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?: Would Love Your Input Regarding Dog Confrontations


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Hello everyone,

 

Thank you in advance for any input you can give me regarding our dog situation :-)

 

We have 2 older greyhounds, Lulu is 12.5 and Misty is 8.5. We recently adopted a 4 year old Pit Bull Mix from our shelter as we previously had a Pit Bull who passed away. The house felt empty and we wanted to get another Pitty Mix in honor of our previous one.

 

To make a long story short, our new Pit Bull was not feeling well (unbeknownst to us) and we had to have her hospitalized for a week. After her release she was a completely different dog. Much more energy and affection.

 

Unfortunately, along with her new found health came a lot more aggressive behavior and although she gets along well with Lulu (our older greyhound), her and Misty do not get along. They have already been in a bad fight but luckily I was able to separate them fairly quickly.

 

We have tried to keep them separated yet still allow them to see each other. There has been some growing thru the barriers. We have been able to walk them together and also have had a little bit of luck allowing them to be in the back yard on leashes.

 

Our newly adopted Pit Bull, Gracie, has had a rough time as she had been on the streets, in the shelter for a while, in the hospital for a week and then having confrontations with our Misty.

 

Any suggestions, input or comments would be greatly appreciated. We are willing to put in the work to make this a lot better.

 

best to you all,

 

Rick

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In this case you need the on-site advice of a certified animal behaviorist who is familiar with greyhounds and pitties. Diagnosing dog-on-dog aggression is not something that should be done on the interwebs. You need a trained observer right there to help you and your family manage this transition.

 

Our local shelter offers free behavior advice for it's adopted dogs by certified behaviorists, or maybe a pittie group in your area would have a recommendation for someone to help.

 

Make sure they only use positive reinforcement training with your dogs. Any suggestions that sound like negative reinforcement or punishment needs to be dismissed, along with that trainer.

 

Good luck and keep us posted!

Chris - Mom to: Felicity (DeLand), and Andi (Braska Pandora)

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Angels: Libby (Everlast), Dorie (Dog Gone Holly), Dude (TNJ VooDoo), Copper (Kid's Copper), Cash (GSI Payncash), Toni (LPH Cry Baby), Whiskey (KT's Phys Ed), Atom, Lilly

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Save yourself a lot of trouble and possibly a tragedy and return Gracie. In my experience having her in the same house is an accident waiting to happen. Although I will certainly be flamed for this it is extremely rare to be able to overcome dog aggressiveness with dogs like Gracie with her background etc. At best you can attempt to retrain for better behavior but it is not reliable/trustworthy and they are always a threat and sadly sometimes it ends badly despite the best intentions. It was most kind of you to offer your home and heart to her but your home is not the kind of home that she needs or that willl work for her best interests(or your other dogs' best interest). IMO it would be best for all concerned to return her and let them find a more suitable home-perhaps where she can be an only dog or something.

 

Interestingly dogs often become dog aggressive as the result of having been attacked by another dog. It is a serious and very real concern. And once it happens no amount of work or wishing can 'fix' it. They remain dog aggressive forever. Rarely with luck and a lot of re-training it may be able to be 'managed" somewhat but it can never be 'fixed'. That is one of the reasons I so loathe people that let their dogs run loose and attack others that are innocently walking on lead etc. Because the victim dog may then become dog aggressive the rest of his life -all because of the fool that let his rogue dog run loose and attack. Thats some serious lifelong mental harm that was done to the victim dog. Loose dogs are a SERIOUS issue.

 

For the record I found a home with 2 other pet dogs for a scarred up fighting pittie one time that had been dumped along a road- and there was never any dog aggression issues! As an Animal Control Officer at the time if I had taken him to the 'shelter' it was mandated that he would have been euthanized. Luckily a passerby instantly offered to adopt him and save him. A lot depends on the dog's personal genetics and how they respond to what has happened to them. This dog clearly responded quite differently to abusive aggression then many would. But when they respond like Gracie has it generally is pretty set in stone as well.

Edited by racindog
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Thank you so much greysmom, cleptogrey and racindog. I appreciate your help very much!

