New dog being a bit aggressive towards my others

[Dougiedog]

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Can anyone help please!?

We got a new dog, rehomed an adult collie. Age unknown but she's lived alone with an elderly man til now.

As advised I have removed her food, my old dogs eat their food at meal times and its gone in minutes, new girl picks through out the day.

She's the loveliest dog with people including children but is being aggressive towards my other dogs. If she's in the house she wont let them in or into the room she's in, same if she's in the garden and they try to go out she will growl and threaten them.

She's only been here since yesterday so I understand its very very early days and im sure because her general temperament is so sweet that its just stress and she will settle but in the meantime its also unsettling for my other dogs. I'm keen to minimise the impact of change on all of them as much as possible so we can all live happily!

Do I tell her off?

 

[eingana]

Hi Dougiedog, and welcome to DogForum

I don't think that telling this dog off will achieve anything other than to scare her more. Start off from understanding that the vast majority of aggression is based in fear. This dog must be completely out of her comfort zone with you, your family, your home and your dogs at the moment.

It's her first day and she's used to being in a quiet one to one with a human, who is usually her comfort blanket but is now not here. Everything smells wrong, nobody is doing things the way she's used to, or saying the words she normally hears, and there are other dogs here and she's very aware that she's in their territory because everything smells of them and nothing smells of her so she needs to guard her own little bit of space to make it her own.

In her position I think I'd be warning people and dogs that I didn't trust to stay away from me too, at least until I knew them a little better.

I work in GSD rescue and one of the big things that we have to get across to people is that whilst for humans it's natural to want to see all round a new house the day we move in, for a nervous dog it's all too much. The more nervous a dog or cat is, the more likely they are to cope with smaller spaces better.

I would start off with her just being in one room, from which the other dogs are excluded, and feed her in there so she doesn't feel that she has to resource guard from the other dogs. I would start getting her into the habit of eating 2 proper meals as you probably are already, allowing her access to her food only at meal times, and then I'd move the other dogs out of her way into another room so that she can come out and you can take them for a walk together as the first part of integrating the dogs, but when the walk is over I'd allow her to retreat to her own space and help her out by preventing the other dogs from following her.

She needs time to start making sense of things in her own head and she won't do that while she's feeling so scared of them. I'd mentally set aside a week or two when she can retreat as needed but when you can put the other dogs in the garden (door shut, not able to see each other) and she can then be brought out to have a sniff all round your living room, where the other dogs sleep, all of the normal family spaces, where you can do a little training session just with her in peace and she can start to enjoy being stimulated and having nice treats in the other dogs' space. When that little moment of positive reinforcement has happened and you need to let the other dogs back in then it's her choice whether to retire back into her space.

As often as possible repeat walking together so she's getting to be around them while they're busy on things other than looking too closely at her, and getting her out alone into the main part of the house with treats, games and nice things until you're sure that she's comfortable in the space (bear in mind that all of the time that this is happening, she is gradually making the space smell like her territory too, and your other dogs will be able to smell her scent mixing with theirs as well, so they're getting more familiar without sticking their noses up her bum) and then try calling her out of her room while the other dogs are still in the house.

If you've done enough of the mixing, lead walking and positively sharing the space then it should be natural at some point in the near future for her not to be so scared of being around the other dogs, but she may be the sort of dog who will forever need a little space where she can retire when it all gets a bit much. Crates with blankets on, cupboards under the stairs and utility rooms are perfect for doggy chill out hidey holes, and it's a really good coping skill for the dogs to have that they know that when they want to chill out they will be allowed to retire and turn their back on the world for a bit. Most dogs are very good at practising avoidance, when they're given the chance to do it in stressful circumstances, and it's a really important coping skill.

If she's not starting to mix comfortably after a couple of weeks I'd probably try a DAP diffuser to see if that can make her feel less uncomfortable, and if she starts showing clear anxiety then you may want to check out some things like calming treats (Lily's and Feelwell's both do night calming treats that are good for anxiety too) or Serene Ums, which are herbal calming pills.

Good luck and please keep us up to date with how it's all going