Your Advice Welcomed…

On Monday evening I got a call from my brother. He was frustrated, needed to vent, get a little advice and some confirmation that he hadn’t done anything too wrong. I gave him what advice I could, but the doggy dilemma he is dealing with is one which I (thankfully) don’t have much experience with. So I thought I would post about it here and see what advice the “cloud” might be able to give him.

And before anyone says anything, yes, I advised that he work with a trainer. The problem is, the problem dog in this situation is not his, it’s his roommates, and we can’t exactly force them to do something if they don’t want to do it.

The Human Side My brother recently moved into a large house on a large piece of property. He and his roommates picked this house specifically because they could have both of their dogs there. Up until this time, my brother had been living in an apartment, his dog living in another state with our mother. His roommates had been living in a travel trailer with their dog.

My brother’s roommates are more than just friends. They are his business partners. They are good people all around. When my brother and his first partner started their business (a hostel along the CA coast), these people picked up and moved out there to be employees and help run the place. When the first partner realized that what he really wanted to be was everybody’s boss, not a business owner, things went sour very quickly and they needed to get him gone. The roommates agreed to help my brother buy out the first partner and are now partners with him instead.

The Canine Side Before opening up the hostel, my brother had been working inAustralia. His dog, Copper, an adorable Golden/Coonhound mix has been living with my mother, as had his cat. But my mother is about to retire and move, and couldn’t really see taking 3 pets with her (she has a sight hound mix of her own) into a rental.

My brother was able to get Jello, his cat, shortly after he moved back to the states, but it’s taken a bit longer for him to get a place where Copper could come.

In the meantime, Katie, the roommates dog has gotten all the love and attention. In addition, while Copper has lived with another dog her entire life, Katie has always been an only dog.

The roommates were supposed to pick Copper up at the end of this weekend as they came back from a much needed vacation. However, Katie was having such terrible separation anxiety being left at the house (when they lived in the travel trailer, it was parked behind the hostel, so she was always around people) that she was escaping and getting out on a busy road. My brother decided to do a major road trip in two short days to go get Copper and bring her back, hoping that having a doggy friend would help ease Katie’s anxiety. He took Katie with him.

When the dogs met, they did fine. Copper loves to play, and Katie was very excited to have a friend. Everything seemed great and into the car they hopped.

The Problem They stopped that evening so that everyone could eat. My brother got his food and then put food down for the dogs. Katie has never been food motivated, so it didn’t occur to my brother that there would be a problem. Well, there was. Katie ignored her own bowl, but instantly attacked Copper as she ate.

My brother got them separated and Copper instantly ran to the other side of the car, looking to escape.

He got the fed and back in the car, and there was no issue. In fact, Katie really wanted to be friends again.

They got home. My brother at this point has been up over 24 hours and hadn’t slept well before that to begin with. He is tired and not thinking very clearly. He lets both dogs into the house/yard. And suddenly, Katie attacked Copper again. This time because she sniffed too close to one of Katie’s bones.

My brother got them separated and got Copper into his room. But his roommates were still out, and Katie has separation anxiety. That meant that she was unhappy and whining and crying all night because she is used to having someone to sleep with, and my brother just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to have both dogs in the room with him that night.

In both cases, blood was drawn, and Copper has at least one puncture wound behind her shoulder.

Next Steps The next morning, my brother brought Copper with him to the hostel and left Katie closed up at the house. Another friend who was helping out at the hostel while the roommates were gone was going to be sleeping at the house that night, so my brother expected to have Katie sleep with her.

He is very much hoping that having her people back will help some.

 

My Advice First and foremost is to feed the dogs in separate rooms for now. Second was to go around and pick up all the bones and toys lying around the property. This was going to be a challenge as apparently, Katie had found a deer carcass and was bringing bones out of hiding on a somewhat regular basis. But as much as possible, no loose toys. Copper’s toys should be kept closed up in her crate if Katie is going to be allowed in my brother’s room. As long as Katie isn’t in there, her toys can be out. For that matter, as long as Copper won’t be allowed in the roommates’ room, Katie can have toys out in there.

I also suggested, given Katie’s tendency to go find new bones, that she not be allowed free range when people were home and both dogs were out. I suggested leashing her to a person so that she can be monitored, and therefore not able to randomly attack Copper. The problem is that when she’s not feeling aggressive, Katie really wants to play, and Copper loves to play, too.

I talked to him about working with a trainer, but again, Katie isn’t his dog, so his control over whether that happens or not is limited.

Jello, my brother’s cat

Your Turn For those of you who have experience with food or toy aggression, what else should they do? I’ll be sending my brother a link to this post so that he can see your advice and maybe even respond to any additional questions you have.