It has been a long time since I have visited. I am a teacher who lives in the mountains in central California. I am the proud mom of 3 rambunctious boxers.I enormous brindle male who is a gentle giant and the leader (after me of course), a very young bouncy boxer hound mix who never thinks anything through, and a very small cinnamon female. They are all rescues and all have their own issues but we are living quite harmoniously. I just adopted a 4th. A beautiful sweet white 6 1/2 year old whose owner passed away. We are off to a less than smooth start and I think if I handle this right it could work, if I do not I may have to send her back which would be very bad for her. Her description said she got along well with other dogs. Apparently she was an only child but went to dog parks. She has been moved around a lot since her owner passed and to say that she is insecure is an understatement. She has been with us now for 4 days. In spite of my dogs best efforts to encourage her to play she basically ignores the other dogs. If they push hard enough she gives a little growl which I have scolded her for and she backs off. My dogs are now starting to avoid her. My female who was adopted out of a horrible situation where she was kept in a small pen with a dog much larger than her and whose owners only occasionally fed them (she has fear issues) is becoming afraid of her. I feel like as time goes on she will either get better or worse and how I handle it may be key. I am not sure I know the right things to do. She would like to be possessive of me. Can anyone out there give me some advice?
Need help integrating a new rescue into our pack
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dora
Boxer Booster
I'm not an expert, but from reading other peoples posts like this in the past here is what I think might help:
I would keep the new girl separate from the other dogs for a bit and try introducing them slowly, maybe one at a time, over a few days. Maybe pick the most level tempered one first and then try taking the two of them for a walk so she can see you are the leader, get to know one dog a bit, and not be overwhelmed by all the dogs at once.
Maybe try a play session with her and just one dog. Throwing the ball around and super happy upbeat and fun praise if she plays at all.
And slowly work her into being with the whole family. She is probably anxious and uncertain of her new environment and probably still sad and missing her original owner.
Some boxers are really sensitive and respond well to praise but not to negative discipline, so maybe instead of correcting the growling, move her out of the room for a short time out. And if she does anything good at all then throw on the happy voice and praise her! My girl is like this. She does not do well with any negative tone in my voice, I have to praise the good things only, and remove her from the room if she is doing something i dont like and she gets the hint fast! (negative tone and my girl gets upset and acts even more badly)
Good luck and you are great for bringing in so many rescues!!
Jenny
I would keep the new girl separate from the other dogs for a bit and try introducing them slowly, maybe one at a time, over a few days. Maybe pick the most level tempered one first and then try taking the two of them for a walk so she can see you are the leader, get to know one dog a bit, and not be overwhelmed by all the dogs at once.
Maybe try a play session with her and just one dog. Throwing the ball around and super happy upbeat and fun praise if she plays at all.
And slowly work her into being with the whole family. She is probably anxious and uncertain of her new environment and probably still sad and missing her original owner.
Some boxers are really sensitive and respond well to praise but not to negative discipline, so maybe instead of correcting the growling, move her out of the room for a short time out. And if she does anything good at all then throw on the happy voice and praise her! My girl is like this. She does not do well with any negative tone in my voice, I have to praise the good things only, and remove her from the room if she is doing something i dont like and she gets the hint fast! (negative tone and my girl gets upset and acts even more badly)
Good luck and you are great for bringing in so many rescues!!
Jenny
Thanks, I really like the idea of taking 2 out and playing a ball game. I am not so sure about separating her, she is so insecure and seems to be anchored right now to me. Poor girl has been through a lot and I can tell her previous owner loved her. At least it is summer and I am home every day. This must be very confusing for her. Partly why I am so determined to make it work. She does not need to go back to a shelter situation and she is a doll. Thanks for the input. Boxers are soooo sensitive and when they are off balance it is hard to know how to steer them.
Point of decision
I thought we were doing better, Bella wasn't playing but seemed to be gaining interest and was running outside to bark with everyone. It has been 10 days and I had to go to town to do some errands. I live in a very rural area, so it takes the day. I came home to find that a fight had taken place. The injuries don't seem too serious, but I will probably take my young male to the vet in the morning. His tongue hangs out of his mouth 24/7 and it looks like it has been cut in a significant way. It breaks my heart, I have never seen him so upset. He came in after much coaxing and laid in a corner with his back to everyone. Her face is swollen and my other male is limping. Apparently my female decided to steer clear.
Sooooo what do you guys think? Positioning that will go away or I do I need to return her? I put in a call to 2 different rescues and they are going to have their behaviorist call me, but not until Saturday.
