LAUREN FULSHER

The steroids are for a hystiocytoma and his obsessive drinking with water bowl guarding for Al started before the steroids-since we had him at about 4 months, now he’s 6 months. Ed does the aggressive stealing where he lunges for something or straight up starts a fight for it but it went kind of dismissed with Al because he also did the “chase me” where a toy would be used and kept getting stolen to change the chaser but sometimes I think Al didn’t like it but if Ed stole a toy from him aggressively Al would not fight back so it was over where as Ed will try to steal a stick-happened three days ago-from Shandy and she fought back-growled and it started a fight. Al is doing the “another dog is close I’m going to run back and protect my toys” thing you Mentioned. We let him have toys alone but Shandy will walk in the room if we let her and it has sent Al back to his toys…He’s also hiding them which I know isn’t necessarily anxiety but the ruNing back to the toys I thought was?? The vet is letting us wean Al off the steroids quicker so in about 12-14 days we will hopefully see a change back to normal or close to it although changing Ed’s aggressive thieving has to be a priority to prevent Al from getting pushed too far or him or Shandy getting hurt so how can that be helped?

Thank you for all of this! How do I start to get Ed to stop stealing toys? I saw make a positive association or substitute if he steals but just wondering how I also keep Al less anxious about the theiving of items? With them playing outside together-and doing okay bowing etc, is that a good sign or does it not matter? Also-do you agree the steroids could be effecting Al? Is is to every other day but still has like 8 pills left…

Sorry I keep writing but I just read up on bullying and Ed would totally bully Al-take his toys-lunge at him and Shandy for toys-still does this, and gets super hyperarousal…Al would play and it would be okay until it wasn’t-Al loves being chased though so noticing when it wasn’t was hard but Al did show times where he would roll onto his back or put a paw out in a “push you away” type motion or he would occasionally go under this coffee table to hide as opposed to when he would do it to escape…I see all this now but at the time it was always more potential play…And Al was never aggressive with toys but did do the water guarding always-likely slowly move in on Shandy when she was drinking water but hasn’t fought with a Shandy over it just Ed the one time even with two water bowls but Shandy drinks no problem around Al-even now-he isn’t going near her if she’s by the water so idk if it’s because we have been keeping it full to the brim and letting him drink what he wants or because we moved the second water to the living room where Ed stays…

I also want to mention that the dogs-all 3 go to doggy daycare and do great with other dogs of both sex. The last time they went was two Mondays ago though (fighting started the very next day) in which the guy there told me he loves the boys-they are fun and attached at the hip at daycare which made me worry about littermate syndrome for being attached (they have been to doggy daycare 4 or 5 times now) and dog training they had 3 of 6 classes together and 3 alone/apart and I’ve always done their training apart at home by having one dog do a puzzle game or chew while the other trains. Most walks I’ve done alone as well and kitty introductions downstairs have mostly always been alone but when one calmed I would bring the other down…

