On the Hoof
Well-Known Member
Advice needed!
Ok this is a bit long so apologies for this but I need some advice. Context is that I have had my BC puppy since she was 9 weeks old, she turned 15 weeks old today. She is a lovely friendly outgoing puppy who loves people and just wants to play with other dogs. My in laws have a horrid Jack Russell, horrid because he is untrained, grossly overweight due to them giving him treats all the time and they are now too old to exercise him properly. This dog loves me .
We took the puppy over to meet him a couple of weeks ago, the JR persistently growled at my pup and snapped at her, he didn’t want her near me or near anyone else. Due to rather distressing accidents in the last week (MIL broke hip and she is carer for housebound FIL who fell a couple of days ago), all the family are taking it in turns to be at the house to care for FIL, and this will have to continue when MIL gets home for a while). So poor JR has temporarily ‘lost’ his mum and his routine, while my poor puppy has to go over there for long periods of time and is losing her routine aswell; we keep walking them out together and there has been some improvement. Yesterday I took her crate over so she could be crated from time to time so that everything could be calmed down, I cannot look after FIL and supervise two dogs where the layout of the house doesn’t really allow separation. Puppy is starting to leave the dog alone now unless she is in a ‘I really want to play phase’, BUT we are still having to manage the fact that this dog always follows me about and so they are always in the way of each other. Anyway yesterday for once the older dog was quietly on the sofa in living room whilst I was in kitchen with puppy, so I was quietly getting her to sit, lie down and basic things to keep her occupied. Other dog must have heard rattle of kibble being given and came in, I fed him one and then pup one – no problem. Then went to give pup another piece before giving the older dog one and I dropped it, JR lunged for it and my puppy growled and went for him. I guess I was shocked , she doesn’t resource guard at home with humans, we have always from day one, given and taken away food/ toys and made it clear that we are in charge of the food. A few hours later she was drinking water and JR wanted some and she did the same again. At feeding time I made sure puppy was on a leash and we had their bowls about 6ft apart and the puppy wasn’t interested in the other dogs food even though she finished her kibble first. Tbh I didn’t really know how to handle this. Given that we will have to go over to their house a lot over the coming weeks and maybe months, I need to try and sort this. I am worried that all this coming and going between houses is going to make the puppy anxious, and I realized when I got home that because we had spent so much time at the in-laws house that day that the pup hadn’t really had her full ration of food, this is due to the fact that normally her food is given from my pocket and not put in a bowl but that is not possible there without setting up the potential for conflict .
Any advice truly appreciated. Am I overthinking this? How can I instill manners in the puppy around other dogs especially when there is food around, even if she is constantly being snarled at by the older dog, some of which is reasonable – she needs to be told he doesn’t want to play, and some is not reasonable as he is ‘resource guarding’ all his humans. The JR is 11 years old btw and has no manners, does what he wants in the house, doesn’t know the meaning of sit, off , down or anything. The puppy is learning all this stuff but there is much distraction about in the in-laws house – if I call the puppy the other dog comes to me and vice versa. Im really struggling with this; Ideally I would just drop my OH off at the in-laws and have nothing to do with the care, but that is not going to be realistic.
Ok this is a bit long so apologies for this but I need some advice. Context is that I have had my BC puppy since she was 9 weeks old, she turned 15 weeks old today. She is a lovely friendly outgoing puppy who loves people and just wants to play with other dogs. My in laws have a horrid Jack Russell, horrid because he is untrained, grossly overweight due to them giving him treats all the time and they are now too old to exercise him properly. This dog loves me .
We took the puppy over to meet him a couple of weeks ago, the JR persistently growled at my pup and snapped at her, he didn’t want her near me or near anyone else. Due to rather distressing accidents in the last week (MIL broke hip and she is carer for housebound FIL who fell a couple of days ago), all the family are taking it in turns to be at the house to care for FIL, and this will have to continue when MIL gets home for a while). So poor JR has temporarily ‘lost’ his mum and his routine, while my poor puppy has to go over there for long periods of time and is losing her routine aswell; we keep walking them out together and there has been some improvement. Yesterday I took her crate over so she could be crated from time to time so that everything could be calmed down, I cannot look after FIL and supervise two dogs where the layout of the house doesn’t really allow separation. Puppy is starting to leave the dog alone now unless she is in a ‘I really want to play phase’, BUT we are still having to manage the fact that this dog always follows me about and so they are always in the way of each other. Anyway yesterday for once the older dog was quietly on the sofa in living room whilst I was in kitchen with puppy, so I was quietly getting her to sit, lie down and basic things to keep her occupied. Other dog must have heard rattle of kibble being given and came in, I fed him one and then pup one – no problem. Then went to give pup another piece before giving the older dog one and I dropped it, JR lunged for it and my puppy growled and went for him. I guess I was shocked , she doesn’t resource guard at home with humans, we have always from day one, given and taken away food/ toys and made it clear that we are in charge of the food. A few hours later she was drinking water and JR wanted some and she did the same again. At feeding time I made sure puppy was on a leash and we had their bowls about 6ft apart and the puppy wasn’t interested in the other dogs food even though she finished her kibble first. Tbh I didn’t really know how to handle this. Given that we will have to go over to their house a lot over the coming weeks and maybe months, I need to try and sort this. I am worried that all this coming and going between houses is going to make the puppy anxious, and I realized when I got home that because we had spent so much time at the in-laws house that day that the pup hadn’t really had her full ration of food, this is due to the fact that normally her food is given from my pocket and not put in a bowl but that is not possible there without setting up the potential for conflict .
Any advice truly appreciated. Am I overthinking this? How can I instill manners in the puppy around other dogs especially when there is food around, even if she is constantly being snarled at by the older dog, some of which is reasonable – she needs to be told he doesn’t want to play, and some is not reasonable as he is ‘resource guarding’ all his humans. The JR is 11 years old btw and has no manners, does what he wants in the house, doesn’t know the meaning of sit, off , down or anything. The puppy is learning all this stuff but there is much distraction about in the in-laws house – if I call the puppy the other dog comes to me and vice versa. Im really struggling with this; Ideally I would just drop my OH off at the in-laws and have nothing to do with the care, but that is not going to be realistic.