7 y/o F lab just attacked 10 week puppy, please help!

[bibleexploreriii]

Hi, I’ve never posted before but I’ve been reading here now for a little while & I need help.

My adult female lab has always been more dominant than our other dogs. She’s been pretty good with the puppy for the most part. She gets possessive over some toys and will yell at him to leave her alone.

This morning, however, the puppy was finished eating his breakfast and had knocked a piece of kibble under the fridge (unknown at the time). Both he and the adult female were sniffing around the fridge. All of the sudden she flat out attacked him and was going after him. My husband was able to get him and I went after her to break it up.

I was worried something like this might happen at some point and I really don’t want it to happen again. I’m really scared because I don’t want her to hurt him. Please help.

 

[username12345]

@bibleexploreriii At 10 weeks old, you may want to keep them completely separated unless you can watch every interaction. It really does sound like resource gaurding, and until you have a handle on it, it might not be safe for them to be in a situation like that again.

I'm sure keeping them separated doesn't sound ideal, but I did it for 9 months with my dog and my parent's 13 year old lab. We lived with my parents for almost a year in between houses, and their dog was unpredictable, and definitely not at an age where he was up for playing with my dumb puppy.

We kept them separated with baby gates but we did walk them together, and that seemed to help in the long-term. Of course, in our situation we knew it was temporary so we didn't really have to work on integrating them better. Still, making use of baby gates and crates until you are confident your older dog won't do something like that again seems like a good idea.

 

[bibleexploreriii]

@username12345 Thank you guys for the responses. They do eat separately in different rooms separated by a gate. The puppy is working on being crate trained and is doing really well so he spends all his nap time there. They do go to the bathroom together and upon return into the house they are treated together and there are no issues then.

She does get possessive over toys and wants whatever she doesn’t have and the puppy seems to be doing the same. We have a zillion toys to choose from and multiples of the same thing. I try to just redirect attention to something else if they seem to want the same thing, or sometimes we just take a break and go to separate spaces...

Idk maybe it’s a touch of the puppy blues but I’m overwhelmed and just worried but I don’t want to pass my anxiety on to them. I’m signing him up for puppy classes today.

 

[lakecrescent]

@bibleexploreriii Can you define a little more what "going after him" meant? Was she snarling and growling and spittle flying and she was all Cujo? Or was she just growling and nipping at him? Was there blood?

The reason I ask is that if she's dominant in the house, and he's a young puppy that nips, it could have been a "listen kid this is the way it is" lesson for the puppy. Often that happens and humans think it's viciousness but it's lesson teaching. Not saying that's what happened since obviously I wasn't there, but it could be. I'd have to hear more about how it went down.

When I started taking my puppy to the dog park, other older dogs would growl/nip at her to make her stop pestering them. She learned really quickly to stop it. Puppies need that social interaction to learn how to behave appropriately with pack members. If you watch wolves you see it too. It can be a dominance issue. Plus they have fur and thicker hides than us, so they typically bite each other harder/more, so it looks worse than it is. Sometimes.

 

[bibleexploreriii]

@lakecrescent Thanks for your reply. So she was snarling and appeared to be biting (at) him? There was no blood. This was a split second 'attack' because my husband and I were both right next to both of the dogs and we were able to break this up almost instantly. He did not appear to be injured at all, we checked him all over but he was crying (I'm assuming just scared/shaken up). We feed them in separate rooms and this was after we thought everyone was done eating. We had released everyone from their respective feeding areas to reconvene. She had come over to the puppies feeding spot and they both started sniffing hard at the underside of the refrigerator.

I was telling her to be nice as I was feeling like something was about to happen, my husband had a hold of the puppies leash at the time. This is when she decided that whatever is under there is hers and she went after his face snarling being very loud and startling but like I said we could not find any injuries on him at all.

After the incident they were separated for a while and she was instructed to go lay down and he went into his crate (totally separate rooms). That's when I created the post and started searching about what to do in these situations. I later reintroduced them. She seemed like her normal self but he was definitely cautious by staying very close to me.

She does growl/nip at him over toys and I try to keep the puppy away from her when she is like this. Is there anything else I can do to help with this? They have a million toys, they get plenty of food/treats, I'm not sure what else I can do to help them know there is plenty to go around. I really try to pay close mind to her body language.

She's definitely always been dominant and I figured there would be some correcting happening with him being young and not knowing the rules of dog world. It just gives me anxiety that it may happen again even if I am watching all the time and trying to keep the peace.

 

[lakecrescent]

@bibleexploreriii I can see why that would have been scary. Hopefully the pups can get along!

