Hi,

We have got another dog. This one is our first dog (Alfie)'s sister from the same litter, she is 14 months old. The prevous owners were going to give her to a shelter - they said they didnt have time for her but the called the breeder first who took her back on Sat. We offered to foster with a view to keeping.

Now I know its earley days but she seems to be showing signs of aggresion - or is it me so used to my soppy buggers??

She is quite badly matted and I was brushing her very gently and she went for me. When Lola (my other dog) went near where she was eating she went for her. I tried to wipe the sleepies out of her eyes and she was rolling her nose up as if to go for me.

I realise that she is probably feeling stressed but I am concerned for my other two.

We really dont have a lot of history.

Any advice or similar experiences?

Hi ~ Well done for taking on Alfie's sister. I hope you can give her a happier time than it sounds like she had with her previous owners.

You say you don't have any history on her other than the previous owners saying that they didn't have time for her. If this is true then the poor mite probably lead a fairly boring, unstimulating & lonely life at best, or could have been quite neglected at worst, & in view of the matted hair, it suggests the latter.

It is not surprising that her way of trying to tell you & your other dogs that she's not happy, or she's worried, or she's hurting, is to be aggressive. She probably doesn't know any better! And if this method has worked in the past, then she'll continue to use it. If she's aggressive around food, perhaps she's had to fight for food in her previous home (do you know if she lived with other pets?), or perhaps the owners used one of these discredited dominance-reduction type programmes where you have to show your dog that you are pack leader by removing the foods bowl when the dog is eating, or perhaps food was in short supply so is now very important to her.

And with the matted fur, perhaps it hurts when you try to groom her, or perhaps she has been hurt in the past by heavy-handed grooming?

Don't give up on her yet. It's early days & it will take time for her to learn that all the things that have caused her anxiety in the past, have now gone & been replaced by you & your other dogs.

In the meantime, I would suggest that you feed her separately from your other dogs & leave her completely alone when she's eating. After a week or so, you can perhaps try throwing something very tasty towards her food bowl, then get a bit nearer & try it. Don't try to touch her food bowl & don't let your other dogs go near her.

If she's very badly matted & you think that her fur could be causing her pain, then you may need to ask your vet to sedate her & remove the worst of the matting so that she's manageable in the future. If the matting is not too bad, then start very slowly & only continue for a very short time (e.g a couple of strokes with a grooming mit, or very soft brush, even a tooth brush) & stop before she feels she has to react. Combine this with feeding her a few tasty treats that she only gets when accompanied by the gentle grooming/handling so she comes to associate something pleasant with the grooming. Make sure you do this when your other dogs are not around, (e.g. when sleeping after exercise & food?) so that they do not try to get in on it.

Just take things slowly & calmly for a few weeks as it will take at least this long before she starts to feel safe & settle down & learn your routine. You may find other behaviours start to appear during this time as well so keep an eye on her. Spend lots of time doing things she likes ~ she's only young so maybe toys? Walks?

Make sure she has a comfy bed & space of her own so that she can relax & get proper sleep ~ this will help her enormously, especially as she's embarking on a whole new life.

Best of luck with her ~ I look forward to hearing how she's getting on

Food aggresion...it could be she's not used to having such good meals and just doesn't want to share. this was the case with my rescue, so at first I would feed them apart-still within sight of eachother but not close enough for my other dog to seem threatening. Then slowly over a matter of weeks I gradually moved them closer together untill they were eating within a metre of each other.

But if she has food aggresion towards you then you ideally need to address this.
Again this was a problem i encountered, I wouldn't immediately put her food into her bowl but i would put it in by hand...so my hand was a 'good' thing and not taking food away-which is what she feared. Wait till she ate it then add more. after a few days of this I would put her food in the bowl and while she was eating lift some out for her. It also would portray to her that i was the food giver and to earn food she had to behave. Again I reinforce this by both dogs 'sitting' 'leave' and 'good girls' when I put their food down.
It worked and now she has no food aggresion at all.

I'm not saying its the right way to do things-all dogs are different.

Hi there,

Thanks for the advice as always!! She is ok with me taking the food away. Lola had abit of a growl at her this morning when she tried to take her bone as small as she is lol! Will try the isolated feeding and as the other poster said hand feed too.

We were doing tricks last nite for choccy drops and biscuits and she she didn't seem to know how to eat them - she kept spitting them out until after about 6 times of seeing Alf & Lola eat them ?!! Btw she takes them very gently from me.

