[APPLEBLOSSOM]

Hi all, I am a new user and was wondering if anyone can help me out!
1 week ago my husband and I adopted a stray dog (Molly). She is a very sweet and laid back dog. We are guessing that she is about 6-12 months old. She has been pretty good with all of the training we have been trying. As of last night another dog came into our lives (a 9 week old German Shepard, Sasha). When the two dogs met they played for a while and got acquainted but then a few hours later Molly was attacking Sasha. I am not 100% why but when I made my correction sound and touched Molly she backed off. Needless to say Sasha was a little shaken up.
Things calmed down and every one was fine until early the next morning. Sasha started playing with one of molly’s toys and Molly attacked her again. We aren't talking growling I mean a full blown attack. Once again when I made my correction sound and touched Molly she backed off.
My husband has been home with both of them all day and he tells me that although there hasn't been any more attacks for the time being Molly has started growling towards Sasha for no reason at all. At this point I am even dreading going home from work because all I have been thinking about is ‘what if Molly really hurts Sasha’. I understand that the growling might not be something to worry about since Molly is trying to let Sasha know the boundaries, but I really didn't think there would be any attacks like this. Let me clarify that Sasha has been fine after both times and there hasn't been any blood or broken skin. Has anyone had issues like this when bringing two dogs together? Am I being paranoid or worrying too much? Any insight would be so helpful. It makes me really sad to think that this might be something we all won’t get over and I would hate for there to be tension.

 

[Emily1188]

Well, the good news is that this is no where near a "full-blown attack," since the aggressing dog backed off with a simple touch and sound, and the puppy on the receiving end was totally unhurt. That's a very good thing. Please realize that Molly is showing significant bite inhibition and these are not "attacks" but rather an....overreaction of sorts. It will help you not to think of them that way, IMO.

My bottom-line, very basic guess is that Molly is noisily and dramatically correcting Sasha, as adult dogs frequently do with puppies. It's a lot of noise, bared-teeth, etc, but doesn't amount to anything but giving the puppy a scare and setting some limits.

That said, without seeing it, it's impossible to make a real analysis of what's going on and give advice. I will say that a week is nothing when it comes to integrating a new dog into the household. Molly is not even settled in your household, not even close, so adding a puppy then shortly after is going to be pretty stressful. I think for now, you need to carefully monitor them and do not give them an opportunity to fight. Don't expect them to share food, toys, or space, and limit their interactions to keep them short and positive. While Molly hasn't hurt Sasha (and that's good), do not assume the behavior can't/won't escalate. My gut tells me that if you take care to minimize their conflicts, they'll get used to each other, but it's really not something you should chance.

I think you would greatly benefit from an in-home trainer who is familiar with dog-dog issues and uses positive reinforcement-based methods to see the situation first hand and tell you whether or not it's potentially dangerous. Until that can happen, you need to manage them very carefully, using leashes, crates, baby-gates, etc to control how and when they interact.

 

[Kyllobernese]

If you heard Remmy correcting Kris, my Dobe, you would think he was killing her but he has never left a mark on her. He only does it when she starts to get too rough with the other little dogs or they squeal because she has been too rough. She sees him coming and just lies down now and doesn't move. As he is ten pounds to her forty pounds it is funny to see. They lie out in the sun together and get along fine the rest of the time and I would rather he correct her than me.

 

[APPLEBLOSSOM]

does it not make you nervous when the correction seems fierce? im starting to pay attention to molly and for the most part she was good last night but I think I might just be worried about sasha getting hurt.

 

[PatriciafromCO]

my Adult dogs to a pup there is a restraint from the adult of tolerance, adult dogs are better at teaching constructive lessons to a nudgey pushy pup.. Adolescent dogs such as Molly's age I don't trust them to have the maturity to be constructive and have the tolerance.. it's more of a sibling rivalry ability They both need your guidance/protection on how to conduct themselves individually and how to get along. They both still need learning structure themselves, learning self restraint. It's double duty, but they wont think of applying skills they don't have yet.

 

[Emily1188]

does it not make you nervous when the correction seems fierce? im starting to pay attention to molly and for the most part she was good last night but I think I might just be worried about sasha getting hurt.

Oh, sometimes it does make me nervous, especially if I don't know the dog giving the correction or if it takes me surprise. You don't know Molly that well after only having her a week, which is why I advise you to be careful.

Also, instead of viewing Molly as the offender in these situations, start watching the pup to see what she's doing that's making Molly growl. If she's being rude (jumping in Molly's face), trying to steal toys, playing too rough, you need to realize it's Sasha who's at fault. You can step in on Molly's behalf and tell the puppy to stop/redirect her to something appropriate, so that Molly's not put in the position to over-correct her.