First I am wondering if I am using the search function correctly, not being able to find a web post on jealousy. I would think there had been some.

I have started having an issue between our two dogs and would like to nip it in the bud but am not sure how to do so correctly. We raised our rottie for his first year and a half not being around our other dog for long periods at a time because she is not exactly right in the head and we did not want him picking up any of her idiosyncrasies. He is almost 2 1/2 now and she is a young 11, being a heinz 57 and in good health, aside form epilepsy, and shape.

We had a lot of trouble getting her to accept him, she doesn't really like other dogs, or anything new in her life that disrupts her routine, but it has been about 6-7 months now and they are doing very well. They are not together inside, but do play a lot outside together. Bear, the older dog, does not like to be be messed with much outside by us, she doesn't even care much for being petted outside, so this behavior we are seeing did not become apparent right away, plus it did not actually start happening right off. We have only noticed it in the last few weeks.

Tanka, the younger and bigger dog, will try to keep Bear away from us whenever we are outside with them. He is in no way aggressive or mean about it, he just engages her immediately if he sees us anywhere in her vicinity. He tries to play with her, lick her, or playfully "herd" her out of our way. Bear allows it to happen, I really don't think she thinks anything by it since she doesn't usually engage us outside anyway.

BUT, it is not a behavior I want to allow to go on. What if he pushes it further one day in the right situation. Or what about a new dog one day who does not want to be even playfully pushed away from us all the time. If I have a treat, they will both come and sit nicely at my feet together and there is no issues between them.

How do we address this? Thanks so much!

Jealousy is not quite the proper term for what is happening, as jealousy is a human emotion. What is happening is related to pack structure. There are whole forums here on that issue. Also, there are alot of threads about how to introduce a new dog into the home. I know you've had the dog for a while, but you can go back to the basics and correct some of the problems. Additionally, Leerburg has articles, Q&A and videos dealing with both pack structure and adding dogs to your home.

What is your response when he does this?

if a dog is doing an inappropriate behaviour you need to show/teach them what is acceptable (to you) or let them know what they are doing is unacceptable to you.

I have the same question Melissa does, how do you react when the dog bully's the other dog out of the way?
and don't be defensive about me saying bullying...the younger dog is being pushy...trying to force the other dog out of the picture.

You need to not allow the behaviour to even start...redirect the younger dog as soon as you see him starting. Timing will be important.

I haven't done anything yet but call them both to me, make them sit, treat, pet each one and let them go on. I haven't wanted to rehearse the bad behavior by letting it go on, OR doing the wrong thing. bear does not try to be around us when we are outside so it has been pretty easy to not entice it to happen. I have watched to see exactly what he is doing, and then came here. For a long time of them being together, he did not do it. So this has not been going on for more than a few weeks, and since they are not out together all the time, it hasn't happened that much yet.

No, I'm not offended by bullying. He is, even if he is being "nice" about it.

So redirecting should be pretty easy and straightforward. Should I put him in a sit/down and make him stay there while I pet Bear? The pet him and praise him? Instead, if I redirect him AWAY from Bear, then it would be more like ME getting away from Bear, which is what he wants, then him learning to share the attention with her, because then we would both be away from her. If that makes sense in any way but in my head. :-)

I have the pack strucure dvd, but not the one about introducing a new dog into a home, but i have read the articles and watched the free videos that I could find. Bear does not live in the house with Tanka, but in the finished basement, so we never crated one dog while the other is free. They live in separate parts of the house. When Tanka was small, we allowed them short times together outside. Bear hated him for a long time. WHen he was older, we allowed them to be together more outside, and she slowly came around to him. Now she is happy to see him, although not super bonded to him. And he is bonded to us, and not to her, which was what we wanted.

And thanks so much for the advice. ALL is greatly appreciated.

to me, redirecting means getting the dogs attention before he even starts to do the 'push push' to Bear.

Calling them to you when he has already started the behaviour is not really going to do anything to let Tanka know that what he's doing is unacceptable.

from what you are posting and what im picturing in my mind he is thinking of you as a posession. No offense. Thats just the way they think..lol

I would keep Tanka on a tether outside so you can control him around Bear. As soon as you see him even starting the behaviour I would redirect to you with a toy, food something that will get his attention off Bear and on to you. If he doesn't listen or continues the behaviour thats where the tether/longline comes in and you MAKE him pay attention to you.

Does he know what "no" means?
If the redirecting doesn't work, i would start with telling him "no" right when you see him starting the pushy behaviour,(remember the timing has to be the second the behaviour starts) if he doesn't stop, again use the longline to get him to stop with a quick pop on the leash.

note: redirecting does not mean you are moving anywhere.
redirecting is related to redirecting his "attention", not his physical body. You are trying to get the dog to stop thinking about doing what he is doing and get interested in something else. You don't even have to move. Dog moves towards other dog, you try to redirect his attention on to something you have for him.
It doesn't always work....sometimes the behaviour is now a habit and corrections are in order.

I agree with Wendy .... maybe even more so on the "alert" for the resource guarding I believe I'm reading with you (Julie). Lack of solid pack structure is the problem I see, too.

You've seen and are right to be concerned about this:

Tanka, the younger and bigger dog, will try to keep Bear away from us .... He tries to play with her, lick her, or playfully "herd" her out of our way.

Have you watched the pack structure VDVD?

SO sorry. I haven't been able to get a sugnal good enough to get the pages to load.

Connie,making sure I am following you correctly. Tanka is very laid back in MOST situations with items he has, with us and with Bear. He has the occassion when he takes off with something, or tries to hide in the corner if you need to trade out for something, but for most things, no problem. We are always working towards it becoming 100% and it is getting better and better over time.

With Bear, he tries to share everything with her. She won't play with ANY toy, but he takes them to her, he pops a ball out of his mouth at her, but that scares her. He plays with a manure bucket and he will push it over to her to try to engage her with it. With US, it seems a different story. WHy, I don't know.

I do have the Pack Structure dvd, and I know that having a solid pack structure takes care of a lot of things. But I don't know where the weak points are there, or what needs to be remedied to make it more solid. Or what part of it is weak that is causing his behavior with us and bear.

SO sorry. I haven't been able to get a signal good enough to get the pages to load.

Connie,making sure I am following you correctly. Tanka is very laid back in MOST situations with items he has, with us and with Bear. He has the occassion when he takes off with something, or tries to hide in the corner if you need to trade out for something, but for most things, no problem. We are always working towards it becoming 100% and it is getting better and better over time.

With Bear, he tries to share everything with her. She won't play with ANY toy, but he takes them to her, he pops a ball out of his mouth at her, but that scares her. He plays with a manure bucket and he will push it over to her to try to engage her with it. With US, it seems a different story. WHy, I don't know.

I do have the Pack Structure dvd, and I know that having a solid pack structure takes care of a lot of things. But I don't know where the weak points are there, or what needs to be remedied to make it more solid. Or what part of it is weak that is causing his behavior with us and bear.

Edited by Julie Sloan (03/02/2012 07:50 PM)
Edit reason: spelling

All I have time for right this second is to bump back to the "current" page.

Bump!