One of my dogs has recently attacked one of the others, twice. Is there any hope for these two? Or should I just work on finding homes for them?

Question

Ed

How are things in Menomonie?

I've got some dog issue questions I need to run by you.

First off, yeah, I'm a dumbass, I should not have 4 dogs together, 2 beagles, lab and a gsd. But, the damage is done, and I need to figure out how to fix it. We've had the gsd for probably 4 yrs, she came from a humane society in Redwing, nice looking dog, healthy, good temperament, never been aggressive except towards cats and a skunk that got in the Kennel (really dumb for the skunk, huge mess?). We've managed the prey drive aggression toward the cats by always leashing the dog when she is out of the kennel, never been an issue. Since we got her we have always had 4 dogs, pretty much a complete change of dogs from at due to old age, illness etc but she's never had issue with other dogs. The lab on the other hand can be a bit aggressive, but seems to be dominant and it never goes more than a bark or two.

The 2 beagles are basically inside dogs but go out together with the lab and the gsd when needing to go out or when we are gone, we have a heated porch (dogs have the run of it) attached to a big fenced in yard. 3 weeks ago we came home in the evening to find our younger beagle (we've had the dog over a year with no issues) beat up with a bite mark on the back, we assumed it was the gsd since by looking at the size of the bite pattern, we got the dog healed up, reintroduced them with supervision, no issues. Last night I got home, the beagle got the shit kicked out of it, bites all over, damned near killed her. The gsd had some slobber on her, other than that not a mark.

So, any hope for these two? Or should I just work on finding homes for the lab and the gsd? I hate to sound like an asshole but I really honestly don't have the time required to work with them as needed and I'm not sure Yonna is up to it.

Brian

Accepted Answer

Brian, Nice to hear from you and now that YOU GOT the “dumbass” comment out of the way I will answer your problem. :-) There is nothing wrong with having 4 dogs. I have 4 house dogs. But you need to do a better job of managing their time together. When this comes down to it this is a common sense problem. People who have this many dogs need to either have a set of dog kennels or inside dog crates (4 of them not 2 or 3) . Now that these dogs have fought like this they can never be left together unattended again – or you will come home to a dead dog. When people have dog packs (and you have a dog pack) and a fight starts – its not uncommon for all 3 to turn on the weakest one in a fight. When that happens owners come home to a dead dog. Don’t for one minute thing this cannot happen. I have a list of emails from people who had exactly this happen and they were so shocked that their “little babies” turned into cold blooded killer. I call that the hard way to learn that pack structure is a real thing. The issue of this GSD and its prey drive is solved with a remote collar. The goal is to extinguish the behavior. That's accomplished with the dog getting the highest level of stimulation for even looking at the source of aggression. You don’t wait for the dog to light up – you stimulate the dog for LOOKING. When this is done properly and enough times (you can set her up) she will turn her head away when she sees a cat. As time passes you will be able to lower the level of stimulation to a fraction of what you started with. The dog will always know that there is more power there if they don’t comply. With that said – a little common sense here – you have a cat killer so you never take the dog outside without the remote collar on. Not ever!
This is the same concept of when I was a K9 handler. I never went on a call without a remote collar on. I very seldom had to use it but it was there in case I needed it. Kind of like why a cop carries a gun. How often does he shoot someone, but it’s there for emergencies. Kind Regards, Ed Frawley