Bully Dog. Or who would have thought it.

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Bully Dog. Or who would have thought it.

Posted : 6/7/2006 12:40:52 PM

Wow,

So we adopt a new dog, 9 month old lab border collie mix that has only 3 legs (I think I talked about
Boo here before) and he's a little bully! Our other dog, a 2 1/2 year old female lab/pit mix is supposed to
be the alpha dog, she has been getting extra loving (if that's possible) and extra walks to make sure she
doesn't feel left out ever since we got BooBoo, and that little stinker is taking advantage! He steals her bones
and toys -she just walks away-sometimes when they are playing, she the one who yips because his teeth are
really sharp. He gets on the bed and won't let her on and she goes down the basement! We started to give
him more crate time and he barks and barks, He really doesn't like the crate. Unfortunatly, my husband has
let him start sleeping in our bed with us and the other dog and now he doesn't want any part of the crate.
We put him in the crate when we go somewhere, the only place Mocha can go to get away from him is the
basment-he can't get down the stairs with only 3 legs and I don't want to encourage him to do so. Any hints
on how to make him not so much of a bully? I know Mocha could take his head off, but it's like she either
understands that he's...handicapped? or just doesn't want to bother but I want her to understand that she is
the dominant dog.
Pam

Pam

brookcove

Posted : 6/7/2006 3:24:50 PM

Dominance in dogs is all about the right to claim valued resources. Value is in the eye of the beholder, however. I have a very dominant bitch here that cares nothing about food. She'll let any dog, even a puppy, take food from her. She values personal space and the correlative resource, physical rank through doors and proximity to me. I have a very dominant male that is very serious about food but gives up toys with no problem, and a even a pup can stumble over him with no problem.

You know when your dog is dominant, however, when THEY are the ones that set the rules. Maggie has the right to object to anything anytime in my pack because she is top dog. She WILL occaisionally warn a dog off her food and that is the difference between her and the lower ranking dog that normally steals the food. She has the freedom to put her paw down anytime.

If your female really isn't dominant, you should just let them work it out, and not try to force the issue. There is, however, a possibility that the BC mix is a social climber - an inept one. These dogs are insecure in their social place, but don't have the confidence to enforce a truly dominant place in the pack. They will constantly harrass the other dogs and are troublemakers.

Patricia McConnell has a great book on integrating new dogs into a household and managing the multiple dog household. There's another one called Who Moved My Bone which I've heard is great, too.