KMRosy
Boxer Pal
Well, here's the long and short of it....Max is almost 10 months old now and DH and I have been thinking of getting a second dog for the last 2 months or so...So we decided to adopt a rescue so they'd be close to the same age and be able to play together and be buds for life.
We found a female boxer (Dixie) on petfinders.com through a rescue organization about 3 hours away from us and decided to apply...our application was approved and we went with Max yesterday to go pick her up. We were soooo excited and the meeting went really well. The two dogs seemed to really get along, playing and kissing and all...and she seemed to have a good and sweet temperament.
Well, all is not going according to plan....The meeting and drive home went well, but since we've been at home things seem to have gone downhill.
Dixie has made several aggressive growls and lunges at/toward Max like she's trying to attack him. No full on fights, but enough to alarm me and my DH, and make Max wimper and drool. We were told that she gets along well with other dogs by the rescue! Now I'm wondering how much exposure she's really had to other dogs.....
She seems very territorial...Not wanting to let Max get near us when she's being petted, standing at the doorway with her ears back not wanting to let him back inside, etc. This is when the "lunges" or "attacks" toward Max seem to happen. It doesn't seem to be related to food, because none of the aggressive behavior happens around feeding time. Is this normal adjustment behavior for a rescue or should I be concerned?
Max is just a big ol' baby and seems very intimidated by her, but still acts like he wants to play...He has always gone to Doggie Daycare (nearly everyday) and has *always* gotten along very well with the other dogs that he plays with there. Very playful and really loves the other dogs there.
She's very sweet one-on-one, and has shown no aggression towards either of us, only Max.
How do I get this under control?? I don't want to make things worse by not doing the right thing. I feel like I need to get this under control before it gets really ugly....I need some advice and help, please!! I would really really appreciate some insight on this. I want to do the right thing here.
PLEASE HELP!!!! Thanks.
Katie and Max
We found a female boxer (Dixie) on petfinders.com through a rescue organization about 3 hours away from us and decided to apply...our application was approved and we went with Max yesterday to go pick her up. We were soooo excited and the meeting went really well. The two dogs seemed to really get along, playing and kissing and all...and she seemed to have a good and sweet temperament.
Well, all is not going according to plan....The meeting and drive home went well, but since we've been at home things seem to have gone downhill.
Dixie has made several aggressive growls and lunges at/toward Max like she's trying to attack him. No full on fights, but enough to alarm me and my DH, and make Max wimper and drool. We were told that she gets along well with other dogs by the rescue! Now I'm wondering how much exposure she's really had to other dogs.....
She seems very territorial...Not wanting to let Max get near us when she's being petted, standing at the doorway with her ears back not wanting to let him back inside, etc. This is when the "lunges" or "attacks" toward Max seem to happen. It doesn't seem to be related to food, because none of the aggressive behavior happens around feeding time. Is this normal adjustment behavior for a rescue or should I be concerned?
Max is just a big ol' baby and seems very intimidated by her, but still acts like he wants to play...He has always gone to Doggie Daycare (nearly everyday) and has *always* gotten along very well with the other dogs that he plays with there. Very playful and really loves the other dogs there.
She's very sweet one-on-one, and has shown no aggression towards either of us, only Max.
How do I get this under control?? I don't want to make things worse by not doing the right thing. I feel like I need to get this under control before it gets really ugly....I need some advice and help, please!! I would really really appreciate some insight on this. I want to do the right thing here.
PLEASE HELP!!!! Thanks.
Katie and Max
