Swimmer
01-17-2007, 10:13 PM
Our Sussix Spaniel, Nellie, is 5 years old and has a hair trigger aggressive response to other dogs that is becoming a huge source of anxitey for us. We've spent many hours training her and she's a generally well behaved dog. But circumstances have evolved to where we are spending our weekly couples therapy hour discussing Nellie! We are even considering finding her another home - which would break our hearts. It's had to live with an animal that we can't trust -- even though she's a great dog 98% of the time.
Our concern is NOT about attacking people. It's just other dogs that she goes after -- and they can be 3 times her size. She has no brain about it. It looks like a hard wired insinctual response -- even psychotic. She switches into a different creature.
She first joined us as a puppy when we had 2 Labs. She seemed to get along with them okay -- she especially liked romping with the high energy field dog. However, she was a shocking embarassment in the local obedience class, when she kept doing her surprise (alarmingly vicious!!) attacks on the other dogs in the class. We had to drop out of the class because of it. We figured she got enough socialzing with our dogs at home. We did obedience training with her ourselves. She's okay walking at the park, under close direction.
Now, sad twists have taken our 2 Labs and Nellie is now the only dog in the house. Three times recently she's charged an "intruder" dog and attacked with her teeth! Once, my husband was bit when breaking up a fight -- and he knew better than to do that! It was so shocking a alarming, he just forgot himself. What if it had been a child? Our daughter is just 4 years old.
We have a wire "hidden" fence, that works to keep Nellie in, but random dogs do wander in, on rare occasions. Another concern.
We have been working with Nellie a lot and she has shown a great deal of improvement.
So... last week we bought a 7 week old Lab puppy. We introduced Nellie and the puppy with great control and caution. They played together pretty sweetly. However, the first evening we were relaxing together, without leashes on them, Nellie attacked the puppy. It was so frightening. We didn't see it start, but the puppy was shreaking and Nellie had her head in her mouth. My husband broke it up. The puppy's eye was bleeding. We rushed to the Vet emergency clinic and were told she was very lucky. Another minute and the puppy could have lost the eye or worse.
We now spend every minute worrying about where the two dogs are. We have bought kennels and have wired off sections in the yard-- so they never have contact. We are wondering if we can keep this up until the puppy is big enough to fend for herself --- and THEN what? They are both females. What will THAT fight look like?
We are so tierd of this problem of Nellie's. But it is hard to let her go. She has been with us 5 years. She is the last of our original pack.
The fact that she got on so well with those 2 (male) Labs before gives me hope. But we wonder if we are nuts to keep her around that long.
Thanks to anyone with the patience to read this. How do these dogs, "pets" get to us and put us through so much?
The Sussix Spaniel is a rare breed and I can't find anything about on aggression with them, specifically. Any comments, suggestions or help is appreciated.
Has anyone had to introduce 2 dogs when one has an aggression problem?
Thanks,
Nancy
nancy@crowedesign.com
Our concern is NOT about attacking people. It's just other dogs that she goes after -- and they can be 3 times her size. She has no brain about it. It looks like a hard wired insinctual response -- even psychotic. She switches into a different creature.
She first joined us as a puppy when we had 2 Labs. She seemed to get along with them okay -- she especially liked romping with the high energy field dog. However, she was a shocking embarassment in the local obedience class, when she kept doing her surprise (alarmingly vicious!!) attacks on the other dogs in the class. We had to drop out of the class because of it. We figured she got enough socialzing with our dogs at home. We did obedience training with her ourselves. She's okay walking at the park, under close direction.
Now, sad twists have taken our 2 Labs and Nellie is now the only dog in the house. Three times recently she's charged an "intruder" dog and attacked with her teeth! Once, my husband was bit when breaking up a fight -- and he knew better than to do that! It was so shocking a alarming, he just forgot himself. What if it had been a child? Our daughter is just 4 years old.
We have a wire "hidden" fence, that works to keep Nellie in, but random dogs do wander in, on rare occasions. Another concern.
We have been working with Nellie a lot and she has shown a great deal of improvement.
So... last week we bought a 7 week old Lab puppy. We introduced Nellie and the puppy with great control and caution. They played together pretty sweetly. However, the first evening we were relaxing together, without leashes on them, Nellie attacked the puppy. It was so frightening. We didn't see it start, but the puppy was shreaking and Nellie had her head in her mouth. My husband broke it up. The puppy's eye was bleeding. We rushed to the Vet emergency clinic and were told she was very lucky. Another minute and the puppy could have lost the eye or worse.
We now spend every minute worrying about where the two dogs are. We have bought kennels and have wired off sections in the yard-- so they never have contact. We are wondering if we can keep this up until the puppy is big enough to fend for herself --- and THEN what? They are both females. What will THAT fight look like?
We are so tierd of this problem of Nellie's. But it is hard to let her go. She has been with us 5 years. She is the last of our original pack.
The fact that she got on so well with those 2 (male) Labs before gives me hope. But we wonder if we are nuts to keep her around that long.
Thanks to anyone with the patience to read this. How do these dogs, "pets" get to us and put us through so much?
The Sussix Spaniel is a rare breed and I can't find anything about on aggression with them, specifically. Any comments, suggestions or help is appreciated.
Has anyone had to introduce 2 dogs when one has an aggression problem?
Thanks,
Nancy
nancy@crowedesign.com