liturgynerd
New member
(TLDR at bottom)
A couple days ago, my boyfriend convinced me to rescue another dog.
I’ve spent days upon weeks upon months, cumulatively, reading up on training. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable at this point. But I have never in my life had more than one dog at a time, so this is all suddenly new territory for me. I didn’t know it’d be this tricky.
Context:
-They’re both males. “Old” dog (O) (had since puppy) is actually younger, 1.5 years, “new” dog (N) is 3 years.
-N lived with his littermate sister at his previous home. This is the first time he’s been separate from her, and now he’s in a completely new environment, and I’m sure he’s very on edge.
-O is fixed, N is not (though that will be happening very soon)
-They met on neutral ground, and got along great. My dog O acquiesced happily to any displays of dominant behavior from N (old owners warned us N likes to be The Boss, so to speak, and O seemed fine with that)
Once we took him back to home turf, my dog O has changed his stance a bit. He resource guards me. I never saw this coming, he always plays extremely well and has never shown any signs of jealousy or resource guarding ANYTHING. Problem is, N is ALSO trying to resource guard me.
(I’ve worked in the dog industry for a while, I know the signs of a fight about to happen. It hasn’t gotten to the point that I’ve been very worried about that, not yet. They’re both doing well with backing off when the other one gives a “warning.” That’s encouraging I guess..)
~ TLDR ~
They’re both CONSTANTLY following me around, vying for my full attention, like it’s a contest, and they grumble and growl at each other when the other is “winning.” O won’t let N on the couch or the bed. It’d be kinda hilarious, if I wasn’t worried their little grumbly growls might escalate into getting one of them hurt.
They eat their food side by side just fine, no arguments. So apparently, the most valuable resource is ME.
And I don’t know how to mitigate that!? How am I supposed to behave around them when they compete for my attention like that?
Anyway, this is way too long. Just. ANY tips?
A couple days ago, my boyfriend convinced me to rescue another dog.
I’ve spent days upon weeks upon months, cumulatively, reading up on training. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable at this point. But I have never in my life had more than one dog at a time, so this is all suddenly new territory for me. I didn’t know it’d be this tricky.
Context:
-They’re both males. “Old” dog (O) (had since puppy) is actually younger, 1.5 years, “new” dog (N) is 3 years.
-N lived with his littermate sister at his previous home. This is the first time he’s been separate from her, and now he’s in a completely new environment, and I’m sure he’s very on edge.
-O is fixed, N is not (though that will be happening very soon)
-They met on neutral ground, and got along great. My dog O acquiesced happily to any displays of dominant behavior from N (old owners warned us N likes to be The Boss, so to speak, and O seemed fine with that)
Once we took him back to home turf, my dog O has changed his stance a bit. He resource guards me. I never saw this coming, he always plays extremely well and has never shown any signs of jealousy or resource guarding ANYTHING. Problem is, N is ALSO trying to resource guard me.
(I’ve worked in the dog industry for a while, I know the signs of a fight about to happen. It hasn’t gotten to the point that I’ve been very worried about that, not yet. They’re both doing well with backing off when the other one gives a “warning.” That’s encouraging I guess..)
~ TLDR ~
They’re both CONSTANTLY following me around, vying for my full attention, like it’s a contest, and they grumble and growl at each other when the other is “winning.” O won’t let N on the couch or the bed. It’d be kinda hilarious, if I wasn’t worried their little grumbly growls might escalate into getting one of them hurt.
They eat their food side by side just fine, no arguments. So apparently, the most valuable resource is ME.
And I don’t know how to mitigate that!? How am I supposed to behave around them when they compete for my attention like that?
Anyway, this is way too long. Just. ANY tips?