Hi all, Our golden lab, Dusty, is approaching a year old. He's a typical food orientated greedy guts who thinks everyone is his best friend. We're starting to come good on aspects of his training, still work to do but I have to keep reminding myself he is a puppy despite being almost full sized! Anyway, the advice I'm looking for actually concerns another dog. My parents have a 4 year old cocker spaniel. He is nice natured but constantly jumps up at people and onto furniture, is very possessive of his toys and strangely (but it works well for them) he's completely indifferent about other dogs. This means they've not really had any recall issues ever, lucky them! As you might have guessed, the two of them together isn't the happiest mix. They will be quite fine either in the house or out on a walk together for maybe 80% of the time, then either Dusty will want to play, or will go to pick up a toy, and the other dog refuses but usually gets aggressive, which starts a whole barking and paw flailing match between them. Or the other dog Will jump up at me, which again sets Dusty off barking which gets an aggressive reaction. These "fights" are usually over as soon as they start and don't seem for either dog to be "serious" ie no intent to harm, but my parents get very over protective of their dog and then tell us it's Dusty's fault, he's not trained, we need to sort him out etc. Initially we tried to just keep exposing them to each other on walks etc. Thinking they'd get used to each other. But the 80/20 split has never gotten better than that so we still have blips in an otherwise nice walk. Dusty doesn't have this problem with any of the other dogs we walk with who all play nicely. Apart from when the doorbell goes, the other dog is the only thing that makes Dusty bark. So I'm happy that it isn't all his fault but I know he will inadvertently cause it. The reason for my post is that we're meant to be going on a family holiday in 8 weeks where we'll stay in the same large house (rules pending!). I am in two minds about taking Dusty - I really want to, he is one of the family, but I dread the whole week constantly separating the dogs and being told we've not trained him well enough. Is there a magic command to make Dusty realise the other dog won't play? Can we improve the socialisation skills of the other dog? Will exposure work, or are they better kept apart? Ideas and comments all welcome, I look forward to reading through the rest of the forum for tips and tricks!
Hi Tsauru, welcome to the forum There are lots of things we could unpick here, but unfortunately no quick fixes. For what it's worth, I feel like there are a lot of similarities between your situation, and the one I find myself in with my dog, my parents in law, and their dog. And in my experience, I've decided it's easier to just not bring them together if it can be avoided. It's kinder and less stressful on everyone, including both dogs. As Dusty gets older, he'll naturally become less preoccupied with trying to entice all other dogs to play with him, and more content to ignore the ones that clearly aren't interested. Then you can try a do-over with your parents' dog
Thanks Sarah, I did wonder if that might be the case! It's frustrating because we have no issues with other pooches and can quite happily take him out with them. Reading some more of Pippa's prose, it looks very much like my parent's cocker is a reactive dog and there really isn't a cure for that. Having said that, do reactive dogs only react part of the time? As I said before it's probably an 80/20 split of them getting on totally fine then suddenly not. I am slowly and reluctantly coming to the conclusion that him not coming will make life easier for all concerned including him - sadly!
Reactive dogs can be reactive to very specific triggers. Like us, they can also be willing to tolerate something annoying a few times, and then start to lose patience (think of something like a toddler repeatedly crashing a toy car into your foot). Often, a problem with interactions between puppies and older dogs, is that by the time the older dogs starts sending signals that they've run out of interest, the puppy is already too overexcited to notice them. Your vet can probably recommend good boarding kennels and pet sitters nearby (they tend to have a standing agreement with them to look after the dogs in their care, if needed), or you can ask for recommendations on local Facebook groups. Good businesses will be happy for you to visit with Dusty and show you around in advance. There are lots of really great boarding options available these days, and finding one Dusty loves can really help with how you feel about about leaving him there
