what should I do? putting myself out there please dont flame..

[I~love~pie]

Im lost , I feel a aggression has been building between my 2 dogs for the past year. My husband is giving me no help what so ever. He thinks she is herding..I want to roll my eyes as this is not it.

She was biting me alot last summer(when she was 5 months old), we went to training for 8 weeks (and continued) and the biting stopped, to slowly creep back to happening again. Basically when I go to touch her weather she is sitting standing, laying down where ever, she snaps back to bite me and runs away. She has started in the past week doing this to my older dd now.
Now to our first dog, she bullys her SO much. she is constantly biting her, cornering her, jumping on her. Yes I tell dh about each infraction and he acts as if I am lying.
This morning they where both on the couch (yes I try to get them not to go on but with a dog that bites me when I touch it does not help much) Dusty gets off when ever I tell her. I was in the kitchen with dd and I hear this sound Ive never heard out of either of them. I go out and the lab (younger dog ) is standing over Dusty with her hackles raised being not so nice. So I call dh and he laughs he thinks im trying to tell him something funny they are doing.
So Im at the point where I think our younger dog and Dusty can not be living together , but dh says we will not rehome her. He says that but DOES NOTHING to help fix it. its not as easy as keeping them apart, as that means keeping one in the basement.. he thinks im over reacting.
I feel this dog is a threat to my family and it is only going to get worse.

[kblackstone444]

Originally Posted by I~love~pie

Basically when I go to touch her weather she is sitting standing, laying down where ever, she snaps back to bite me and runs away. She has started in the past week doing this to my older dd now.

It's unacceptable that she's doing it to anyone, but do you mean to say she's doing it to your CHILD now, and your Hubby doesn't get it or doesn't care?! Will he care when your daughter gets seriously hurt?!

Originally Posted by I~love~pie

This morning they where both on the couch (yes I try to get them not to go on but with a dog that bites me when I touch it does not help much) Dusty gets off when ever I tell her. I was in the kitchen with dd and I hear this sound Ive never heard out of either of them. I go out and the lab (younger dog ) is standing over Dusty with her hackles raised being not so nice. So I call dh and he laughs he thinks im trying to tell him something funny they are doing.

Your Husband's reactions bother me more than your younger dog's actions. Ask him if he'll think it's funny when (yes, WHEN, not IF- these things escalate if not checked), WHEN your dog is standing over you like that? WHEN your dog is standing over your CHILD like that?

Originally Posted by I~love~pie

So Im at the point where I think our younger dog and Dusty can not be living together , but dh says we will not rehome her. He says that but DOES NOTHING to help fix it. its not as easy as keeping them apart, as that means keeping one in the basement.. he thinks im over reacting.

You're not overreactiing. You need to rehome your younger dog. Perhaps he's afraid she'll be considered "unadoptable" if you bring her to a shelfter? It sounds like she'd do alright in a strong alpha-person home with no children and no other dogs, certainly NOT unadoptable.

Originally Posted by I~love~pie

I feel this dog is a threat to my family and it is only going to get worse.

You're correct.

[sagewinna]

Keep a short leash on the problem dog whenever she is in the house. You can grab the end of the leash to get her off the couch.

You need a trainer/behaviorist. She is running the house (and maybe she is getting mixed signals from the people in the house about who is in charge), and you can't be scared of her all the time. When she snaps at you, she likely gets what she wants (to be left alone) so it's working for her to do so. Look up Nothing In Life Is Free... She needs to be the last to eat (after your meals), you need to control the toys (put them away unless you want her to have them, then end her playing with them and take them back), furniture, etc, she needs to work for everything by following a simple command. If she doesn't sit, she doesn't get fed or let in the house or petted. If she has a spot she likes to nap in/on, walk over and take the leash and lead her off, then YOU sit there for a minute. She needs very clear signals that the people are in charge.

One of our dogs had similar issues fro 6 months old to about 2, and it escalated with her snapping at one of my kids and making contact with her head. I was nervous around her and it was a terrible way to live. Our trainer helped so much, including evaluating her privately in the beginning so we knew if we could work with her issues. She is almost 8 now and a joy to be around as long as we keep things structured.

[Ola_]

The way you describe her snapping when you touch her makes me wonder if she is in pain. I would definitely have that checked out, but I'm not sure what kind of diagnostics you would need (xray at the least, I'm guessing).

If you didn't have kids I would suggest to keep a leash on her and use it instead of touching her to enforce the rules until you get this figured out. But with kids, I don't know...

You said she's a herding dog - what breed/age? How much exercise and training does she get on a daily basis?

[beanma]

She's a lab, right? Who's the MDC pet mama who has labs? She may have advice.

Our puppy is a lab/hound mix (shelter rescue, but we're sure she's predominately those two because of her looks and affinity for water — the lab part, and her baying — the hound part). She is so much more physical and pushy than our older dog. It's definitely a learning experience for me. She's sweet, but very mouthy. Wants to have our hands, etc, in her mouth any chance she can get. We, obviously, try to avoid this and correct her, but she's persistant! She often gets her hackles up when she's excited or scared, not just when she's angry. She loves to play chase and will try to entice our older dog to chase her by taking a favorite bone or kong over to him and taunting him. She'll get all excited and her hackles will pop up. Very cute, really, though noisy because then they both start barking!

