Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am new to this board and in need of some advice. I currently have a 8 yr old english pointer, female. We had a male lab who died and we have tried to replace him with another lab. The lab that we got from a rescue league has been nothing like they described him to be. The lab is a lab/pointer mix and is 6 yrs old. Our female pointer and the lab dont seem to be getting along. We have had the lab for about 4 weeks now and in the begining there were full blown dog fights all the time. The female has established that she is the alpha dog. They now get along most of the time and at times play together. The lab is constantly licking the pointers mouth and bowing in submission, but he never leaves her alone. She will snap at him when she has had enough and I do try to discourage this. Is this normal and will it ever stop?

The agression problems seem to revolve around food and toys. They do get fed in seperate areas and they do get plenty of toys etc.. they just seem to want the one that the other has. This often results in a fight of some sort. I am not sure what to do. The male lab is now in obedience school and is doing very well but the aggression is still there. They have only been together for a few weeks and they have come a long way but If this is not a fixable issue than I am wondering if I should find a home for the male lab. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of situation. Can I make it go away and if so how? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks

IT sounds like classes for the new dog is a good idea. There's a book called "Feeling Outnumbered' that I would recommend. It gives advice for multi dog households.

I personally handle both my dogs with the rule of, "If you can't play with it nice, don't play with it at all." If there are fights over a toy, then neither get the toy or they need to be seperated to get that item. 4 weeks isn't a huge amount of time for 2 dogs to get to know each other. Patience and some training will help you out.
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PHReign
Email me: HReign@pethobbyist.com">PHReign@pethobbyist.com
Dear dog,
I can not buy anything larger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think that I will continue to sleep on the couch to ensure your comfort. Look at videos of dogs sleeping, they can actually curl up in a ball. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to your fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straigt out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space used is nothing more than doggy sarcasm.

>>I am new to this board and in need of some advice. I currently have a 8 yr old english pointer, female. We had a male lab who died and we have tried to replace him with another lab. The lab that we got from a rescue league has been nothing like they described him to be. The lab is a lab/pointer mix and is 6 yrs old. Our female pointer and the lab dont seem to be getting along. We have had the lab for about 4 weeks now and in the begining there were full blown dog fights all the time. The female has established that she is the alpha dog. They now get along most of the time and at times play together. The lab is constantly licking the pointers mouth and bowing in submission, but he never leaves her alone. She will snap at him when she has had enough and I do try to discourage this. Is this normal and will it ever stop?
>>
>>The agression problems seem to revolve around food and toys. They do get fed in seperate areas and they do get plenty of toys etc.. they just seem to want the one that the other has. This often results in a fight of some sort. I am not sure what to do. The male lab is now in obedience school and is doing very well but the aggression is still there. They have only been together for a few weeks and they have come a long way but If this is not a fixable issue than I am wondering if I should find a home for the male lab. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of situation. Can I make it go away and if so how? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks

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I recommend always keeping dogs apart when they eat--they should not ever have to worry about another dog taking their food. Your other dogs may have gotten along well over food, but that was good luck. Fighting over food is normal. It may be that you only need to separate these dogs for food and for toys they consider to be high value. You should do this with any two dogs, even if they never show any aggression over food. It's not worth risking that such aggression will start. Dogs of the same sex have other reasons for fighting, but if you handle food and toys properly, opposite sex dogs will usually get along. This relationship may be fixable with a change in management of the dogs.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

Your situation is going accordingly.

You had another canine that was with your Pointer and has since passed. Getting a new dog is a rough transition for all 3; you, your Pointer and your new dog.

Now for someone to say, in a training & obedience forum, to seek professional assistance is pretty ludacris to me. That is why this forum was created. So we trainers, that truly care about these dogs and their relation to their Alphas (owners, kids, siblings, etc) ,can shed a little light on the subject to allow the owner a chance to correct the problem before spending OUTRAGEOUS money on training and behavior modification.

Some others may have different agendas. I have not. That is why I am here, to help. Although I maintain a successful training and behavior modification practice I do not mind helping those in need. I have done this my entire career.

My advice:

* Allow them to get used to one another. Sometimes it takes 2 hours, sometimes 2 months or more. It will happen. This is VERY important to remember!

* DO NOT allow any fighting between the two no matter what. Discipline them both when it occurs, and read their body posture. In that way you can better control these behaviors by giving a stern "NO", "STOP", "HEY" or whatever command you feel comfortable with before it happens/as you see it beginning to happen.

* You define what the command means. VERY IMPORTANT. If you regularly use a "NO" for other inwanted behaviors, use a "NO" command of a different variation. Ex: "HEY, NO!", "BAD NO!", "STOP, NO!" (it can be any variation of words you choose, just make sure theres a distiction between a "don't beg" NO and a "NO FIGHTING" NO. In verbage as well as tone.

After time they will accept each other.

THE GOLDEN RULES OF DOG TRAINING:

*Practice

*Patience

* Perserverance

You'll do great!

I agree with your advice about sticking it out with these dogs and being patient. Yet, I think you have to understand why someone would recommend a professional when dealing with any difficult dog behaviors. Very often when training our dogs we are too close to the problem to see it effectively and deal with it appropriately. Many people coming to an open forum are looking for advice and a quick fix to a problem and that is not always realistic. Also, having a professional see exactly how you interact with your dog vs. writing about how you interact with your dog can produce drastically different results. So, in an open forum it is wise to advise someone to seek out a professional and have their situation observed in person to see where the disconnect is as well as offer a few suggestions to try while waiting to get to a professional. Just my humble opinion.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

I do see where having a professional there to assess the situation between the family, but that, in most cases, would cost $55-$100 for a trainer/behavioralist to do the assessment. And it's not a 100% bullseye read by just observing the dogs for the usual 45 minute to an hour session. So you'll have to tack on another session and another $55-$100.

I also realize that at some point, when the tips from a trainer aren't working for them due to lack of understanding, etc, it is the right thing to recommend a professional trainer/behavioralist. But this case in general seemed to me to be a bit premature for such a referral.

Either way, we're all here to help, so I hope I did not offend anyone by my previous posting, that was not my intention.