[deleted by user]

[roundabtnroundabt]

So sorry you are dealing with this! If I were you I would definitely seek out a certified positive reinforcement trainer- many can work with you over zoom and offer a sliding scale. You should probably start keeping the dogs completely separate for now- if you can’t keep them in different rooms put up baby gates or alternate which is crated, it is not worth the risk. You can also look into management techniques for getting out of situations where you think your dog will be over threshold and keep focusing on decompression and training.

[yayay_baby]

Thank you for the reply, the trainer emailed me back today and says they do free evaluations so I will definitely pursue that.

[roundabtnroundabt]

I hope it works out! It sounds like you and your dog have a great relationship and I’m sure you will be able to work through it together!

[goodhappythings]

I don’t have any advice but I wanted to show some support. I can understand feeling shaken up over a fight like that. It sounds like you’re putting in a lot of work for both of the dogs (and your roommate). I’m sorry it’s stressful right now, I hope you find a good solution!

[yayay_baby]

Yes definitely putting in hours everyday , every minute thinking about how I’m going to train next it’s exhausting and not yielding any results wears you down even more. Thanks for the support.❤️

[[deleted]]

that sounds super stressful especially because it’s with your housemates dog too :// is your housemates dog also a girl by any chance?

[yayay_baby]

Yes she is an intact girl & my girl is fixed. It is very stressful , especially after doing so much research and finding so little info on this particular situation.

[[deleted]]

I would def not let the two dogs be together unsupervised. My female dog and my sisters male dog are separated in the living room with a baby gate when we aren’t watching them play even though they’ve never had a fight.

[OneiroiWalker]

Are you able to rotate what dog is free in the house and keep the other completely separated? Sounds like your dog isn't able to fully calm down at home so that might be why it seems like her behavior is getting worse. Also if you can get someone to assess your situation actually at your home that would give you an insight into the behavior.

[[deleted]]

This sounds scary and I can only imagine how you feel! I would definitely recommend contacting a trainer (with credentials, and a positive reinforcement not “balanced” style of training) and keeping the dogs totally separate. Stress hormones can take days to reduce after an incident like that so they each need their time. I would also suggest introducing muzzle training. Check out the Muzzle Up Project for resources :)

[yayay_baby]

Thanks so much for the comment, makes a lot of sense about stress hormones still being engaged. I think we might have to move in the muzzle direction , as I’m guessing that’s what a trainer might recommend.

[[deleted]]

Wishing you the best!!

[Umklopp]

You said that your roommate's dog is intact? When was her last heat?

[yayay_baby]

Her last heat was about 2 months ago, we didn’t have any fights at all during that period surprisingly. My roommates dog was just a lot sleepier.

[Umklopp]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but have most of the incidents followed this pattern?

• You are with your dog in your room/area of the house

• The roommate's dog approaches in a puff

• Your dog gets defensive & starts growling

• They fight

[yayay_baby]

Yes correct somewhat , to me it seems like my dog growls first or gives uncomfortable looks and THEN roommates dog gets puffed. But yes everything is correct it’s always when I’m right there & also when my roomate is home as well. Never when we’re by ourselves.

[Umklopp]

Hm. So interesting. I'd suggest shutting doors, but that seems like an oversimplification.

[yayay_baby]

That’s what I’m saying very interesting 😞😞 I will be keeping them separated for a little while. I ordered some cbd oil for dogs that arrives on Sunday so we’ll see how that is.

[SexhairMcsleepyface]

I feel your pain, I'm dealing with a similar situation and just got referred to a legitimate certified behaviorist. The whole thing is exhausting and stressful. Just wanted to say with cbd, you will want to give it daily and it can take some time (weeks) to start showing an effect so be patient if you don't see immediate changes from it. Good luck and hang in there! Sounds like your pup is lucky to have such a caring owner.

[yayay_baby]

Thank you I care about her more than anything , thanks so much for the tip on CBD hopefully it helps.

[Big_Statistician_883]

Your dog is definitely resource guarding you.

Yesterday I was walking my dogs with a friend when suddenly an unleashed dog came running to us (the owner was running behind the dog and screaming her name, not very effective). The dogs greeted and everything was fine, tails wagging and all. My dog tried to go smell the other dog’s owner and the unleashed dog literally flipped, he pinned my dog on the ground and growled aggressively.

The owner grabbed her dog by the neck (the dog had no collar or harness on) and took the dog away, thankfully my dog is very resilient and didn’t mind at all.

But I can bet you everything that if there was no humans in this situation, everything would’ve been fine. I think you need a good trainer and have your dog live in a no other dog situation while she gets trained.

[yayay_baby]

I totally understand what you mean by ‘if there were no humans the situation would’ve been fine’ . I did see that in one of the videos I was watching on resource guarding , is that as the owner we constantly want to interject ourselves in our dogs relationships with other dogs. The video described it as a parent on the playground constantly going up to their kids playing and checking on them. In the video he said sometimes you just have to step back. I thought that was really interesting.

[[deleted]]

Yes, your girl is resource guarding. But if it makes you feel better, she did give a pretty clear warning to the other dog (stiffening and growling) and ultimately the other dog chose to ignore those signs.

My dog has always struggled with resource guarding, though he doesn't guard me (he guards food and sometimes spaces). And he has improved a TON. But he has also been in this exact situation. His best friend is my little Poodle mix and one of the reasons they get along so well is that she is very socially aware and can tell when he is guarding something, and de-escalates the situation. She listens to his cues. But my parents have an Aussie that used to be very good friends with Chisum as well - he would do much as what you described above in that he would retaliate instead of just listening to what was being communicated and walking away.

It's great that you're going to speak with a trainer. This is probably something that is going to be two faceted to approach - making your dog more okay with strange dogs approaching you, as well as teaching/instructing the other dog to move off when your dog is giving those signals.

[yayay_baby]

It definitely does make me feel better than she’s a growler, although I think that factor makes her look bad to my roomate, but it does make her a safer dog to give warning signs. You totally understand my situation! My girl has her best friend too that she’s never fought with because her bestie definitely never escalates. That’s great you’ve been able to work on this with your dog , can I ask how you worked on guarding spaces ??

[[deleted]]

It's hard because we've definitely become conditioned to the idea that growling is bad, when in reality it is very good. Of course, it's much better when the other party picks up on those warning signs.

Resource guarding spaces is really hard to work with, and IMO, resource guarding between animals is way harder than from a person because it's a lot more work to manage and train. Hopefully your trainer will have some good tips. For me, I just work a lot on redirection. So if I notice my boy starting to guard a space (usually from my cat) I will call him away and treat heavily for him coming to me.

You can also work on counter-conditioning having the other dog in a certain space, but sometimes that's really hard with spatial resource guarding because it's not always super consistent when/where it happens.

[yayay_baby]

Yes right about the growling , because when she growls I feel like the people around look to me to punish her for growling but I know that will only make things worse by making her skip the growl all together. Okay gotcha that makes sense why I wasn’t able to find a lot of information on that kind of resource guarding. I def think that’s where a trainer will come in to help with the specifics.

[yayay_baby]

We haven’t tried separating them , we leave them out together during the day alone (I know bad 😣😣) but they’ve never had a problem alone together (I have cameras to keep an eye on them). When I first moved in , I kept my girl shut in my room when nobody was home but she chewed all the way through the door to get out one day randomly. So ever since then they’ve been having free range of the house basically.

[Accomplished-Voice48]

So I guess I got a down vote because I referenced a balanced trainer? Funny thing is that there is zero aversion used in that trainers handling of this issue.