Quote: jennifer kline

.... help, advice, suggestions and ideas of where i went wrong are helpful but plz dont make blanket judgments....Beetle has not been around any dogs his whole life at all except the one foster i mentioned. cant any of this be that he has crappy dog social skills? is it possible for a dog to be appropriately subordinate around people, but not around other dogs? does dog-aggression ALWAYS mean that the owner isnt the leader? (not rhetorical questions). ...

is it possible for a dog to be appropriately subordinate around people, but not around other dogs?

The thing is that the dog is not being subordinate to you in the situations you describe.

I honestly see no blanket judgments. I see good advice about pack structure.

 Quote: jennifer kline

... i will re-read the pack structure ebook and articles and reinforce more structure with Beetle and try to see if that knocks him down a few notches (for lack of better term).& i will do the tethering thing. ...

Excellent! Let us know how it goes.

Jennifer, I get where you're coming from. I find Chihuahuas to be quite territorial, domineering, conniving, and possessive. Beetle's behavior sounds quite typical and probably fairly easy to remedy.

I have a Chi and a bunch of other dogs. My Chi hates German Shepherds. Period. He is a nice little dog (with excellent manners) 99% of the time, but around my Shepherds, he's hateful. I know what you're saying, but the fact remains he needs to respect you MORE than he wants to DISRESPECT Jonah. He will get himself hurt with that attitude...trust me;-)

Alyssa is right, or you can just separate him if you don't want to restructure his whole life.

I sympathize to a certain degree. Widget has slept with me since I was in a college dorm (yeah, I snuck him in), so if I tried to break him of that habit altogether, there would be hell to pay in the form of pee-filled shoes. Instead, he is immediatley kicked off of whatever furniture he's on if he acts bratty to another dog, or whatever privilege he's enjoying is immediately revoked. It works pretty well, actually. Not saying it will work in your case, but just making the point that you HAVE to change his "station" in life if you want him to change his attitude. Capiche?

To clarify, if Widge were to start acting insubordinate to ME, he'd get kicked out/kicked off furniture, whatever. He only tries his brattiness when he thinks I'm not paying attention. He never tries it when I'm right there b/c he knows that nastiness toward other dogs is simply not accepted, so he resigns himself to the occasional cheap shot and then crates himself.

You may not get 100% compliance w/a 6yr old Chi, but I'm confident if you follow those suggestions, you will have MUCH easier/safer interaction b/t them.

Widget. Love that name. Great Post Jenni.

My six pound Brussels griffon tries to control my one yr old gsd. I do exact as poster above mentioned. I never let bratty behavior go unchallenged. If I do not take care of the situation then one of these days my 86 pound puppy will take care of himself and I will be making funeral arrangments for my 6 pound dog.

hi,

what i think is going on is that i have allowed freedoms and privieleges to Beetle that i would not have a larger dog (have never and dont---sorry i DO have diff rules based on size).
i think that Beetle has gotten the wrong message frm ME with regard to what those liberties mean, in his little mind.

since he was the only dog in the house until recently, it was never an issue--no bad behavior occurred. but yes, behaviors were allowed that would not have been acceptable in a big dog and as an only dog were harmless, but now things have changed and so must Beetle.

i started last night with revoking all privileges (couch and freedom, and he got no verbal or physical attention) and yes, he was tethered to me the whole time i was not in the kitchen, then he went into his crate. since he was not allowed on the couch, he had to (sullenly) lay at my feet. he was very sad (if that is humanizing, then so be it, but he WAS sad, he was all tightly curled up and pouting, looking pathetic, like one of those Gig Big-Eye pictures form the 60's).
i kept to the same rules this AM and left him in his crate when i left for wk. he was also fed in his crate. this AM i allowed Jonah to wander around (he is a super good boy) and when he went in and out of my bedrm (sorry, cant relocate his crate, but it is far from the bed) Beetle made not a sound (before he would growl from in there).
i think Beetle perceives himself at the bottom of the human pack but wanted to challenge his rank where jonah was concerned.
you are all right--it cannot be allowed, it WILL escalate and was in that process (which is why i said UH-OH and posted!). it is hard to admit that he is being disrespectful to me, and i sort of stil believe that he was in fight mode when he made the advance toward me but the reason why is less improtant than the fact that is MUST stop or yes--he will end up getting hurt. it would be uinfair and unrealistic to expest Jonah to put up with that shit. i WILL re-structure things.
after several weeks (?),when he gets back into reality/balance, then can i allow him on the couch again but keep a much tighter rrein on him overall? (he is always cold, and short of turning the heat up to 90, he wants to lay next to a person to stay warm.) i guess i could get him an electric blanket and put that in a dog bed on the floor?

jenni, thank you for some insight on the little chi brains. he is the very 1st small dog i have ever owned, of any breed and i have treated him differently to a certain extent. i think it only has been brought out b/c of jonah's presence but it was obviously in there all along.

by blanket judgment i meant that if i made a mistake w/Beetle (but recognized there was a prob and recognized that it was escalating and asked for help), please dont paint me with the same brush where jonah is concerned. again--i have a much stricter set of rules with any large breed.

thank you. (i did print out the pack structure ebook and read it last night & am going to follow that)
thanks!
i wil let you know how it progresses.

jen

You're welcome, Jen.

Chi's are..........special;-) LOL.