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New
Dogs, Together In The House
By Adam G. Katz
Hello Adam,
I just
finished your book and I really enjoyed it. I am going to read it again to
"apply" what I learned. I will take you up on your offer to answer a
question via email....
[ To read about the book he's referring to,
go to:
http://www.thats-a-good-dog.com/dogproblem
]
This is probably a simple question for you, but here goes
...
We just got another Shiba-Inu (fixed 3yr old male) on 2/18. Our
first we got in Aug. 99 (fixed 2yr female). They are both very sweet. The
introduction went well in the garage and then I walked them around the
block (leash of course) and that went well. The mistake was to let them go
in the house. Well...the fighting started...not long but intense. No
blood, but it looked like she was protecting her territory and he was
showing his dominance. To make a long story short, after about five
minutes of those incidents we separated them in the house and would only
let them loose together in the backyard.
During the last fight in
the house, the male pinned the female until she quit growling and then let
her up. Guess she figured out that he was the dominant one, because now
when they're outside they've become "buddies."
They play great
together. The problem is that the other day the male walked by the female
on his way out and you could see that there was a bit of tension...like a
fight could begin...I said "aaakkkkk" and it quit.
Now...after all
that, here is my question:
I want to let them loose together in the
house so we don't have to keep them separated any longer but I want to do
it correctly and not have a skirmish ruin what has been accomplished in
the backyard. How would you suggest the best way to make this happen so
that they will have a good relationship in the house, too. I plan on
hiding all the toys and chewies when I do this. I appreciate any
suggestions you might have.
Thanks,
Brian.
Dear
Brian,
Thanks for the question. It's a good one.
This is
pretty much an identical situation to the relationship my dog has with my
parent's dog. I "dog-sit" for them probably two or three times a year and
the relationship is 100% analogous to the one you've got.
Here's
the deal:
1.) It sounds like the dogs have pretty much worked out
who is the pack leader.
2.) There still may be some dominance
skirmishes. This is normal, but I would not allow these to happen in the
house. The fact that your verbal correction was enough to make them stop
shows that the dogs respect you. If you leave the training collars and
tabs on the dogs, you can correct the perpetrator if you feel that it was
inappropriate (even though it's natural for the alpha dog to throw his
weight around)... YOU (being even more dominant) can decide that this is
inappropriate behavior in the house.
In sum, you will not "hurt"
the progress in their relationship by letting them be together in the
house. Just don't leave them unsupervised together for the first three
months.
To read more of my dog
training ramblings, read about my book:
Secrets of a
Professional Dog Trainer!
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