New adopted female is attacking our male

[quintopozoso]

Hello!

I'm sorry for the double posting, but I really would love for people to read this and give me any advice:

We just adopted a 5 y.o. female from a Boxer rescue place and she is showing serious aggression to our 4 y.o. male. It has only happened sporadically, but she gets extremely vicious when it happens.

They initially played very well together when they met at the rescue place. Got along very well on the car ride home and during 2 walks together. Huicho (the male) then tried to hump Lola and she snapped and barked. Then, I foolishly tried to feed them together (even though they told me not to - Lola wasn't eating, so I thought it was because I put her in her crate). She went ballistic on Huicho, and we all realized very quickly that it was a very stupid idea to try the group feeding. She then snapped at him at what seemed no provocation. I thought maybe she was over-stimulated for the first day.

I kept them apart for the next 2 days. After that, they were able to walk together again, but Lola snapped at Huicho again over a treat. They have been mostly fine since then, and they have even become comfortable playing with each other and tugging on the same toys. However, sometimes they appear to act cautious around each other.

The latest problem is that we have been taking them to a new daycare. Long story. My partner and I live in different cities and shuttle back and forth. He has the dogs this week and took them to our doggie daycare where he lives. They keep all the dogs in the same play group, and apparently Lola was being very rough with Huicho. So much so that they called my partner twice today to report their concerns. The owner said that Lola once went for Huicho's throat. She says Lola looked like she wanted to kill Huicho and she was extremely worried for Huicho. All the attacks seemed to be unprovoked, were not feeding-related, and seemed to happen when the caretakers were temporarily turned away or helping a customer. This is all second-hand reporting, but it sounded like the owner had never seen behavior like this. Lola is apparently fine with the other dogs. It's only with Huicho that she is like this.

The doggie daycare where I live has different play groups, so Lola and Huicho do not interact during their stay there, so there are no problems, either with Huicho or with other dogs.

Any advice? The daycare where they are going this week is still willing to take them, but they will probably put Lola all by herself in another area, which is definitely better than her attacking Huicho, but I wish she didn't have to be all by herself. I think it is curious (but perhaps it makes sense) that Lola does not display this behavior at home or when we are around or on walks together. I wonder if she knows that we (her humans) will not tolerate it but she feels that she can get away with it when she's with "strangers"?

I've been reading some of the other materials on aggression in this forum but few seem to address the specific question of dog-on-dog aggression within the same household. We are willing to try a trainer, but again this seems to be a problem mostly when we're not around and when they're not at the house, so I don't know whether a training program would be able to replicate the conditions. In any case, we would love to have some advice on what we could do right away to minimize the confrontations when the kids have to go to daycare again.

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for the tips!

 

[ELubas]

Hi How long have you had Lola? Are they together and uncrated if you go out?It can take a little time for two dogs to settle in and live peacably. Interesting that she only goes after your boy at the daycare-they are saying she is fine with everyone else? Has she left punctures or bites on your boy? I'm sure you know boxer play can be really rough, and minor disputes are not uncommon. Also not uncommon for them to be fine on neutral territory but for there to be issues in the house. I guess my first thought would be to see her at daycare without her knowing you are there to see if first hand. If she is now ok with him at home I would wonder what is setting her off there. And , if like you say, it is a lack of leadership, then you got to wonder if this particular day care has enough experience to manage multiple dogs. Probably not much help but if she is doing better for you my first hunt would be to try and determine what is going on with her there. Would your other daycare be willing to try putting them together and see how that goes? Are they equipped to assess that ? Just a thought. Good luck

 

[quintopozoso]

Hi ELubas!

Thanks for your reply and advice.

We've only had Lola for about 10 days. She lunged at our boy during the first week, but I think she has mostly learned that's a no-no. Last night she did lunge at him when they were trying to drink out of the same water bowl. She is permanently thirsty, so I think she was being territorial about her water bowl, although they had drank together before without a problem.

I do keep them in separate crates when they are home alone. I have left them alone once for two minutes outside their crates, but this was one night when they were both already tired and sleeping, so they were pretty calm. There were no incidents then.

Our boy does have a couple of bite marks, but that could be from the other dogs (which has happened before when he comes back from daycare).

I've seen rough play before, especially with growling. However, when she has gone after him, it has never been in the context of playing, and it is extremely vicious. To the point that it is physically frightening to me. I don't want to make it sound all bad. She is a very loving girl and loves to show her affection towards us and to give kisses. She and Huicho have also gotten more comfortable playing with each other, with the same toy, and even sitting on the same pillow.

Your suggestion of trying to observe how she behaves at daycare is a good one. Maybe we'll try that. We have heard from both places that she is absolutely fine with the rest of the dogs, though. Although the daycare where the incidents occurred is fairliy new, I think the owner/manager has experience working with dogs before. Not really sure all her workers do. The other daycare did tell me that they never place dogs from the same household in the same group because they can be protective of each other, which can cause problems with the other dogs. Despite what they told me, they did try to put them in the same group the first day, and Huicho tried to mount Lola, and she went nuts on him. Since then, they have been in separate groups.

Hmmm....it's an enigma isn't it? Well, they are going back to daycare tomorrow again. We'll see how they fare!

Thanks again!

 

[ELubas]

Well, ten days is not a long time and she may need more time to adjust. This is all so new to her, new home, daycare, brother. I'm sure she is stressed and trying to figure out the rules of the road. It is tough to be the new kid on the block . ALso, not at all unusual for her to take exception to being mounted-my last girl was very happy go lucky but drew the line there. I think observing her at daycare will be insightful for you. Some will disagree with this advice, for good reason by the way, but for as long as I have had two dogs I have had two feeding and water bowls on the opposite side of the kitchen. Water they can do what they want but I do not allow them to mess with each other's food. I think your pups will probably work it out but I agree that you should stop it when it occurs so they are clear that you do not like that behavior. My girl will go after my boy and I stop it immediatly. Two minutes later they are all kissy face. So hang in there and let us know what you observe at daycare