advice on aggressive behaviour.

Debo our oldest was brought up by my neighbour until a house fire struck and he was trapped inside. he was resuscitated by the firemen and came to live with us the same night 2 years ago. iv been around him since he was 8weeks old and he is a wonderful dog! smudge came along a month later at 8 weeks old which was arranged before we got Debo.

iv now got a 3 month old baby and moved house last month. debo has always been the softy and has let the puppy get away with murder! since we have moved though he has been snapping a lot at the pup and last night attacked him in front of me and my partner. it took us some effort to get him off his neck but luckily no major harm done.

I know there fighting for attention, one jumps for a cuddle the other is close behind. I give them toys, bones ect each but the pup likes to take them all so I spend a lot of the day separating toys.

they also get a long walk daily.

there is only so much attention we can give now the baby is here, they jump up and are big dogs so a couple of time caught her with paws.

they would not harm any of us BUT baby will be on the floor a lot soon with rolling over ect. I never leave them alone with her anyway which I think is a must however confident you are with your animal. if they start battling though when she is on the floor I dread to think what she can get caught up with.

I need to stop this before it gets worse. iv never seen him so aggressive especially lastnight and not sure which approach to take.

Sorry Becky I have never had two together so cannot really comment. Could the fact you have moved home caused the change in behaviour and you have a new baby too ? Maybe some jealousy creeping in there.

You are doing the right thing in not leaving them alone with the baby, however much your know and love your dogs this would always be the case.

Please make sure you stop any unwanted behaviour as soon as it starts so they know it is not acceptable.

its a hard one. it is jealousy but if we separate them they pine until there reunited, we give them toys which they fight over, we take a dog each to play with ect but still he is being awkward lol I might ring my vets and see what advice they give  

Jealousy. You have a baby, they both want a share & they can't!

How did you introduce the baby? (Congratulations, by the way!)

thanks   I was in hospital a few days so my partner brought a blanket home with her smell on and let them have a good sniff ect. they were brill when she came home, still are with her. when she cries they sit by her side, we interact both baby and dogs. I include them on the floor and she laughs her head of at them. the only time they get ushed away is when they jump up. one is ok but when the other joins they get giddy and try and out do the other by trying to get as close as possible. that's were I am struggling because at the moment I cant see how much more we can do. nothing has really changed apart from there not allowed to jump up. obviously from there point of view a lot has changed and maybe im over looking something  

The mistake a lot of people make is that they assume one dog gets jealous and that is why they attack. In fact i think it is a little more complicated, the dog who takes all the toys and get away with it is the dominant one. When you start messing about with that and taking the toys off that dog to give to the other one, that dog then gets confused and thinks that he is being told h is the dominant one, which causes tension when the 1st dog tries to get the toys then.

This is just a theory.

thanks for that, make sense. its been the case since we got the pup but hard to believe with the size and temperament difference. the pup is the softest dog iv met, cries at birds, cars, fresh air lol but when he has a toy/bone he is very protective and the oldest just leaves him too it, or used too should I say. the fight lastnight came out the blue, no toys involved. he has also started chasing the pup around biting his legs for no reason.

Have you noticed if they stare at each other ? as this could be seen as a challenge and kick things off.

I havnt noticed but will watch out for it. i don't know what to do about the toy situation now or the attention there wanting. maybe walks each instead of together? bit of time to themselves

That may well be a good idea to walk them separately if you are able to.

bit of an update, iv walked both dogs an hour each on there own tonight. no bad behaviour so far (too tired I think) so will try this for a while. thanks for all your replies xx

bex01 wrote:bit of an update, iv walked both dogs an hour each on there own tonight. no bad behaviour so far (too tired I think) so will try this for a while. thanks for all your replies xx

That's great news   keep us updated  

Id still walk them together, they need to see eachother as friends and friends like to walk together. If you think they need some time to themselves try having sleep time or quiet time in different rooms maybe?

I'd also walk them together, but watch them like a hawk indoors! If one starts to stare at the other, step in & seperate them immediately.

My 2 can have spats but this generally if it is in the house it is as a squabble over food or a toy which Tommy normally wins as the most dominant in the home ( he is 18 months now and always been the boss bolchy one since being a pup , Tilly never really put him in his place ) and I just let the dominance continue but seperate if neccessary . Outside sometimes they can get into a scrape or 2 as they both show very similar confidence levels and then I will always remove the agressor . They can benefit from walking seperately on occasions for confidence but I would never make it into a common occurrence.
For a long while we always separated our 2 if we were going out etc , now we leave them together if it is for short periods ( an hour for example whilst nipping out to the shops ) and make sure food , toys etc are taken up , but still separate them if it is for longer periods.
You just have to have a keen eye and spot the real squabbles before they start.
They have both had plenty battle scars over their time together , mostly through rough play but never any major issues where we have had a struggle to intervene

we walked them together last night because we felt they were both missing out on playtime outdoors together. I have been watching them over the past couple of days and it seems the pup starts it and our older one carries it on but it gets rough on his part. I put them in there homes (cages) when I leave the house they have a habbit of eating walls!! instead of letting them play battle im going to try and take the attention away from that with toys or interact with them more at that time. eeeee I thought a new baby would be the hard task not the boys haha x

I think you're doing the right thing. Just keep an eye on their behaviour & make sure you stop it before it starts!

You're doing well