I got Akiko, my service-dog-in-training, about 16 months ago. She’s been great. Calm while working, trainable, a goof when not working.
We got Yoshi in January. Our other big dog had died several months previously and we decided it was time to get another one. Yoshi is 5 months old now.
Generally, the two of them get along really well. They play for hours. Just recently, however, Akiko has started guarding me and my side of the bed at night. She scares the piss (literally) out of Yoshi, who is used to coming and asking when he needs to go out. It’s also one hell of a disconcerting way to wake up. Today, she upped guarding my side of the bed to 24 hours. I want the behavior to stop.
Here’s my plan so far. I’d really appreciate any other thoughts.
Step One - we’ve upped the privacy factor of Yoshi’s crate. We’ve never had him use it overnight, but I think we will until we work this out.
Step Two - several times a day, starting with me and Akiko, and another family member with Yoshi, we’ll do short training sessions that reward Akiko when Yoshi gets attention. She’s very food motivated, so she’ll get treats and he’ll get cooed over, with lots of scritches.
Step Three - once we’ve established that Akiko gets goodies when Yoshi gets attention, we’ll switch it up with me paying attention to Yoshi, and someone else giving her goodies.
Step Four - We’ll work on “Leave it” with both dogs.
Step Five - start moving the Akiko gets treats practice to my side of the bed.
As I said, I really want this stopped. Any suggestions?
