aggression toward my other dog

[joannastthom]

Hi everyone. I have a 3yr old female boxer who is very aggressive toward my black lab , only when he is eating. I feed them seperate but if she finishes first she will go and attack him like she wants to kill him. It hasnt happened in awhile until today, which took a turn for the worst. She attacked my lab and when I got there to them she ended up biting me pretty bad. Luckily my wrist is not broken. My husband thinks we need to rehome her to a one dog family. We have small children and he thinks the risk is to high. He doesnt want our chilhren to get hurt. But hes my issue Haley only attacks my lab, I have a 11 month old rottie who can go to her food bowl and shes fine with. But my lab gets 10 feet from her she will attack him or go to his food bowl and attack him. I am not sure why she does this. Any advice will help she is a part of our family and if this can be fixed would be great but at the same time I dont want my lab or anybody to hurt again.

 

[jerzegirl]

Hi =)

In my opinion it can be fixed. I have 3 dogs that I feed pretty much together - they each have their own feeding stations but they are within 2 feet of each other so it's pretty close. What I did at first (and again when I brought home my newest guy) is I feed them and stay pretty close to them so that when the first one is finished I can make sure they aren't bugging the others. If I see one getting to close to eyeing the others I make a noise like "shhh" or "ah ah" to distract them.

None of mine ever showed any aggression towards the others or to me. The fact that she bit you makes me think she doesn't respect you as the pack leader. I would suggest working on that as well to establish your role as the pack leader.

For feeding times I would leash her, that way when she's finished and she starts to go towards him you can correct her with a noise and a leash correction and prevent her from getting to him.

It will take some time for sure but I think with some work you can get the results you want =)

 

[ELubas]

Sorry you got bit! How scary for you, especially with kids in the house. How old is the lab and who did you get first, second , third? At the very least I think you need the help of a behavorist who can help you figure out what is going on between the dogs. In the meantime I would either feed them in thier crates or with a gate separating them and do not let them be near each other until the food bowls are picked up. Also, I would keep something handy to shove between them-a piece of plywood or a crate liner-do not try to separate them with your hands-that is too dangerous. In the end your husband may be right and I think only a professional can assess that for you. Best of luck and please stay safe