Jealousy

[ashelmanls]

I have a hound mix, Charlie, that I took in and a Great Pyrenees/Labrador, Bella, that was a gift. Bella was first in my home, but she played wit the Charlie for when I was feeding him. Then, I finally took him in and made him part of the fam. He is eager to please and learns very quickly. The Great Pyrenees has the classic free-thinking turn of the independent Pyrenees. She is very smart, but doesn't always see a good reason to do the things I ask. I really suspect she thinks they are stupid. With Charlie's eager attitude, he is so easy to work with and gets lots of praise. Yesterday, I looked up and saw Bella watching kind of sadly as I made over Charlie for doing what I had asked. She had left the room.

 

Bella is bigger than Charlie. Sometimes, when the wrestle and play, she hurts Charlie. I don't know if it is because she is jealous or not. Would anyone have any suggestions about how to keep Bella from being jealous.

[JMFS]

I'm willing to bet she's unaware of her size rather than behaving jealously. Dogs are better than humans in that way. :D Momo is constantly stepping on my feet, utterly unaware or not caring that his claws are puncturing my skin. Do you know if Bella was socialized before coming to you? It's been said around here often that pups learn to handicap themselves with their litter mates. That means when Dog A bites Dog B too hard, Dog B withdraws from play and Dog A is like, "hey, why'd we stop?" Eventually Dog A figures out Dog B doesn't like being bitten so hard and Dog A learns to withhold its zeal aka self-handicapping. I'm pretty sure I got that right - Adrienne will clean up anything I misstated. :D

 

Dogs don't generally get their feelings hurt the way people do, either. They Can be jealous, but it's more of a resource guarding than an Eeyore "okay, I'll just be over here until someone wants to love me," situation. For instance, when I was petting Momo one day Gertie came over to join in and Mo wasn't having it - those were His scratches - and he grumped at Gertie. She got the hint and went away. I stopped loving on Mo, though, because I was not going to reward him for being rude, He soon got the idea, "when I snarl at the interloper I stop getting attention, but if I let the snot-nosed brat get pets, too, I get even More lovin'."

 

I was talking to someone the other day about Great Pyrenees. His stories are inline with your description of the breed. :D He said they'll put a leash on the dogs, try to move them, give up, come back 20 minutes later and the dogs are still in the same spot. Add to that the Labrador exuberance and you've got quite a mix - free-thinking And free-spirit!

 

Does Bella enjoy chewing on Kongs or some other kind of solo activity? She could do that while you're working with Charlie. Dogs with something to do generally don't mind if you're not paying attention to them.

 

There's a picture thread - feel free to post a pic of your pooches. I'm curious to know what Bella looks like with those two breeds and I bet Charlie is a handsome fella. :)

[Adrienne Farricelli]

I have a hound mix, Charlie, that I took in and a Great Pyrenees/Labrador, Bella, that was a gift. The Great Pyrenees has the classic free-thinking turn of the independent Pyrenees. She is very smart, but doesn't always see a good reason to do the things I ask. I really suspect she thinks they are stupid. Yesterday, I looked up and saw Bella watching kind of sadly as I made over Charlie for doing what I had asked. She had left the room. Bella is bigger than Charlie. Sometimes, when the wrestle and play, she hurts Charlie. I don't know if it is because she is jealous or not. Would anyone have any suggestions about how to keep Bella from being jealous.

 

You are describing the typical character of Prys. The last Pry I trained, had little interest in being trained and wanted to just pace outside and patrol. I had to experiment with a variety of treats to grab her interest and train when it was was very quiet as any noise seemed to distract her and prompt the 'I gotta check that out' instinct. One of the biggest rewards for her was to be sent outside to do her little property inspections so I trained briefly, praised, treat and then out.

 

We can't blame them though: they were selectively bred as livestock guardians, protecting animals and patrolling their properties from predators. Like the Maremma sheepdog they are quite independent thinkers, but your mix with a Labrador may have mellowed down these independent traits a bit, buy you certainly have an interesting mix!

 

If she hurts Charlie during play, it may just because of her sheer size. When large dogs play with smaller dogs, they should ideally self-handicap, but some dogs may not have this endearing trait. How does she hurt him? Does she bite him? Body slam him? Pin him to the ground? Does Charlie whine or yelp? If so, what happens next? Does Bella seem to acknowledge he got hurt or seems to not care?

 

Also are they really playing? In some cases, like when greeting the owner, one dog may "attack" the other. It may seem like 'play," but in reality there is some level of conflict going on. If you look at the video at the end of this article, you can see what I am referring to. Let me know if you see this happen when you enter a room, train one dog or pet one.

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/dogs-fighting-over-owner/