Possesive/protective of another dog? (long)

[DupontBoxer]

My 1 y.o. spayed female is having a problem that I would like to nip in the bud if at all possible. She is very possessive of her closest dog friend, a 10 month old male neutered Lab puppy. Even though he outweighs her by 30 lbs she will bark fiercely if anyone approaches his porch when they are playing and gets upset when another female (spayed) neighborhood dog plays with him (she was doing pretty well last night at the park and then something set her off and she pinned the other female who is about 15 lbs smaller than her but 3 y.o.). Also last night there were two other older male dogs (both neutered) that she knows at the park and they were "arguing" a little as to who would top dog. Wallace plays with the one dog more and seemed at one point to defend her friend. We pulled the dogs apart and the one dog left (this incident happened first). She is a great dog at the dog park and day care with dogs she doesn't know as well even allowing herself to be treated as a "bad sheep" by all of the herding dogs when they play chase. She does have an alpha personality and I think that is recognized by her group of dog friends (the poor male lab gets humped on occassion and none of the males attempt it with her).

I am trying time outs and when she pinned the other dog last night that was the end of playtime and we went straight home. She seemed to mope around so maybe she knows she screwed up? The owner of the dog she is possesive of and I are talking about taking them to training together so we can address the issue head on, but I don't want her to be the terror of her class. Has anyone else gone through this? So far there have been no injuries and I would like to stop this behavior asap!

 

[Tulsa-Dan]

Yes, definitely get to training class and address this issue.

There are also many good books/publications on this type of behavior which can be of benefit to you. "Mine!" by Jean Donaldson comes to mind first off. See if you can get a copy, read it and I'm sure you'll be very much more enlightened and able to better control this issue.

Dan