A Brood Mama's Protective Instinct..

[Guest Geostar]

I've got a question: has anyone else had a problem wherein their brood female greyhound has reacted strongly to another dog?

About 1-1/2 years ago, we had a foster who did a strange thing. We were out walking our greys. It was before Thanksgiving, and as we walked we came across our neighbor whow was decorating her home. Bill and I had Doug and our foster, Susie..a brood female looking for a good home. Well, as we talked the front door openned, the owner came out and also their little black cross dog named, Frodo. The neighbors called to him, but, he had other ideas.

 

Frodo made a bee-line for Doug who danced backward to get out of his way. He does not like to fight other dogs. While I was keeping Frodo from Doug, Frodo turned abruptly and began barking at Susie. By the time, Frodo had gotten to Susie, she must have thought, "enough is enough" and clamped her jaws about the smaller dog's nead..encasing his entire head in her mouth. Frodo bellowed. The owner picked her up and tried to pull backwards, while my Bill began to work on getting Susie to open her jaws. I was stunned as was my friend. Shortly after it had happened, it ended. Bill was successful in getting Susie's jaws openned and the little dog was safe in her owner's arms. Susie was quiet. The neighbor's examined their dog carefully..there was no wound! The teeth had landed on Frodo's collar instead..so, he was lucky. Yet, all went home a bit shaken by this experience.

 

Has anyone else had such an experience?

 

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Edited January 20, 2012 by Geostar

[racindog]

The 2 broodies that I have had wouldn't take any "stuff" from anybody. I figure they learned to be that way from raising so many pups!

From your description I believe she was just warning the little dog. If she would have wanted to hurt it she would have. We had a Rotty one time that did the exact same thing to a chihuahua that came to her food bowl while she was eating. Scarey but he was uninjured and respected her more afterwards. Broodies are great disciplinarians IMO. I LUB broodies!

[greyhead]

I have no experience with broodies but have heard that they take care of business that way. From what you wrote, I'd say Frodo got what he deserved! And the broodie took care of it with greyt restraint, when you think about it.

[Guest Geostar]

Yes, that is what we felt, too. Luckily, our neighbors understood.

Thanks for sharing..

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[TheFullHouse]

I don't think it was particularly because she was a brood. She just did what a lot of greyhounds would do to a rude little dog. Trying to teach it some manners or make it stop.

[Guest PhillyPups]

My broodies are all high prey, so Frodo would not have been so lucky.

 

The funny thing I have noticed is that LadyLu (with 35 pups under her belt) has decided Gizmo is her puppy. She will give him the what for if he is, in her mind, misbehaving. She will scold him. She will also wash his face and ears. It is very endearing. Gizmo listens to her too, when she starts woofing at him, he will stop whatever it is she thinks he should stop, and sometimes just lie down and look at me as if to say, "Mom how many Moms do I have here??".

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

My female wasn't a brood, but she's a bigtime corrector of other dogs.

[christinepi]

A friend of ours has a male grey and he did exactly that with an obnoxious pomeranian.

 

As a matter of fact, our male grey did this to a strange cat that wasn't even obnoxious (of course I learned a major lesson here, stupid me, but the cat was indeed completely unharmed). Our grey is very cat safe, thank God, otherwise...

Edited January 20, 2012 by christinepi

[Guest Geostar]

Jayne and Judy..

Why do you suppose these dogs are likely to have that behavior? Would it be true of females, or will males do the same?

Or, is this a personality 'quirk"? Thank you in advance for your thoughts..

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[GeorgeofNE]

I don't think it was particularly because she was a brood. She just did what a lot of greyhounds would do to a rude little dog. Trying to teach it some manners or make it stop.

 

 

Exactly. That's just dog behavior. Has nothing to do with having at some point had puppies.

[Guest Geostar]

Interesting..thanks for the thoughts..

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[Guest Wasserbuffel]

Why do you suppose these dogs are likely to have that behavior? Would it be true of females, or will males do the same?

Or, is this a personality 'quirk"? Thank you in advance for your thoughts..