I dont know if she was with any other animals but the breeder said she thinks that Huni (thats her name) was shut outside all the time whilst they were in and was not disiplined ie if she was naughty out the back you go, which would make sense as when I put her out the back for a wee she seems confused when i call her in immediatley after.

I am going to take her to my groomer who is very experienced to see what she thinks as she really does need a good cut. Will be making appointment for vets to have her chipped and a check over too. I don't think it was cause i was hurting her it seemed like she wasn't used to being touched. Well she's had lots of cuddles so far and its only been a day!

Alf and her fight quite a bit and it seems to get quite aggresive, am concerned about little Lola getting hurt by being in the way.

Couldnt bare to see her go to a shelter - I know it will take time and patience - hopefully it will all work out

Thanks Pawprint!

Am going to try handfeeding her on her own and see how we get on

My rescue too was left outside all the time,never walked,had no idea how to eat a bone and never fed porperly. and had no doggy manners at all.

Personally i would hold off on the groomer for the minute-its still very early days yet and she must be very overwhelmed.

As for the fighting...my two had and still do have some very vicious fights. What works for me is-don't shout at them, just walk out of the room and they will stop. I didn't believe it would work but it did, and never try to seperate them....all common sense goes out the window and they just bite at anything...including your hand....trust me I know!

It will work out-and there loads of people out there that can help you too, it takes time and a lot of patience. its a shame their aren't more owners in the world like you

Keep us updated on how she is getting on....lovely name too.

Hi,

Thanks again!

Last night we bathed her and cut most of the matting out by hand - she was very good and laid there for over an hour whilst we did it bless her! She seems a lot happier and more settled today. We have an appt for the groomers on Monday as she desperately needs her claws doing.

Will post a pic soon

Excellent advise from the above posters.

We have four dogs. Our two and then two rehomed from rescue centres. It was difficult at the time but after a few months it is as if they had always lived together so it is worth persevering with. Actually now they work as a team and all line up with their big sad "I've not been fed in weeks" eyes looking for a treat.

awwww bless her I used to sit for hours gently pulling out matted bits from Keeley. Helped build up a bond and trust between us too.
i found just walking her on pavement naturally filed her claws down-hers were terribly long too. But she was so nervy at first i didn't want to frighten her anymore with claw clipping. You could tell she'd never been walked on pavement as not only were her claws so long but her pads were baby soft.
Looking forward to seeing a pic

Hi all,

Weve since found the reason why she was given up is because she kept attacking the owners partner. I find this really hard to belive as since she has settled in she has shown no signs of aggression to us whatsoever or anyone that has came in our house.

Also she says she used to keep her in the boot of the car whilst she was at work.

She is still quite nervous, everytime she greets us she pees. We have taken to ignoring her when we come in until we've got her out in the garden, however, this doesn't always work. Any tips on breaking this would be appreciated.

She is also partial to eating her own poo I've tried pineapple and some charcoal stuff that the pet shop recommended to put in her food but nothing works. We pick up the poo as soon as we see her go but there are the odd times we miss it! Again any advice??

I've just got a third dog last week. I have Cookie who is 14 years old and Lola who is one year. I got Tillie who is 18 months last week. She was VERY nervous of me for days. But gradually she's getting more confident and is getting a lot better as the days go by. I've had my older one Cookie snap at her a few times but dogs do that at first. I noticed she snaps at my other two at night time when they move about on the bed so I've been correcting her on that.

You've gotta give her time to settle in. Dogs snap at eachother but usually it's just a warning snap. It looks nasty though. Like Cookie. When I got Lola he snapped at her when she was annhoying him. He put her in her place. Now they're the best of friends.

OMG she was kept in the boot of a car!!!!!! The poor soul, no wonder she is nervous. She is submissive peeing at the moment. There are a lot of articles on the net about this.

Just give her time and let her come to you, don't push her. Let her learn she can trust you.

Poo eating is what goes on here too. I got Cookie out of it but then got Lola and she does it. I stopped her eating hers but now she eats Cookie's only!!!! Pineapple makes it taste nasty. What I did was just call them away from it straight away. Stand there when they poo and then block it and direct her away from it. Teach the leave it commad too. That helps. Lola still does it from time to time though. Thank the lord I brush her teeth lol.

BTW what kind of do is she? I have Chihuahuas.

Here's an article with ways to stop submissive urination. There are loads more on the net:

http://ezinearticles.com/?8-Ways-to-...Dogs&id=532297

Hi,
Thanks for the advice! They are all Shih Tzu x Collies.

awww I love both of them. My friend has Shih x Jack Russell

Heres a pic of all 3

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2618/dsc00956wa.jpg

What a gorgeous picture, looks like they really love each other