revoked during puberty when hormone level in the pup increase,

Puppy License

The Puppy and the Young Dog - About Growing Up

 

[Basset Mamma x's 4]

How old is daisy? if less than 6 months part of the reaction of the other dogs could be puppy liciense, ie she gets away with thing they would not tollerate in an adult. This liciense gets revoked during puberty when hormone level in the pup increase,

Hah! Daisy will be five years old in October, but she's such a goober that sometimes we forget she's that old. Seems more like she should still be six months old.

I read that article you linked us up with, "Why not take candy from a baby?" - That's Daisy! Except that she's not aggressive like 'Buffy', she doesn't flash her teeth or snarl or growl - she just whimpers, flops around, looking ridiculous, until she achieves her goal. Definitely what the author calls a learned behavior, reinforced by reward.

I'll have to keep my eyes open for the 'false alarm bark' - all of the dogs are easily riled up, and since we live in the country, a majority of the commotion is usually initiated by squirrels, raccoons, oppossums, coyotes, etc. But we'll have to see if Daisy is the only basset miraculously snuggled back into one of the comfy beds while the rest of the hounds defend their home by howling at the door...