July 30, 2023
My new adopted dog is aggressive to my 4 year old dog when I let them run loose in open spaces, she's good on structured walks but free time in the back yard is the problem. What can I do?
Full Question:
I recently adopeted/rescued husky mix female dog from its owner in February of this year. She was I year old at the time. She is now 16 months and the one thing I havent been able to retrain this lady out of is her agressive attitude in open spaces with my 4 year old siberian husky. Everyone keeps telling me she is a puppy and thats how dogs figure out who is top dog, yet watching her pounce and attack from behind, chace and nip his hind quarters AND watching my 4 year olds reaction to this type of "play" (his fur on his back raises, sometimes just on the shoulder sometimes all along his back, showing all teeth in a snarl and flipping around) makes me feel like its more attack than simple play.
I take long walks with my dogs on 20ft leads and she often attacked him when he wasnt looking but I have trained her out of that. Its the free time in the back yard that I need some tips on... as keeping her on leash and correcting her doesnt seem to be working.
Cindy's Answer:
Honestly, play styles in different dogs is something you can't really train out of the dog. I have 4 dogs and there are 2 of my dogs that can't run free with the others.
Different breeds (and individuals) have different play styles and what one dog loves another dog will find highly offensive. Your older dog is showing the younger dog that he's not appreciating her interactions could very likely turn into a dog fight if you let it continue. For my 2 dogs that can't run loose with the others, we do lots of structured walks with the group so I can control what happens. In a perfect world, all of our dogs could run free together but different personalities and play styles often make that no fun for some of the dogs and can create bad feelings or fights if you let it continue.
I know that some folks might use a remote collar and correct the dog for this but free time for my dogs should be "free time" to just do dog things. I manage my group of dogs a lot and I feel that they need time to be able to just sniff, roll around and play without micromanagement if possible. Not all dogs get along so I split up my dogs into groups that allow some relaxed decompression for them.
Different breeds (and individuals) have different play styles and what one dog loves another dog will find highly offensive. Your older dog is showing the younger dog that he's not appreciating her interactions could very likely turn into a dog fight if you let it continue. For my 2 dogs that can't run loose with the others, we do lots of structured walks with the group so I can control what happens. In a perfect world, all of our dogs could run free together but different personalities and play styles often make that no fun for some of the dogs and can create bad feelings or fights if you let it continue.
I know that some folks might use a remote collar and correct the dog for this but free time for my dogs should be "free time" to just do dog things. I manage my group of dogs a lot and I feel that they need time to be able to just sniff, roll around and play without micromanagement if possible. Not all dogs get along so I split up my dogs into groups that allow some relaxed decompression for them.
User Response:
Fair enough and good to know!! Thank you for responding!!
Cindy's Answer:
You're welcome!
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