Aggressive younger dog.

831 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by cookieface, Sep 6, 2016

Alys290699

Discussion Starter · Aug 30, 2016

My male shih tzu x pug just turned 1 about a month ago and used to be fine as a puppy around my male 8 year old King Charles Cavalier, he actually used to cuddle up to him and copy his behaviour(still does sometimes) But recently he has started to bark and snarl at my older dog,bite his legs and ears, rake his head when he's laying down or humping his head. We've tried separating him when he does it but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference, it's really not fair on my older dog as he should be able to feel relaxed and not be cowering in front of my younger dog. It's seems to happen mostly after meal times and even though we try to give them equal amounts of attention, if we ever give some to my older dog and not to my younger dog he instantly seems to get jealous and starts being nasty to my older dog.

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Aspen726

· #2 · Aug 30, 2016

Alys290699 said:
My male shih tzu x pug just turned 1 about a month ago and used to be fine as a puppy around my male 8 year old King Charles Cavalier, he actually used to cuddle up to him and copy his behaviour(still does sometimes) But recently he has started to bark and snarl at my older dog,bite his legs and ears, rake his head when he's laying down or humping his head. We've tried separating him when he does it but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference, it's really not fair on my older dog as he should be able to feel relaxed and not be cowering in front of my younger dog. It's seems to happen mostly after meal times and even though we try to give them equal amounts of attention, if we ever give some to my older dog and not to my younger dog he instantly seems to get jealous and starts being nasty to my older dog.

Moved to the Training and Behavior section where you are more likely to get responses

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esuastegui

· #3 · Aug 30, 2016

While I dismissed "dominance" as a factor in another thread, this here has the smells and sounds of it. Before we jump to that conclusion, a couple of questions:

1) How does your older dog interact with your young one? How does he react to these displays of apparent enmity?

2) How do they do when you take them on walks together, and how often do they go on walks?

3) Do they have a space outside the house (a yard...) where they spend play time together, and how do they do there?

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LynneMarie

· #4 · Aug 31, 2016

Are they all neutered?

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Alys290699

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 6, 2016

They have both been neutered. My older dog tends to just try and ignore my younger dog he doesn't play with him at all and they go for a walk once everyday, they are both fine and do their own things on walks, they go out the back quite a bit and it only happens occasionally in the garden most of the time it just happens when their in the house.

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cookieface

· #6 · Sep 6, 2016

What do you mean by separating them doesn't make a difference?

My (very inexperienced) thought is that it sounds a bit like zoomies (excess energy) directed at your older dog. It's not appropriate and should be prevented, but not necessarily aggression.

I have a similar situation with my dogs. When they're first let out into the yard after being home all day, my older dog is super excited to play and is excessively "aggressive" to my younger dog. It's play, but inappropriate and I prevent it as much as I can.

Since you have a general idea when it happens, prevent it, allow your older dog to relax, and engage your puppy in some type of activity like training, exercise, or "forced relaxation" (e.g., hold back part of his meal to stuff in a kong or hollow chew bone and, if necessary, crate him).

As far as the attention aspect, I think there's a sticky about teaching dogs to wait their turn. I'll try to find and link it.

ETA: I don't see the sticky I was thinking of, but this could be helpful for you: Impulse Control and Calmness

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