New dog in the household - your tips?

[bigblackdogs]

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Hi,

We have an 9 year old male (neutered) Belgian shepherd cross which we got when he was just 4 weeks old (found him on the street). He's a bit nervous generally but a well behaved dog and in sterling health.

We have just introduced into the house a new female (spayed) Belgian shepherd cross from an animal shelter; we think she's about 5 years old. She's also a little bit bigger than the male (and a lot hairier!).

She's been here just a week now. I know it's still very early days but I'm trying to understand what is going on between them a little better.

At first they got on fine, if a little diffidently. Then a couple of times in the past day or so they've had relatively small fights and are generally ignoring each other now.

Granted the fights are what concern us most and we want to do all we can to try and create an environment where they don't happen.

Right now I'm getting conflicting signals from them. The female will lick the male's face occasionally; but the male will not walk past the female if she's blocking the way and it's a tight fit.

So my thinking is that on the one hand the male is the alpha male whilst on the other the female is the alpha male (so to speak).

I'm hoping others here might be able to share their experiences. Is it ever possible for a younger female newcomer to take the top slot amongst them? If not, why does the male seem so reluctant to walk past her and is essentially trapped in one room if she's in the way?

As I mentioned, I know it's early days and it will take a month or so for the dust to settled, but I'd love to know if others experienced this kind of situation and how it resolved itself or even if there's any advice you might offer.

PS for what it's worth we follow Jan Fennell's advice which has worked extremely well with previous dogs and there is little doubt that the humans are the dominant pair in the household!

 

[goldenbear2013]

You have your male that has always been on his own so a big change is quite something for him. With being a little shy he avoids confrontation with the bitch unless provoked would be my guess.

She has sensed his weakness and is exploiting that and trying to show him that she rules the roost now!

You will be able to sense when something is going to happen just by body language alone. When you spot this seperate them immediately.

Walk them seperately if you can and also obedience classes for your new arrival. This will secure the bond between you but also learn who's boss.

Belgian Shephards are devoted to their owners and will defend them and protect them and will stop whoever it is that trys to get in their way from doing tis. In some respects you can use this loyalty to your advantage and make them both devoted to you. This will mainly be worked on with the bitch seeing as though you have had your other dog since he was a pup.

Also if your male has never been exposed to playing with other dogs or mingling or whatever then it will be quite difficult for him to learn this at the age he is at now. He missed out on an awful lot of bonding and learning time with you finding him at such a young age, so he may not know how to socialise properly. With that said, obedience classes for him may also be helpful. There is always time to learn dogs a bit of doggy etiquette

It's not much what I have said but hope it helps you in some way

Good luck

Sophie x

 

[Hagrid]

As you say its early days and dogs by nature have to fight it out for alpha male. As Sophie said if your pup was no socialised as a pup (due to him being away from his little mates) it could be he doesn't know how to react with another dog in the house. It is difficult to not worry but if you do things separately to begin with it will allow for your dogs to adjust too.

Just try to avoid any fights as you don't want either dog to get hurt - I hope things begin to settle down soon.

 

[bigblackdogs]

Many thanks for your comments. We're keeping a close eye on things but haven't quite worked out what's going on yet. Relatively quiet on the front with just a couple of very minor scuffles... so fingers crossed!

 

[gypsysmum]

Recent studies have de-bunked the alpha dog theories of old. Dogs are social creatures with complex behaviours that do not fall into a black and white camps. I think you will find that Jan Fennell has updated her views on this. The book "Dominance - Fact or Fiction" by Barry Eaton explains the modern thinking very well.

What is now known is that dogs will guard a resource that is important to them. In the case of bitches this is known to often be territory. They usually tolerate males more than females so the future looks to be good. While a ball will be important to one dog and he will guard it fiercely, another dog may not care a jot (or not enough to fight over it). I took on a nine year old rescue who, we thought, did not play ball. One day my very easy going lurcher bitch was elsewhere and I kicked a ball out of my way. The rescue boy ran and retrieved it and we had a lovely game until my bitch returned and just gave him a "look". For the rest of his days he would not play ball if the bitch was around. She had never done anything but he respected her wishes to leave the ball games to her. He could take her bone or eat her food and sleep in her bed but her ball was important to her and he respected that. They lived in harmony until he died aged 13.

It is natural for us to think it "unfair" that the resident dog has to give way to the incomer. This is not so in dog behaviour. They will, eventually, sort out their priorities and learn to steer clear of the other dog's favoured bits of territory, food, toys etc.

There should be no need to intervene but I would provide plenty of resting places so that there is always a choice and keep food and toys out of the way when not in use to avoid conflict at this early stage. I am sure that they will, in time, sort themselves out.

 

[bigblackdogs]

Hi Gypsymum - that's really interesting. I knew nothing of this and have just spent a bit reading stuff online about it. It certainly helps explain a couple of behaviours we've seen. Perhaps the alpha-dog explanation is just too simple after all and we'll definitely look into this further! Thanks again.

PS One specific activity where we've seen them snap at each other is when they are both being petted by the same person. Our super high-tec solution to this was to stop petting two dogs at the same time: problem solved! Other than that things are going quite well touch wood.

 

[gypsysmum]

Well done on spotting the trigger for the aggression. Also well done for being open minded enough to investigate modern thinking on dog behaviour. As you, so rightly, say it is too simplistic to put all bad behaviour down to pack hierarchy. Each behaviour needs to be looked at separately and we always need to ask ourselves why. You spotted why they were bickering and have put the solution in to practice in one instance already.