A six year old mini Aussie and a one and a half year old relatively larger Border Aussie mix.
Has been mostly the older smaller dog bullying the younger one. Gathering up the chew sticks near him and growling to snapping if the younger dares to come within a clear designated distance.
Now extended to humans as the resource. Especially when we are eating dinner fighting, literally, over being near the table, and the younger constantly “talking” for attention , barking if I put him out of the room. Worst of all when guests are here.
Two of my adult children were visiting and while my daughter was asleep on the couch the older one laid on top of her. At first I thought it looked cute, him cuddling with her. I took a picture. Then I looked at him in the picture. He is not relaxed cuddling. Those are guarding eyes, looking out that the younger one stays away from his person. Ready to attack if the younger crosses the line of his territory. And now the younger is trying to renegotiate the arrangements…
IMO. You’ll have to separate them during meals and other guarding tendency moments. Snack and chewy toy time especially.
If it started with food resource guarding you may be able to get back to that. Then you can correct each time you give treats and they behave badly.
I believe that would stop the other guarding things. Like people or snuggle spots. Even going outside the door can be a problem if their in this mode. First is first. In a dogs head.
The boss goes first in all things.
Anywhoo. Get them separated at meals, feedings and snacks first. And see where you are.
@Whack-a-Mole, I can walk them together on a coupler with brief moments of snippiness on occasion only. They will follow commands I give when other dogs or people come near. Running with two at a time gets hard.
@Beckdawrek interestingly food is not a conflict time. The larger younger hits the bowls first, grabs a mouthful from the one bowl then as the other dog comes moves to the other bowl and they let each other be.
Snacks are often given as rewards on commands and no fighting for treat rewards.
The bully sticks and such are given to try to distract during human dinner (and are guarded mostly by the older with the younger now testing the limits) but the human attention during human dinner time is what gets begged for and fought for most of all. Especially company over.
It’s embarrassing. And throwing in yard fails as our neighbor has a yappy dog in their yard often, who they perceive as a very small wolf to protect the herd from. Scary sounding.
We never had such problems in the days when we had multiple dogs, but…
Is it possible to provide less desirable treats as distractions i.e something like Nylabones? The only time I can remember any of our dogs getting growly in relation to food was when they (rarely) were given something like a meaty bone.
Can the dogs be segregated in separate rooms at dinnertime with toys? They don’'t seem ready to be around humans having dinner.
The dog trainer in the video below talks about how to deal with resource guarding.
The tl;dw version is you need to be aggressive when reacting to it and do that every time. “Aggressive” does not mean any kind of violence whatsoever but rather that you make it abundantly clear, every time, that you are the alpha and you have rules and you will enforce those rules.
To do this, any time the aggressive dog even starts to become aggressive you sternly say “Fluffy, stop!” and clap loudly and you ALSO get out of your chair and walk towards the dog (or come out from the kitchen or whatever it is you are doing). Every…time, even when eating dinner. The dog will (probably) back off (if not that is a different problem). Once the dog has backed down it is fine to praise them. If the dog continues to not get the message maybe a short time out they have to stay at until you release the dog (only a few minutes…which is hours in doggy time).
If it is really bad (as shown in the video) you may need to used a fence for starters but it doesn’t seem that is the case.
Hopefully this sorts the problem in a week or two.
More generally, if you can, get those dogs out of the house for long walks. Maybe to a dog park to run. Not just their own back yard (unless you have many acres they can run on). I get this is not always possible. But, that is a breed with high intelligence and energy…get that energy out somewhere else.
I taught a pair of teenage crazy ass Chihuahuas to settle. Now I snap my fingers and they hit the dog bed. It wasn’t easy. Consistency even when no one but you is around. You’ll have to start with meal times. You’ll be getting up 20 times a meal for a few days, and making them go to crates or beds. And staying. It’s a tough one.
Different problem them. It is taken as winning and getting the attention desired.