 

We have adopted 14 greyhounds over the years and have been involved with greyhound adoption groups as well. We love the breed very much and feel like we know a bit about them, however, we are not familiar with other breeds in terms of having them as pets. This particular situation that we are in is a new challenge for us.

 

We have hired a trainer and are working with Gracie everyday in order to try to get her into a position where she might be able to increase her available potential base of adopters.

 

We can now take her on a walk with our oldest greyhound, Lulu, who is 12 1/2 and also with Misty, our 8 1/2 year old who is more aggressive than Lulu and is the one Gracie has altercations with.

 

Im hoping we can find her a foster/forever home soon as Im sure you know how difficult it is to try to keep dogs separated, happy and not disrupt their daily routine.

 

I really enjoy and benefit hearing from you and again, appreciate your help.

 

best to you,

 

Rick

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Dear Rick:

 

I agree. Pitty has to be rehomed. I'm sure she is a wonderful dog, but it is SO not fair to have an 8 and a half year old readjust her entire life right now.

 

I had a gorgeous cat I paid for and had flown up from Washington. He started beating up my adult female cat when he hit maturity, and believe me, I would have much rather kept him, but that would not have been fair, so I reluctantly gave the big bully cat to a friend who had MUCH bigger cats, and they all got along just fine and peace was restored to my animal kingdom.

 

Sometimes it just doesn't work out.


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Susan,  Hamish,  Mister Bigglesworth and Nikita Stanislav. Missing Ming, George, and Buck

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Dear Rick:

 

I agree. Pitty has to be rehomed. I'm sure she is a wonderful dog, but it is SO not fair to have an 8 and a half year old readjust her entire life right now.

 

I had a gorgeous cat I paid for and had flown up from Washington. He started beating up my adult female cat when he hit maturity, and believe me, I would have much rather kept him, but that would not have been fair, so I reluctantly gave the big bully cat to a friend who had MUCH bigger cats, and they all got along just fine and peace was restored to my animal kingdom.

 

Sometimes it just doesn't work out.

Thank you so much for your input. Very helpful. We are going to try as hard as we can to find her a home. So sad because she is wonderful but we can't do that to our 2 senior greyhounds. Take care, Rick

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I just want to chime in and say fwiw that I support your decision. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to work through it either, but a lifetime of management is stressful on people and dogs and when the risk if management fails (which is fairly high in this type of situation) is one or more animals being seriously injured, it makes sense to not keep yourselves and your dogs in that position. And I wouldn't let this discourage you from trying again, but now you know that a calmer dog with a lower arousal level may fit better.

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Jen, CPDT-KA with Zuri, lab in a greyhound suit, Violet, formerly known as Faith, Skye, the permanent puppy, Cisco, resident cat, and my baby girl Neyla, forever in my heart

"The great thing about science is that you're free to disagree with it, but you'll be wrong."

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I just want to chime in and say fwiw that I support your decision. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to work through it either, but a lifetime of management is stressful on people and dogs and when the risk if management fails (which is fairly high in this type of situation) is one or more animals being seriously injured, it makes sense to not keep yourselves and your dogs in that position. And I wouldn't let this discourage you from trying again, but now you know that a calmer dog with a lower arousal level may fit better.

Thanks so much. I agree!

We love all animals, but I would be lying if I said that greyhounds were not at the very top of our list. While I hope all needy animals find forever homes, I believe it is our calling to stick with the greyhounds who need a family.

We are beginning to find out what so many others have discovered......It is very, very difficult to find homes for the type of dog we are now fostering. Pit Bull mixes who must be in a single pet home are a real challenge, but, we will never give up. In the interim we are doing everything we can to keep everyone happy by doing some strategic dog rotating.

Thanks again!

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I would return Gracie, as she has always more biting force due to her breed than a Grey. So if they get into a serious fight,

and you are not there to stop ist, the Greyhound risks to get severely hurt or even could die. I would not take the risk.

Edited by marion

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Marion, Ivy & Soldi

 

Perseverance is not a long race...

it is many short races one after another.

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