Onset Of Aggression

[Skruffy n Flea]

thanks persephone i understand what you are getting at and it's a good point

i also appreciate that your dogs don't have to deal with this kind of interaction --- i'd go a long way to have some secure property just for them

but from where i was at in my thinking, i was playing out what had happened; and so the first occurrence: that's once, and then it goes on to okay, that's twice and so that's it, last time --- so, i would think that, in bella's case, she'd have already corrected the pup before i'd have the chance to get myself in there to separate and distract them!

jb: that's the other thing --- during that circumstance, bella's behaviour was just a wee bit stronger the 2nd time than the first so yes, consideration for your own dog's level of frustration is what drives you into action, given that the pup [in this case] was half bella's size...

thanks

[Skruffy n Flea]

it looks weird that i've only added to the first few lines of my post

but it doesn't botther me that much to go back and edit...

here's a couple for you jb :)

[corvus]

ok.... but I have a query here- if we distract dogs when we see they are about to snap or whatever- does this then mean that issues are unresolved? The message doesn't get thru to the other dog, and the relationship is still unsure?

I think that depends on whether the dogs are in a "relationship" in the first place. Two dogs meeting at a park are just interacting temporarily. They may well never have a relationship, assuming that relationships are built on history.

I was just thinking pup is being a pain, and a pain... dog gets fed up , and is about to let pup know. Observant owner sees what is happening-- steps in .. dogs separate, distracted.

Does pup then see another opportunity to be a pain again and take it, seeing as how he was not disciplined the first time...?

IME, interrupting behaviour before it becomes an established routine works.

Just before we got Erik Kivi had a staffy puppy as a dog park friend. She would jump all over him and hang tenaciously off his cheek. Being Kivi, he did not "discipline" her. He would shake her off, walk away, shake her off, walk away, shake her off, walk away. If he started to whine, I would go and rescue him. I wondered what would happen if he didn't stand up for himself. I thought I might be prying her off his cheek for many months to come. As it turned out, in a matter of a few weeks she had modified her behaviour on her own so that she was no longer hanging off his cheek. What happened? He never did so much as raise a lip about it. They only interacted for about ten minutes two or three times a week at most. I can only hazard a guess that she liked the fast play better than being constantly shaken off, or perhaps other dogs were doing the teaching behind the scenes and she was generalising to Kivi. Whatever the case, I think that dogs become more sensitive to each other over time. Erik pestered Kivi when he was a puppy as well, and I know for a fact he wasn't being disciplined by other dogs or Kivi, yet he grew out of it on his own. I stepped in to distract him a few times, but mostly he just drifted to a more socially harmonious relationship as he grew.

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

it looks weird that i've only added to the first few lines of my post

but it doesn't botther me that much to go back and edit...

here's a couple for you jb

lol ty

you are doing really well with your dogs and what i think is great is that you really look at what they are doing and ask lots of good questions that gets everyone thinking.

[Skruffy n Flea]

thanks corvus --- i agree with that too! bella and our boy byron roughhouse often, loudly and sometimes at length but it took us a while to become comfortable with that. in the early days of their cohabiting, we would find it necessary to separate and give time out on occasion but now, after 10 months they are pretty good buds, respectful of each other and the only time there is a correction, and it's not often, from one to the other is because there'd been an overstep of a boundary and it's done and over with in a nanosecond with the offending dog taking stock...

watching those two is better than telly i gotta say and that's the only way i'm aware of those corrections --- but it's like a flash...

[Skruffy n Flea]

it looks weird that i've only added to the first few lines of my post

but it doesn't botther me that much to go back and edit...

here's a couple for you jb

lol ty

yw

you are doing really well with your dogs and what i think is great is that you really look at what they are doing and ask lots of good questions that gets everyone thinking.

thanks