Occasionally Aggressive 20 Month Old Bitch - Any Tips?

[jayneymitch]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

Hi there,

I wonder whether any knowledgable/more experienced whippet owners than us out there can offer us some advice ?!

We have 3 whippets, a male who is 7, a female who is 5 and another female who is 20 months.

The three of them get on quite well, with the other two grudgingly accepting the puppy over the first few months of her arrival as a puppy. She seems to adore them, particularly the other female who she is often curled up with on the settee. They all play fight regularly and sleep together in a huge basket every night.

In terms of the hierarchy, the male dog has always been top dog, and is good at telling the younger ones off with a quick snarl and a soft bite across the nose when he thinks they are going too far.

However, we have a problem and I'm not sure what is the best way to address it. The youngest female is very greedy (they all are really, but her noticeably more so), and gobbles her food up much quicker than the other two. Then she mooches on over to their bowl to try it on and see if she can get any of theirs. The other female would occasionally walk away and let the younger dog have her food, at which point I would move the younger dog and give it back to the other. More recently though, in the last 4-5 months, the younger dog has been starting fights over food. They sound quite horrific, and the other female has been left with a minor nick on her face once or twice. We started separting the dogs feeding areas, feeding the older two in one room and the youngest in another room, and this has helped enormously - we now never have fights over the food bowls.

However, if we give the dogs a treat, say a dog biscuit, invariably there will be crumbs left over which will attract the youngest dog and will end up in a fight. She actually attacked the male dog about a month ago and it has happened twice since. More surprisingly he was the one doing all the yelping and didn't seem to be fighting back at all.

So now, I feel that giving them treats outside of mealtimes is not an option, and I don't feel that that is fair on the other dogs.

Aside from the fighting, they all still get on quite well. The fights are always stopped by me or my husband, and we do smack the youngest dog, which I realise is probably not the correct approach to resolving this. Please can someone advise what we might be able to do to make all three dogs happy?

 

[jayneymitch]

Here's a picture of them, the naughty youngster is the one on the right, whilst the other female is on the left with the male in the middle.

 

[purplepixie]

Hi,

I would not smack any of your dogs as usually the only effect this has is to make them fearful of you, hand shy & potentially increases aggressive behaviour. Firstly if the youngest is the main instigator of the fights I would be controlling her by putting her on a lead when giving treats so that you can prevent her getting to any crumbs & your other dogs can relax. Is your youngest spayed or entire? If she is entire she is reaching full sexual maturity which can increase the chances of any aggression over resources. e.g food, toys etc.

PP

 

[purplepixie]

Hi,

I would not smack any of your dogs as usually the only effect this has is to make them fearful of you, hand shy & potentially increases aggressive behaviour - pain=fear. Firstly if the youngest is the main instigator of the fights I would be controlling her by putting her on a lead when giving treats so that you can prevent her getting to any crumbs & your other dogs can relax. Is your youngest spayed or entire? If she is entire she is reaching full sexual maturity which can increase the chances of any aggression over resources (food, toys) etc & challenging the other dogs.

PP

 

[purplepixie]

Hi,

I would not smack any of your dogs as usually the only effect this has is to make them fearful of you, hand shy & potentially increases aggressive behaviour - pain=fear. Firstly if the youngest is the main instigator of the fights I would be controlling her by putting her on a lead when giving treats so that you can prevent her getting to any crumbs & your other dogs can relax. This will also help to maintain your position of pack leader in her eyes. Is your youngest spayed or entire? If she is entire she is reaching full sexual maturity which can increase the chances of any aggression over resources (food, toys) etc & challenging the other dogs.

A great book to read is The Practical Dog Listener-Jan Fennell. Easy to read & useful for multi dog households.

PP

 

[purplepixie]

Ooops, sorry for the triple post-computer playing up :b

PP

 

[jayneymitch]

Thanks purplepixie, I know you are right about the smacking but I just feel so helpless when one of my other dogs is being attacked, and in the heat of the moment I so desperately want to do something that will teach her that her behaviour is wrong. I understand that smacking isn't the answer for the reasons you outline, so this will stop with immediate effect.

She is entire, although we are planning on having her neutered in the next couple of months anyway. Hopefully this will make a difference, we will keep our fingers crossed.

Such an obvious idea about the lead, and yet one that had not occurred to me! Many thanks - I will do that in future, and this way they can keep having their treats without worrying about being pounced on by the youngster! It is lawyas her that instigates the fights, so this should help quite a lot in the meantime, and the hopefully she may calm down a little post-op/as she gets older.

Is it something she might grow out of, or is this a behavioural thing that might need extra attention to address the cause on top of these measures? (I had read somewhere that it was quite unusual - and possibly cause for concern - for a bitch to be instigating fights in this way).

(Edited to add - oops, just noticed your last post recommends a book pp, I will get hold of a copy, sounds useful, thanks again)

 

[Whippets Rule]

I would not recommend smacking but for a different reason. When a dog is already agitated and excited smacking can actually highten the excitement and make the dog worse as the attention(even tho negative)will amke the dog think you are egging it on.

You could stop giving treats altogether if it's the only time there is trouble since they don't need them...treats are really more about the owner feeling good than about the dog actually needing them.

 

[eve]

HI

I have had a lot of rescue whippets over the years and have sometimes had to deal with pack problems. My last dog was like your younger girl. He used to start fights with his sister over food and blood and fur would fly. It took a few months to sort out but I never let my guard down with them when food was around.

He was always fed seperately and only let out with the others when they were finished. We have a child gate on the kitchen which helped with this (and whippet thieves)

Again, although treats are not necessary, seperate the dogs when giving a treat. The lead is a good idea . A squirt from a plant spray filled with water sometimes sorts out a squabble. She will probably settle down a few months after she is spayed. I too recommend Jan Fennel's Dog listener. Some of it is a bit OTT but a lot is good common sense.

:luck:

 

[jayneymitch]

Whippets Rule, thanks for your points, that is another good bit of info for me to take on board re the smacking. I will be cutting down on treats anyway as having to use the lead will make me think twice about whether to give them or not each time!

eve, the funny thing is our other two are rescues, but the one causing the trouble isn't! Good to know others have dealt with this and come through it in the end. We used to have a water pistol which was quite effective at stopping her in her tracks when misbehaving, but one day we left it within reach and it was promptly destroyed! I've ordered the book, thanks for taking time to reply.