DEANNA POLSOM

Thank you for all the information, it’s all very much appreciated. We’ve already started working through your behaviour training and the preschool brain games, and already there’s such improvement in her trust of me and willingness to participate. I think we had a little bit of a breakthrough yesterday regarding the humping, as I let it go on a little longer than I had been to give my 14 year old a chance to voice her displeasure, but after the initial jump on the back, shiloh got off and was attempting to play with her. It’s still not good of course, since the 14 year old doesn’t appreciate being jumped on, but I’m glad to see it seems more of a play behaviour than a stress or dominance issue. I’m glad she’s getting comfortable enough to attempt to play with the other 2 considering how timid she was when she first came, but we’ll work on her cues to leave them be when they aren’t interested. Definitely going to do some separated play time now, thank you for that suggestion. Shiloh likes the idea of toys but hasn’t quite figured out what to do with them, so maybe some peace will give her a chance to explore comfortably. I asked a friend of mine who has a pack of 7 dogs herself about resource guarding treats and what she does, she she suggested giving a longer lasting treat with all dogs present in the room, though not directly next to each other, with me in between all 3 so that if any try to approach shiloh while she’s eating, I am there to intervene. She said it’s a good way to show shiloh that I will intervene on her behalf, and that she does not need to react. What do you think of this idea? I regularly have all 3 girls in a line right next to each other to get bite sized treats and there’s been no issues or aggression, and there’s no aggression at feeding time, so I wonder if this is a good technique for showing her that she can comfortably have her treats without fear the other dogs will touch?

-my two original dogs are both corgi x lab, ages 9 and 14. The new one (Shiloh) is a basset x lab, age 3. -shiloh came from a hoarding situation where she was likely living outside most of her life with dozens of other dogs. She came to me incredibly timid and shut down, but has since been quite attached to me and showing more personality, though she won’t go near anyone else. -shiloh follows me around constantly, everywhere except the bathroom. I can leave her alone for that or if I go outside without her getting overly anxious, but she seems to always be vying for attention to the point of pushing the other dogs out of the way. When she’s excited, she likes to get in the other dogs faces to the point they start growling, though she isn’t being aggressive. -when shiloh was resource guarding, it never got past the point where she was raising her lips before I intervened and got the other dogs from her space so they didn’t have an opportunity to react, but the 9 year old would likely get reactive if she’s snapped at. When they were about to be humped, both of them growled at shiloh, but she wasn’t picking up on their cues and I’ve had to intervene to tell shiloh “off” so it didn’t progress to snapping. -my original two are trained, they’ve had the same consistent routine for multiple years now, and rarely if ever have issues with each other. Shiloh is kept separated from the other 2 if no one is home, at least for the next few weeks while everyone is still acclimating. shiloh hasn’t really shown any aggression otherwise besides a couple irritated lip raises when they get in her space while she’s resting, but I’ve never really had the issue of resource guarding and as my 9 year old can be reactive sometimes, I want to nip the issue soon. I also feel I may be developing a case of “post-puppy blues”, which is making me extra anxious, overwhelmed, and frustrated all around.

Hi there, I just purchased the training so haven’t gotten a start to it yet, but I adopted my rescue dog 6 days ago and it seems that as she gets more comfortable, the more problem behaviours are emerging. I already have 2 other dogs, and the new one has started showing resource guarding of the bed and toys, humping the other two dogs sporadically, and very pushy attention seeking behaviour. My main focus is keeping all the dogs safe and I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with all the new problems surfacing. Is this normal for a rescue dog? She came from a bad background so I expected some problems, but resource guarding is something I’ve never really had to handle. Im going to start the training today, but just wondering if others had the same experience.