 

[gwwhaley]

@bibleexploreriii Might be a bit of dog / dog resource guarding? Like your older lab wanted to let the puppy know she was going to find what he dropped and to back off. How is your older dog with the puppy around food or treats or anything? It sounds like that may be a situation you'd want to keep an eye on -- like feed them separately, treat separately, no high value items like bones when they're together, etc.

 

[itrustgod]

@bibleexploreriii It would be helpful if you could be more descriptive regarding the attack. How long did it last? What specifically did the older dog do?

 

[bibleexploreriii]

@itrustgod It was a split second. My husband and I were right there with them when it happened. We were able to separate them almost instantly.

They had just gotten done eating (they're fed in separate rooms) and were released to all get back together. We didn't know that the puppy had accidentally lost a piece of his kibble under the fridge. It was then my older girl came over to his feeding area and they both were sniffing under the fridge hard. I was telling her to be nice as they were very close to each others faces and thats when it happened.

She was snarling going towards his head, I honestly thought she had bitten him or was trying to, but there was no injury or blood on the puppy when we checked him all over. He was crying like he had been hurt, but he may have just been really scared because of the situation.

As soon as we yelled at her she immediately backed off, and acted as if she knew what she had done was really not nice. She was told to immediately go lay down and she did right away. We put the puppy in his crate after holding him/checking him/comforting him to relax and feel like he was in his safe space (she was laying down in a completely different room).

 

[yeshua7777777kp]

@bibleexploreriii I have no advice and can only offer my anecdote. We have a 3yo border collie mix and a now 14 week old mini Aussie/ beagle mix. For the first few weeks ( and now) we always monitor their together time. At first the older dog did not care for the younger and we would have to intervene to prevent pestering and give him a place he likes that the pup couldn't get to. After a few weeks they started playing together and obviously were having a blast. One day out of nowhere they were playing and the older dog attacked the pup, chased him under the table and kept going until I was able to separate them. The pup was terrified so for at least 24 hours we kept them completely separated and then reintroduced slowly. Fortunately the younger dog didn't gain long term fear of him and now they are back to normal. I know how fast it can happen and how worrying it can be as a dog owner. I wish the best for you and hope they can move forward

 

[bibleexploreriii]

@yeshua7777777kp Thanks so much, I really do have anxiety over it. I know she's just showing that she's in charge and there are rules, but I just want them to be best friends. I know they've only been together for a week and it takes time it just makes me feel like its not going to happen.

After getting yelled at for the incident she appeared extremely remorseful. She is a very pleasing dog, like she wants to make us happy and obviously feels terribly when she's done something we don't like.

 

[kbupdike]

@bibleexploreriii "Mine" by Jean Donaldson is an excellent book on resource guarding.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@bibleexploreriii That's just some resource guarding and while not a desirable behavior, it's obvious that she has it. Instead of letting the pup have the full run of the house I'd consider raising them in a 'gated community' where they spend their time in an ex pen(supervised) rather than having a bunch of bad experiences from your other dog.

I'd begin doing this asap because in reading through your other responses it sounds like your puppy is beginning to exhibit learned resource guarding from the other dog.

 

[jesuslover666]

@bibleexploreriii We feed both our girls in their kennels to prevent food aggression fights. Their kennels are right next to each other but each has a blanket over it. It’s not worth it to create unnecessary animosity between them. If they can’t share toys take away the toys until they calm down. She can not be rewarded for acting like that so she loses her toys. If she growls when she’s sitting near you and puts herself between you, she’s guarding you and should lose her seat on the couch. Training is urgently important.

 

[igrace]

@bibleexploreriii Only let them interact under supervision, feed separately (preferably pup in crate), but if there was no actual bite or blood then don’t over react. Adult dogs have to teach puppies rules and boundaries, and the corrections a dog does are usually pretty loud but it’s normal.

If there was an actual bite, I would see a trainer.

 

[bibleexploreriii]

@igrace Okay thank you! They’re both now being fed separately in their crates in separate rooms & im picking up the bowls after each meal. I’m taking him to puppy class starting Sunday so I may talk to them about it

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@bibleexploreriii Sounds like a little grumble rather than 'OMG she totally attacked him!!!!'. You're I THINK you might be overreacting.

 

[shadia]

@imagebeastmarkbeast You have absolutely no idea what happened. Nor do I, for that matter. We weren't there. This comment isn't at all constructive.

 

[bibleexploreriii]

@imagebeastmarkbeast It definitely was not a little grumble. She's been giving little grumbles here and there towards the puppy which appear to me as normal learning the ropes. I'm far removed from having a puppy / older dog interactions until now. This was something that I honestly feel like could have been very bad if it had not been broken up immediately.