I thought we were doing better, Bella wasn't playing but seemed to be gaining interest and was running outside to bark with everyone. It has been 10 days and I had to go to town to do some errands. I live in a very rural area, so it takes the day. I came home to find that a fight had taken place. The injuries don't seem too serious, but I will probably take my young male to the vet in the morning. His tongue hangs out of his mouth 24/7 and it looks like it has been cut in a significant way. It breaks my heart, I have never seen him so upset. He came in after much coaxing and laid in a corner with his back to everyone. Her face is swollen and my other male is limping. Apparently my female decided to steer clear.
Sooooo what do you guys think? Positioning that will go away or I do I need to return her? I put in a call to 2 different rescues and they are going to have their behaviorist call me, but not until Saturday.
TwoDogs
Boxer Insane
Posturing and ritualized aggression is just that--ritualized--lots of noise and scuffles and spit but no substantial injuries. If you've had bites and injuries as you've described, you have more than just posturing--you have real conflict and real aggression. I'll be brutally honest here and say that I don't think you really know what you are doing and probably shouldn't be trying to do this without the support of the rescue and the help of a good trainer. It is good that you've called someone.
Firstly, you really should not have left a new adoptee loose and unsupervised with your pack after only 10 days of her being in your home. That is expecting far too much from both her and your own dogs. She's not settled in and nobody has really figured out where anybody else stands within the new pack structure. Conflict was bound to happen. You weren't there to prevent it and now your dog is paying the price. Every time I've ever integrated a new dog into my pack I've implemented a crate and rotate schedule for at least a month. I alternate dogs in crates and new dog is NEVER left unsupervised. Even now that my current 3 have been together for better than a year and a half and have never had more than a minor snarky-scuffle with each other, I always crate them when they're left alone.
Additionally, it upsets me that you said "In spite of my dogs best efforts to encourage her to play she basically ignores the other dogs. If they push hard enough she gives a little growl which I have scolded her for and she backs off." Why did you scold her? She was using the perfectly good strategy of avoidance to let your dogs know that she didn't want to play with them. When they didn't listen, she gave an appropriate warning growl. You should have scolded your own dogs for pushing too hard. Better yet, you should have recognized the avoidance for what it was and removed her from a situation where she was being pushed too far, too fast. I'm worried that you might be misreading the dogs' intentions and need some assistance in figuring out what is truly going on between them.
Maybe you lucked out and your other dogs' temperaments were easier to integrate. Maybe things just fell into place without a whole lot of work. Either way, that isn't the case with this dog and I think you would be doing her a disservice if you do try and go it alone. Some times dogs can sort things out themselves but if you just leave it up to them to figure it out and it does go bad, it is really hard to undo the damage. Hopefully you are able to bring somebody knowledgeable in to help you out, otherwise I'd suggest rehoming this girl for her sake.
Firstly, you really should not have left a new adoptee loose and unsupervised with your pack after only 10 days of her being in your home. That is expecting far too much from both her and your own dogs. She's not settled in and nobody has really figured out where anybody else stands within the new pack structure. Conflict was bound to happen. You weren't there to prevent it and now your dog is paying the price. Every time I've ever integrated a new dog into my pack I've implemented a crate and rotate schedule for at least a month. I alternate dogs in crates and new dog is NEVER left unsupervised. Even now that my current 3 have been together for better than a year and a half and have never had more than a minor snarky-scuffle with each other, I always crate them when they're left alone.
Additionally, it upsets me that you said "In spite of my dogs best efforts to encourage her to play she basically ignores the other dogs. If they push hard enough she gives a little growl which I have scolded her for and she backs off." Why did you scold her? She was using the perfectly good strategy of avoidance to let your dogs know that she didn't want to play with them. When they didn't listen, she gave an appropriate warning growl. You should have scolded your own dogs for pushing too hard. Better yet, you should have recognized the avoidance for what it was and removed her from a situation where she was being pushed too far, too fast. I'm worried that you might be misreading the dogs' intentions and need some assistance in figuring out what is truly going on between them.
Maybe you lucked out and your other dogs' temperaments were easier to integrate. Maybe things just fell into place without a whole lot of work. Either way, that isn't the case with this dog and I think you would be doing her a disservice if you do try and go it alone. Some times dogs can sort things out themselves but if you just leave it up to them to figure it out and it does go bad, it is really hard to undo the damage. Hopefully you are able to bring somebody knowledgeable in to help you out, otherwise I'd suggest rehoming this girl for her sake.
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