A few hours a week I work at a local NJ doggie daycare. A couple of weeks ago I was there hanging with a pack of about twenty-five dogs when a new dog was dropped off to join the fun. As soon as this dog entered the play area, one of the other dogs lunged, barked and “went at” this new dog. The five seconds or so it took me to separate the dogs sounded like they were tearing each other apart. Once I got control of the dog that was instigating it (the dog that was already there) and allowed him to get back to a calm state of mind, I let him go. He immediately went over to the new dog but instead of asserting himself, he sniffed him. Then once they finished their introductions they proceeded to play together for the rest of the day and are now best buds.
Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten three separate calls about dogs that “hate” each other and cannot be in each other’s presence without a fight breaking out. In every one of these cases it was not aggression which was the issue - in fact all dogs were far from aggressive. They just hadn’t established a working relationship yet.
Dogs that have never met each other need to learn about each other and figure out their relationship before they can become happy pack-mates. In two of the cases I just worked on, it was a younger dog meeting an older dog. The young pups just wanted to play, play, play, while the older dogs just wanted their space respected. These dogs can absolutely peacefully coexist but we need to control the situation while they learn how to relate to one another.
I used leashes to stop the puppies from jumping into the older dog’s space and gave them time to adjust to each other’s energy. The pups learn that not every dog wants to play and that they can have relationships with dogs that don’t include tackling and chasing, while the older dogs learn to put up with this high energy puppy and that the humans in the pack will make sure that their personal space is respected.
It can take some time, especially if the dogs have not been well socialized. One thing that always helps is walking the dogs together. Nothing unifies dogs then bringing them together as a pack on a nice long walk. This give them a positive association to each other doing something they both love. The walk should be structured with all eyes forward. I find if we get their bodies moving forward, their minds soon follow. The walks give them a positive association with one another and are a great stepping stone to building a non-confrontational relationship.
If we separate the dogs, and don’t help them get to know one another in a positive light, they will never get past their initial state of mind. Yes, there are some dogs that just will never get along but if we take the time to help them move past their high-energy first impressions, we may watch them become friends - or at least learn to coexist comfortably.
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My 13 yr old female siberian husky, Queenie needed to be put to sleep on Nov. 15, 2009 due to the cancer which started out in her back left leg (which had to be amputated) had spread and overtook her chest causing her to have great difficulty breathing and lose all will to get up and walk on her three legs. A little less than a month later my girlfriend told me about a 4 week old female siberian husky puppy in a shelter. I went to see it, fell in love with it, introduced it to my 12 yr. old female German Shephard, Lady in my girlfriend's yard and then had it delivered to my home by the foster parent when she was 7 weeks old. She was raised with a 5 month old female mastiff upon whom she always jumped on to play with. When she arrived at my home, even though she got along great with Lady when they met at my girlfriend's yard when she went to jump on Lady's head in the house Lady immediately barked at her. The puppy, Countess Brandy jumped back and started yelping. I saw this and knew that Lady did not injur her in any way. I then told Countess to knock off the yelping that Lady did not touch her. I guess the puppy thought that I was going to pick her up and say what a poor baby and that I would scold Lady. She now is 8 months old and when she is in the living room with Lady laying down and she tries to jump at her and Lady barks at her, Countess immediately lays down. After a short time the two of them are calmly laying down next to one another. They now really like one another and actually look for one another if I need to take one out for some reason. Because of this relationship at home she seems to have no problem greeting other dogs on our walks. And I think the energy of Countess has really given Lady a new leash on life as she knows she now needs to teach Countess how to behave. I also did not need to paper train Countess as she must have seen Lady go on the paper one time when the weather was too bad to take her out for her health and one time when Countess was loose in the kitchen and she needed to go to the bathroom late in the evening I saw her go over to the paper and do her pee pee and poop. When I saw this I made a really big deal about it by getting very excited. Now she never even attempts to do even the slightest bit of pee on the carpet but gets up and runs to the kitchen and pees on the paper. Both of my girls do go to the bathroom outside but if for some reason I can not take them out as quick as they want then they just go on the paper and never on the carpet or floor.
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