I’m marathon training. 13 mile run with the younger and he is still full of energy and a punk.
If it is a few days that’s nothing!
My past version failed. I put on down stay during meals. And with frequent treat rewards they will hold the stay. But the younger one keeps “talking” in a pathetic please love me voice. Giving a treat for the stay then rewarded the talking …
Smart dogs require an owner smarter than me I think.
No…don’t feel like that. You just need a plan. #1. Cooperation from your spouse.
A smart dog is harder to train in one way. OTOH they learn faster and retain better.
Training is lifelong. You have regressions and will need to reestablish the rules.
I still think the key is removal of the dogs til they can reset. After a week or so let them back in the area. Removing them when they whine for attention. Every time. Use a clicker or a clap or a firm word. Everytime. Soon the noise or word will snap them to attention.
You having to get your spouse onboard is probably the hardest thing to do.
In obedience class we always have a towel that we can put down on the floor. We train dogs using the command “place”. They have to lie down on the towel, which is their place.
At home each dog has a location place. If tensions mount we say “place” and all three dogs rush to their spot and lie down.
My best advice is to attend some training classes, either group or one-on-one. We belong to a dog obedience training group that really helps and is fun.
What the dog wants is YOU. To get you-time, he has to behave. So Every time there’s a hint of guarding he gets put somewhere else, away from you. In a covered crate or in another room would be best, and you have to steel yourself to not go reward him with your presence until there’s a quiet moment. If you go to him when he’s barking up a storm it just teaches him to bark longer.
There will be an extinction burst - where things get worse before they get better. Hang in through that and he’ll figure out that to get the reward of being with you he needs to tolerate the other dog and not be vocal.
This is a tough thing to overcome. Professional training would be a great help.
My only issue with this is dogs seem quite willing to bark their heads off for hours. They never tire of it. The only thing that stops them is sheer exhaustion which takes a lot, lot longer than you might expect.
We’ve done the group classes. I cop to not spending as much time proofing the skills to mastery under high drive circumstances as I should. And I recognize that there is no realistic way that we, both working, are going to be able to provide two smart working dogs with the level of stimulation that would be most ideal for them, even with a dog walker coming in twice a day on our work days, long runs a couple of times a week, and some working through the basic commands regularly. We just don’t have the time or let alone the energy to work on full time jobs for them in addition to our jobs and the challenges of life in general.
Especially for the under two year old half Border.
Bottom line is one on one professional help is likely going to be needed yes, if only to get both of us fully committed to the same page.
My guilty owner mind wonders if the problem is mostly my fault for getting smart dogs in our household where there is no way for them to have the attention and jobs they need during most days … so of course when there is relative novelty, especially new people, they get crazy with excitement and like bored toddlers fight and act out for new adult attention.
But I have them now and the rest of our lives are what they are. No retirement planned in the near future.
One of our dogs got out of our gate a couple weeks ago. We chased him, both on foot and by vehicle, for about an hour before he decided it was enough. And this dog has a crooked spine, he doesn’t move so good. But he could still give Usain Bolt a challenge!
This is my advice. Find a really good dog trainer. And yes, they have to train you, too. Both of you. My sister rescues German shepherds, and the vet always tells her how incredibly well behaved her dogs are. At first, she thought she had been lucky. But now she realizes it’s largely because she works with a trainer with each new dog, and does it will.
Yeah, it’s your fault for choosing a pair of high-drive dogs when there’s not enough driving for them. Nothing that a million other people haven’t done, though.
I agree that teaching and enforcing 'go to your place" is likely the key training you’ll need. The other is for you to learn to start intervening much earlier when the hairy eyeball thing starts. You need to anticipate when that is likely to happen and shut the thought down. Your smart trainable dogs are quite capable of understanding “don’t even think about it, bud!”
I’ve always been sadly disappointed in how few dog owners have real authority over their dogs. Real authority meaning in this case channeling the bouncer at a dive bar. You outweigh them, not just physically. Use that knowledge.