Hello, thanks for your response…So Ed-the foster that we would like to adopt as well-has always been an aggressor when it came to stealing toys, etc but Al use to be very passive and allow it to happen and when we see it happen we have traded Ed for whatever he stole (gave a good treat to take the toy back) and then gave it back to Al or if we saw it about to happen we would say “leave it” and Ed would back down. Both boys have done basic training through Petsmart and have learned basic commands but leave it has been the most helpful. After watching Ed and Al, Ed is completely unaware of the fact that he should be afraid of Al if the potential reward is “better”-he will jump over our indoor gaits (3 ft tall) to get to where we are if he thinks food is going to be given or we are going to go outside. At times the boys can be by each other temporarily-like in that instance I can take the time to quickly usher one away or I have walked one to go past the other to take them outside but always has a hand on one…we have tried to bring Al into the living room when Ed is in there-Al now has the kitchen and dining room but we trade them but the kitchen and dining room is his main space as of last Friday, and when we let Al in sometimes it seems fine and other times Al sees Ed and starts to growl when no toys are around but perhaps it’s over the couch/space-Lance and I????…Al might want to “murder” him in the house but outside he just wants to play with him but Ed even though he may not always be smart about putting himself in potentially bad situations like jumping the fence to get to us-he is fearful of Al now in the living room and outside he is cautious but plays with him…Most fights have taken place in the living room over nothing but we have had a fight in the kitchen over food and one over water and that was the beginning of the fighting. We do know that male akitas can sometimes/most times not be together and even the rescue that for some reason pushed fostering the brother on us (and they were initially pushing us to adopt him) once we said we wanted to adopt Ed states usually they don’t let siblings go together or males go together but they would make an exception for us because Al was so passive but literally the next day this all started so we still haven’t adopted Ed but we are to the point we want both boys but also very aware we need to do what’s best for them. We have an animal behaviorist coming this Friday to do an in home assessment but they are super confident that with a lot of work we can keep both boys and I just don’t know…I’ve read some of your posts about how to train a dog to allow another dog to have toys without freaking or and I want to try these things but my husband and I have different schedules which makes training two dogs at once somewhat challenging and out girl dog-10 year old Shandy doesn’t play with toys really so I can’t even do training with her. I should mention I know Al is now anxious over having his stuff stolen as he has demonstrated if I give him anything he has started to guard it in a way-like he takes it back to his area and if Shandy walks in he doesn’t growl at her he just runs back to his stuff so I trade him his favorite treats and let him chose between the treat or toy and put it up because he always chooses the food-he will allow me to take things but even before all of this if it is a high value food chew like a frozen long I’ve always had to say leave it and trade him with a better snack to get it-we practices this a ton but unless he sees the tasty treat he will not just leave it with the command. Al also will walk into the room and start to growl at Ed and Ed who seems fine at first eventually if I let the growling go on decides to start the attack-like he doesn’t back down to that cue of growling but also seems like he’s not the one to start it in the sense of-he may be fine to be around Al unless he knows Al is starting something by growling if that makes sense? Like the growling if I allow it to go on cues Ed to go into fight mode but otherwise he-I believe would be fine.

I want to say we would love to keep both of these boys but if there is anxiety that is causing Al to be this reactive as well from living with his thief “I want to be alpha” brother than we would obviously want to do what’s right for the boys and find one of them a new home.

Hello, my husband and I adopted a puppy and we have been fostering his brother as well for the last 10-12 weeks…the boys are both 6 months now and our boy, Al was so passive but his hormones must have just flipped because him and his brother are all of a sudden fighting over everything and they can’t even be in the same room without Al wanting to attack Ed…Ed was always a toy thief and Al just let it happen but he started to fight back this past Tuesday and that lead to three horrible fights in one day and now they have to stay apart. We didn’t want to neuter them so soon but it’s it most likely the hormones? Is there a chance neutering could make things go back to normal or is there anything else we can do?

Hello, both pups are 6 month old Akita mountain cur mixes and we got them right before they turned 4 months old. Both dogs would water guard from our husky, Shandy, initially and it would be blocking the way or easing in when she was drinking to push her out so we put two bowls down so it doesn’t occur as much but Al still occasionally does it. Al is the one obsessively drinking and always has, Ed use to but he has cut way back and when they obsessively drink it does cause potty accidents in the home but I will try to let them out within 10 minutes or less of a large amount of water intake then I have found I can’t go much more that 15-20 minutes without an accident-Al knows he should go outside but his cues to tell us he needs to are so minimal that we schedule his bathroom break most of the time but other than in the kennel neither boy has made it 3 hours yet without going out for a potty break (kennel they have held up to 6 hours). Ed isn’t really having this issue anymore, it’s really just Al with the obsessive water drinking but we are talking a bowl that has maybe 12 oz in it and another that is 8-10 that he will start in on if he finishes the first so we try to distract him away from it…He is at least 55lbs at this point. They have access to the water all day but are kenneled at night at when we are at work so from 1:30-8pm they are free to drink water openly. the potty training thing is a whole other issue, as Al doesn’t have good cues and Ed we always know he has to go because he gets frantic/paces…Al is fairly smart but a little slow overall so we have been praising him for every outdoor pee but he still will have accidents so we recently started using a belly band and he will pee in that if we don’t catch him in time…It’s all been frustrating as I’ve had puppies before and never had such a hard time with potty training but I’ve never had such huge drinkers either. There is no UTI but we have not had any other bloodwork done on either dog at this point. We changed foods and that helped Ed with the obsessive drinking (vet recommended due to potential salt intake) but did not help Al.

Hello, I have two 6 month old puppies from a litter of 10. They use to resource guard water but are better now that we put two bowls out but one of the dogs will still drink until there is no water left. We don’t want to ever take the water away-we know they came from a situation where they always shared all resources so I think that’s the cause but how do I try to curtail it other than distraction? Is there a way? It has been causing major potty frequency issues!