JuliePetrie

Pistol - 9yo, M, Plotthound with arthritis Mitzi - 9yo, F, Dachshund with newly diagnosed Cushings Disease Gus - 5months on February 24th, M, mixed breed : we think possibly Great Pyrenees, black lab, German Shepard. -All have been spayed/neutered. -Mitzi gets aggressive over food. Her own food and people who have food/are cooking in the kitchen. Pistol gets aggressive over toys and bones. They are now both protective of the main living room area(this is new for pistol but not for Mitzi) and attack and growl at Gus whenever he enters that area and both are now aggressive about their owners when Gus is around and getting their attention. -Mitzi and pistol never played together but aside from resource guarding they always tolerated each other and/or left each other alone. Pistol used to play well with Gus when they’re outside but even that seems to turn to actual aggression sometimes now. -I believe that the main aggression from pistol started due to feeling neglected since our fourth roommate/his dad, who spent all his time home with him has now moved out/away and since his remaining owner has gotten into a new relationship and is home less. Their breakup happened right as I got Gus so I can’t help but think that Pistol has correlated Gus showing up to his dad leaving forever and his mom not being around as much and now blames Gus. -As of last night both of the older dogs have made contact with Gus’s face. Last night it was due to food, but it’s also been when Gus tries to play, when he’s submissive, when my roommate’s give Gus attention and not the other dogs, when there’s a toy, when Gus is just walking by, etc -Pistol also recently attacked Mitzi so badly over a bone that he tore up her face and she had to have surgery to fix it when he has apparently never attacked another dog before. -The only real place to put up baby gates would be in our bedroom doorways. The downstairs is a completely open space with the living-room/kitchen/dining room included and having to walk through all of it to get out the back door to get to our backyard. Except for possibly behind the kitchen counter but it isn’t an area that we would want to keep a dog in because of the food aspect and because it’s far too cramped of an area already. We could maybe put a gate at the entrance, then I could bring Gus out the front door and through the side gate to the backyard to go outside. But does that mean I just have to accept that Gus can never be downstairs, can never interact with my roommates and I’m just going to have to crate him anytime I’m ever out of my room just so the two older dogs can sit on the couches by themselves? Gus is in my room/his crate 90% of the day. Prior to Gus, the two older dogs would just sit on the couches downstairs in the living room but Gus has to go outside several times a day and when we come downstairs to pass the dogs on the couches they both bark and sometimes lunge at him unprovoked, or he might go right up to them and basically invite them to attack him on the way out. I’ve tried putting Gus on a leash whenever we leave my room but this was causing Gus to have issues with being on a leash and caused him to have several accidents in the house and on occasion just gave the bigger dogs an opportunity to attack Gus because they were roaming free and he was trapped on a leash. We’ve tried putting pistol in his owner’s room while she’s working to just have one dog downstairs but pistol will bark incessantly all day long if we do this. Mitzi’s owner said he’s going to get a crate for her and keep her in his room more often but she already has a barking problem so I can’t imagine that will be any better. Gus seems to not understand boundaries and constantly tries to approach and play with the older dogs no matter how clear they make it they want to be left alone and no matter how aggressively they go after him. I don’t want to deter Gus from being such a friendly, loving dog and I don’t want him to be scared of other dogs and/or end up becoming aggressive himself because of these constant terrible interactions he’s having with these two dogs. But I don’t get why he’s not understanding of boundaries and why he isn’t learning what the signs are when other dogs are warning him to leave them alone.

Neither of my Roommate’s dogs particularly love other dogs but have never been physically aggressive before. After discussing it at length and getting An ok from both of them, I recently brought a new puppy into the home. Neither of the old dogs were particularly stoked about this new addition but they tolerated him just fine until recently. My pup has now been in the home for 2+ months and is 4+ months old and both of the other dogs have gotten increasingly more aggressive and vicious towards my puppy. I relied heavily on their input assuring me that their animals would be ok with this new addition but am now Afraid that That was a mistake on my part. I keep my dog in my room with my almost all of the time but when I’m in the common area cooking or when I bring him out to potty he’ll walk past the the older dogs on the couch or the floor who will growl, bark, snarl, nip and lunge at him. My puppy will also frequently attempt to bring them a toy or try to play with/near the older dogs which will cause them to have the same aggressive reactions. With the smaller Dachshund my puppy seems to not understand or respect when she growls, snarls and snaps at him and he tries to play with her, instigating her aggression and trying to get her to chase him. With the larger dog, my puppy will bring him a toy and try to play with him or just be near him on the ground or couch and will roll over and submit to him if he checks him at all but the larger dog has on several occasions recently taken this as an opportunity to to go after my puppy and gone for his face/neck when he does this. I don’t know if there’s some way to remedy this and get the dogs to all get along, if this is an issue of my puppy not understanding boundaries and there’s something I should be doing/training him to get him to be more respectful, if there’s something we all need to be doing to help the older dogs accept the puppy, if maybe my puppy is just going through a phase and eventually will respect their boundaries and leave them alone or did we just completely screw up and now i somehow have to keep my dog separate from the other dogs as long as I live here?