 

Like GeorgeofNE said, it's just a dog thing, not male or female either. It's part of their personalities, and some are more tolerant of other dogs' stupidity/rudeness than others. As others have said, your dog behaved appropriately in the situation. She could have seen the little dog as a threat and easily killed it. She just issued a correction and wasn't being aggressive.

 

A lot of it has to do with being on leash too. They can be more defensive when they're tethered. I see a huge difference in Jayne's behavior between being leashed and off leash. When we're at meet and greets she's surly with the other dogs. She can sniff their butts, but if anyone sniffs hers, she'll growl and snarl at them. She can even be pulling to meet a dog, get in its face, then get mad at the other dog! She's gotten better because I work on rewarding her when she does allow sniffing and close contact. Mostly, I just keep her away from the other dogs.

 

At playgroup, however, she's a completely different animal. She runs. plays, shares pools, sniffs and allows sniffing without any growling or snapping. There is only one hound at playgroup she will get surly with and that's because he's pretty infatuated with her and bothers her. Usually she tolerates him sniffing and following her about, but he occasionally tries to mount her. Once he tries that she loses patience with him for the rest of the day.

 

There is a male grey at playgroup who is reactive like Jayne. He was a pet from the time he was about eight months old. My SIL's male mutt is pretty reactive too.

 

There was an instance at a M&G about a year ago where the owner of a young puppy asked me to let Jayne correct the puppy in the manner that dogs do. The pup had been removed from its mother too young and was prone to jumping in other dogs' faces. The pup did get in the faces of the two other greys there that day, but they ignored it. I let her know Jayne was a corrector before she could let the puppy get close to us. After she asked to let Jayne correct the puppy, we allowed them to meet. The puppy got in Jayne's face, but instead of ignoring it Jayne curled her lips and snarled at it. The puppy immediately stopped and rolled over for Jayne to sniff it. After one more growl from Jayne when the puppy jumped at her again, they got along just fine.

[Guest Geostar]

Interesting! Thank you for your thoughts..

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[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

A few of your posts it seems that you feel that what your foster did was somehow inappropriate or otherwise aggressive, is this the case? If it is what you are thinking there is absolutely nothing wrong or inappropriate with the reaction. In fact she showed amazing restraint. Have you ever seen a greyhound kill a rabbit, it takes about a half second. If your brood wanted to kill the attacking dog she could have. From your account of the situation that is what most dogs think when a dog rushes them.

[Guest Geostar]

No, I was surprised as to that foster's reaction; nothing else! We had never fostered a 'brood mama' grey before, so, there would be no way for us to know. And, it was unexpected. Plus, I feel not every dog would have responded that way. At the time, Frodo was not barking at her face, but, rather at the grey's side...so Susie had to turn her body around to grab that head. I have had another foster which snapped at a smaller dog when it yapped in the grey's face at a kennel club. That grey was much younger.

 

Yes, I do know that rabbits can be killed quite quickly as my husband witnessed our two greys doing just that. The rabbit was a large rabbit; probably crossed with a wild bunny.

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[XTRAWLD]

My Kasey doesn't take a lot of crap from little dogs, and he's a boy, although I think he's more likely to swat at them with paws than put them in his mouth. (Thankfully I haven't had to experience the difference!) He very often puts Ryder in his place. I really do think it's personality and also their level of assertiveness that would compel a dog to teach another that enough is enough. Although I think it might be more common for a broodie to do this behaviour than any other, and perhaps to do this "correcting" behaviour without actually breaking any skin.

Edited January 24, 2012 by XTRAWLD

[greyhead]

While correcting bad behavior in other dogs is a "dog thing" and personality-dependent, broodies clearly have far more experience with it than others. And they are very experienced using their mouths about the head and neck area, including to carry. It's a mammal thing.

 

 

[Guest Geostar]

Hmmmm..thanks for sharing that..

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[Guest k85trb]

My agility trainer has many dogs - her new puppy is a sheltie. One of her older dogs doesn't like the puppy to bark and will put her mouth over the pup's muzzle to quiet it. Since you describe the dog as being very small the broody may not have been able to cover the muzzle and covered the whole head instead. The older dog will also, if the pup is being particularly annoying, force the pup into a submissive, belly up posture. It's dog behaviour, not greyhound only, pups like children need to be taught how to behave.

 

Tina