She does sometimes really start fussing with our older dog and since she's such a physical dog (slamming herself around and jumping 4 feet into the air) I do get physical with her in return. I will put her down on her back and tell her no, but just a simple telling her "no" won't do it. I mean I can look at our older dog (border collie mix) and tell him "no" and he's pretty good about behaving himself. She's got crazy puppy energy and a nose for mischief among other things. She's always testing us and testing our older dog. I do make sure to let him be first (treats, food, etc) and make sure to give him lots of attention, so she knows her place in the pack.

Anyway, I don't have too much advise, but I did want to commiserate. I think labs, especially young labs, can just be really physical, and any dog has the potential to just be screwy. Are you able to give her a lot of exercise? Plenty of things to keep her occupied, like a peanut butter Kong? I think our girl does best when she doesn't get into bad habits that need to be corrected. Hard to do sometimes, but right now she's sleepy and so sweet then!

I think rehoming is a fine option if you feel threatened by her. She may just be need to be an only dog in a child free home.

Good luck!

[greenmagick]

With two dogs, it is not always the aggressive one causing or starting the fights.

mama.....I would have a long discussion with DH about the responsibility of dog ownership.

[PlayaMama]

i think keeping a short leash on her sounds like a great idea. you need to be able to be the one in charge and if she questions your authority you need to be able to enforce the fact that you just gave her a command, like "off" the couch or sit. if i told my dog to get off, and went to touch it and it snapped at me, that dog would be off the couch faster than it could blink. it is TOTALLY unacceptable for a _pet_ to snap at you.

i don't think it's fair for your older dog to have to deal with this and i would NOT be okay with a dog snapping at my child. i think your dh is CRAZY to not be concerned. though it seems that he's not going to be much help fixing the problem

honestly? if one of my dogs ever went to bite me i would be doing EXTENSIVE work letting that dog know it's place in the family. well, i'd probably make sure it wasn't in pain first but you know your dog, if it's being aggressive with your other dog and obviously has dominance issues it's not snapping because it's in pain.

do you feed the dog? do you make the dog sit, down, stay, spin, whatever for it's dinner? does the dog respect you? can you call ceasar milan

[gumby74]

Originally Posted by sagewinna

Keep a short leash on the problem dog whenever she is in the house. You can grab the end of the leash to get her off the couch.

You need a trainer/behaviorist. She is running the house (and maybe she is getting mixed signals from the people in the house about who is in charge), and you can't be scared of her all the time. When she snaps at you, she likely gets what she wants (to be left alone) so it's working for her to do so. Look up Nothing In Life Is Free... She needs to be the last to eat (after your meals), you need to control the toys (put them away unless you want her to have them, then end her playing with them and take them back), furniture, etc, she needs to work for everything by following a simple command. If she doesn't sit, she doesn't get fed or let in the house or petted. If she has a spot she likes to nap in/on, walk over and take the leash and lead her off, then YOU sit there for a minute. She needs very clear signals that the people are in charge.

One of our dogs had similar issues fro 6 months old to about 2, and it escalated with her snapping at one of my kids and making contact with her head. I was nervous around her and it was a terrible way to live. Our trainer helped so much, including evaluating her privately in the beginning so we knew if we could work with her issues. She is almost 8 now and a joy to be around as long as we keep things structured.

:

[I~love~pie]

honestly? if one of my dogs ever went to bite me i would be doing EXTENSIVE work letting that dog know it's place in the family>>>

see thats the thing how do you do that? ive asked here many times...I tell her no, I take her out of the situation, seperat them. I talk in a deep voice. Just what im doing is not working. I can not roll her on her back , its physically to hard, shes is so super squirmy.

I am this dogs everything, I take her out, I take her to the vet, I take her for her walks, I feed her ,give her water.

[lolo'smom]

we had a dog who was a doll until ds was born and slowly she really started resenting him and me, since she used to be my number one and then ds was born... i tried everything with her but she just was not happy. she snapped at ds once and i told dh and he had the same reaction, well he didn't laugh but he felt bad for the dog and didn't want to do anything. so long story short, i kept her in the crate pretty much all day because i couldn't trust her, which obviously made her even more angry and finally she was sitting next to ds on the couch and just jumped up and bit him IN HIS FACE. he didn't need stitches or anything but it was upsetting for everyone, including the dog. she now lives with my father-in-law and is happy, content, and the queen of the house.

Your dog may just need training, but once they are snapping at the kids, tough decisions need to be made. Even if your dog isn't acting angry she is still too rough and removing her from your home might be the best option for all of you. In our experience, although we were sad to see her go, our dog is doing so much better in a different home. DH now agrees that it was the best thing to do. If it's necessary, don't feel bad about rehoming, your dog will be happier, too.