Olive and boy Frankie are both two years old. Olive has had a litter with Frankie and they have kept one – girl Pip, four months old.
Hyped up
This case is all about arousal. The little dogs are constantly hyped up.
This can be with wild greetings and rough and tumble play from their humans.
They see passing dogs and people, so bark.
They go mental when the doorbell rings. Olive may redirect with aggression onto Frankie. This can then spill over into when they have a visitor in the house.
Sofa
As stress levels build during the day, the couple will later be sitting on the sofa.
If Olive is up there first, she may attack Frankie if he jumps up. (She is always the instigator). Frankie may hide if he sees it coming but then he retaliates.
Sometimes Frankie will be licking Olive. She seems to ‘like it’ and then may suddenly turn.
The result is that she is scolded and shut in the pen.
It’s hard not to scold, but it can do no good at all. It can only had heat to the situation and will probably not relate to the ‘crime’ in Olive’s mind. She returns very submissive and fawning. I suspect that is due to her humans being cross with her, not saying ‘sorry’ as her humans believe.
How to bring the ‘temperature’ down
They now have a hotbed of excitement with their three little dogs. Already puppy Pip is joining in with the noise.
We went through the day, looking at ways to bring the ‘temperature’ down.
There are never any fights when no humans are about. This is a clue. The humans’ own behaviour could be pushing Olive over the edge.
A summary of my suggestions
The three dogs sleep together in harmony in a large pen (no humans about). When the couple come down in the morning they currently give the dogs a very excited welcome, already firing them up.
I suggest a casual and calm hello, letting them out straight away.
Food
Food is a running buffet. Meals now can be given in ways that will help to enrich and calm the dogs. They can work for their food.
The quality of the food could also be contributing to the behaviour. Currently it includes Bakers Complete.
Play
Human play with the dogs should be gentler. More hunting, chewing and sniffing and less rough-house.
They should monitor play between the dogs. and interrupt it before it goes over the top, particularly when involving the puppy.
Doorbell, callers and passing people
They will desensitise to the doorbell and thus the dogs will be calmer when visitors come into the house.
They will block the window view from passing people and dogs to cut down on the barking.
Sofa manners
Whenever Olive is on the sofa first, when Frankie wants to jump they will call Olive off first. They will reward her and invite Frankie up, then invite her up again. She never attacks when Frankie is the first up.
When Frankie starts his licking of Olive on the sofa, they will split the two dogs up so they don’t lie together.
How to respond if Olive does attack Frankie?
Quietly remove her, No scolding. Help her. Help her to calm down by giving her something to chew in the pen. This isn’t rewarding attacking as they won’t be dealing with this. They are dealing with the emotion that is causing it.
This is always a hard concept for people.
Calmer dogs should mean less reactive dogs.
Afterwards: We found the guidance really informative and helpful…it was really interesting to understand things from a dogs perspective and the reasons why they act like they do and made a lot of sense and so hopefully putting the guidance into action will resolve the issues we’re having. Theo was great and was able to provide a solution for all of the problems we are having 👍🏼
