Hi all,
I adopted a rescue dog, who I instantly fell in love with. However as time goes on, I am noticing undesirable behaviours. Yesterday I gave my rescue dog (21 week old pup) a bone to chew on, with my other small 2yr old dog in the yard as well. I know the rescue pup is obsessed with food, and we have never fed them in the same room as the rescue pup is greedy and would eat our other dogs food. My plan was to let her have her bone, then bring her inside and give my other dog a bone of her own to eat in peace. However the rescue pup was pacing from the bone to the other dog and back to the bone a few times .. then my other dog, who was showing no interest in the bone, made a slight move to go and sit somewhere else or something, and the rescue pup went into full attack mode and had the smaller dog on her back yelping and getting stuck into her. I reacted badly myself and was yelling at the rescue dog to get off her and it upset me so much i'm ashamed to say I gave her a bit of a whack with my hand. My other small dog is now terrified, standing in stressed out pose for hours and won't give me eye contact. She is clearly traumatised by the whole ordeal and my behaviour i'm sure. The rescue pup also displays a lot of anxiety, needing to be under my feet 24/7. I live in a remote town so access to dog obedience trainers is difficult. However she is booked in for obedience classes starting in 2 weeks from now. I am wondering if with the right training for me and my rescue dog, whether we can help the rescue dog from behaving this way with food, and with anxiety.... is there any hope? I am starting to worry after that attack that she may even get that way with my 6 year old child or any other child that may visit. My head tells me I need to let the dog go, but it's pulling at my heart strings because we love her, but I need to do what is right... I'm very confused. I'm not asking anyone to decide for me what to do, but opinions are greatly appreciated.
