My staffie pup just attacked my other dog, I’m gutted

Lola is 6 months old, she’s lived with our jack russle Sophie right from day one. Tonight she attacked Sophie and I am devastated. Sophie has always been ur typical jack russle eg bit snappy ect but they have always got on, played together, sleep together ect. Tonight Lola went for Sophie and I couldn’t get her off. All Sophie did was bark at her when Lola went nr her, this is nothing new, Lola can be a bit of an annoyance, Sophie barks, Lola goes away but tonight Lola attacked her and has left Sophie with a small injury behind her ear. Lola locked her jaw on and wouldn’t let go, I had to use bruit force to get her off, I will shamefully admit that Lola got a good smack to try and get her to stop. Poor Sophie is 15 years old and quite arthritic my only instinct was to protect her form my own dog. Now Lola is behaving very weary and is being very clingy towards me, following me everywhere and trembling, understandable I hit her, no nice way of putting it and I am ashamed I did it but I had to protect Sophie, i eventually managed to get her off buy grabbing her collar and basically picking her up by it and chucked her in the kitchen and I did scream at her, I’ve never done that before. So what do I do? How do I handle this? I am now frightened this will happen again. The trust as been damaged both ways and I’m so sad about it. I will just add that she’s coming into season, she’s been bleeding for 3 days, could this be playing a part in it?

Firstly, don't feel guilty about your response. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would have reacted in a similar way. Just in case you do have another incident, keep Lola's collar on and if you need to you can grab it and twist. You are effectively making it hard for her to breathe so she'll let go to gasp for air. Again, it's not at all nice but it's one of the most effective ways of separating dogs and in these situations needs must.

Yes, it may well be her season and it might be a good idea to get her spayed. Bitches can get very grumpy when in heat sometimes.

Her trust in you might be slightly shaken but she'll get over it quickly. Dogs usually live very much in the moment. Your trust in her might take a little longer and again spaying her might help, as you'll have hopefully removed the source of the problem.

How is Sophie now?

LizP wrote:Firstly, don't feel guilty about your response. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would have reacted in a similar way. Just in case you do have another incident, keep Lola's collar on and if you need to you can grab it and twist. You are effectively making it hard for her to breathe so she'll let go to gasp for air. Again, it's not at all nice but it's one of the most effective ways of separating dogs and in these situations needs must.

Yes, it may well be her season and it might be a good idea to get her spayed. Bitches can get very grumpy when in heat sometimes.

Her trust in you might be slightly shaken but she'll get over it quickly. Dogs usually live very much in the moment. Your trust in her might take a little longer and again spaying her might help, as you'll have hopefully removed the source of the problem.

How is Sophie now?

Sophie seems fine this morning, she’s just got a little cut behind her ear and she’s a little sore on her neck were Lola clamped her jaws on her. she’s growling and goes stiff if Lola goes near her and Lola seems to be staying away at the moment. Ive removed all toys just in case. That’s a good tip with the collar, i might put her harness on as well as last night i couldnt actually get hold of her collar as she was moving that fast. I’m just worried about when I’m out at work and my dad has them both. She will be spayed as soon as the vets will do it.

Im so sorry this happened. I had similar experiences, my lexi would randomly go for my other bitch and latch on. She was a setter/retriver mix so had a massive mane of hair...so lexi never actually got to the skin...but boy did she try. Honestly, they were just seperated until the older one died. We had her spayed but she still attacked after it too.

By the way, when i say randomly, it would appear at random times..but knowing dog body language and behaviour i know it was not random so to speak. The older bitch was always the dominant bitch in her pack of her and my dog dog....lexi is quite an insecure dog and also being the ne one, while the older bitch never tried to put her in her place so to speak, she would have the body language of a dominant dog so lexi reacted. One thing i believe is that no dog attacks without provocation or being trained to do so. Yours is obv not trained to do so, so there is some other reason that you can't see.

At 15, not to be blunt, but your JRT won't be around a long time..if i was you i would work on the staffy but ultimately keep them seperate when you are not there, and make sure to keep some distance between them for now.