Tina Ramos
New member
All,
Some of you may recall when I first joined the group back in May of 2012 when we first brought Kaida into our home as an 8 week old pup, flown in from a breeder in OK. We lived in Baltimore at the time...
We'd had our share of health scares in the first yearâŚan exploratory surgery, an eye specialist to remove weird ingrown eyelashesâŚ
Aside from that, she has always been a happy and healthy pup. Sheâs a little over 3 now and has only been to the vet in the last 2 years for routine wellness checkups. Woohoo!
We added to our âfurkidsâ by bringing Jade home (An American Bulldog) at 8 weeks old shortly after Kaidaâs first birthday. My husband had hoped to have a running buddy â so we opted for the larger bulldog breed to allow him to have an exercise partner.
Kaida didnât particularly like thisâŚshe acted out when we got Jade and they took a bit to warm up, but by the time we moved (and made our 10 day trek cross country to Alaska) they were best buds âŚor so it seemed.
Once Jade got to about 10 or 12 months, she started testing Kaida as alpha. Kaida, who loves people and just tolerates dogs (she just ignores or is pretty indifferent to dogs) â Kaida has big dog in a small body complex. She and Jade are of dominant / strong personalities and she never wants to give into Jade. They are both spayed. Jade outweighs Kaida by 40ish pounds. About a year ago, while Jade was just over 1 and Kaida just over 2 years oldâŚthey started squabbling over a toy here, or attention there. Growling is how it startedâŚand stare-offs, til we separated them in time out into their crates and let them back out. It happened maybe once or twice in that yearâŚso we thought it was just a mood then.
We brought our 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] pup in (another American Bulldog - male) shortly thereafter. About 3 months later, my husband, who is in the military â went to Colombia for 7 months, leaving me alone to care for our 3 dogs in Alaska solo. So it goes with the military.
In that time, the girlsâ behavior escalated and they became more jealous over attention and would stare eachother downâŚbut by the time I caught on, theyâd be growling and on top of eachother, fightingâŚit got worse each time it happened and separating them or trying to manage them by watching themâŚdidnât work, because once it stopped happening, I got lulled into âtheyâre over itââŚand thatâs when it would happen again.
I put e-collars on to manage it from that time forward using the vibrate to distract and redirect them or crate them if needed as a time out session. That worked until my husband came home and we again got lulled into them being good againâŚmy mother came to visit shortly after my husbandâs return. They fought over attention then againâŚe-collars went back on.
I suppose it may be our fault for not constantly making them wear the ecollars â as the behavior doesnât seem to change between the females â and Kaida seems to instigate it so much with Jade. Sheâll just give Jade the cocky stare down for no reason and we didnât have the ecollars on this weekendâŚand it happened againâŚ
I will do whatâs needed as far as training goesâŚbut even our vet said that once theyâve gotten to eachother, itâs not likely to stopâŚ.weâll always have to manage them and try not to trigger anythingâŚBUTâŚI wonder if Kaida would be better off in a home where she can be the lone dog, or at least the lone female dog? I donât want to re-home her, but at the same time, I want her to be happy and not get hurtâŚand for there not to be constant tension at home where we can comfortably care for our dogs without constantly having to be on edge or on the lookout for the next fight.
Has anyone gone through this? Sheâs gotten puncture marks from Jade (as Jade has from her) and itâs scary everytime it happensâŚas we donât know what the damage is until we clean the two up and assess it. I donât want our little Kaida to keep getting hurt â sheâs a petite bulldog at 38 lbs, but thinks sheâs 100lbs. Super stubborn (they both are) and will not give in.
Has anyone had this happen and trained in some way to successfully have the home be harmonious and stress free again? Or is the best solution to rehome her to ensure she is safe and happy without other dogs in the home?
Thoughts?
Some of you may recall when I first joined the group back in May of 2012 when we first brought Kaida into our home as an 8 week old pup, flown in from a breeder in OK. We lived in Baltimore at the time...
We'd had our share of health scares in the first yearâŚan exploratory surgery, an eye specialist to remove weird ingrown eyelashesâŚ
Aside from that, she has always been a happy and healthy pup. Sheâs a little over 3 now and has only been to the vet in the last 2 years for routine wellness checkups. Woohoo!
We added to our âfurkidsâ by bringing Jade home (An American Bulldog) at 8 weeks old shortly after Kaidaâs first birthday. My husband had hoped to have a running buddy â so we opted for the larger bulldog breed to allow him to have an exercise partner.
Kaida didnât particularly like thisâŚshe acted out when we got Jade and they took a bit to warm up, but by the time we moved (and made our 10 day trek cross country to Alaska) they were best buds âŚor so it seemed.
Once Jade got to about 10 or 12 months, she started testing Kaida as alpha. Kaida, who loves people and just tolerates dogs (she just ignores or is pretty indifferent to dogs) â Kaida has big dog in a small body complex. She and Jade are of dominant / strong personalities and she never wants to give into Jade. They are both spayed. Jade outweighs Kaida by 40ish pounds. About a year ago, while Jade was just over 1 and Kaida just over 2 years oldâŚthey started squabbling over a toy here, or attention there. Growling is how it startedâŚand stare-offs, til we separated them in time out into their crates and let them back out. It happened maybe once or twice in that yearâŚso we thought it was just a mood then.
We brought our 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] pup in (another American Bulldog - male) shortly thereafter. About 3 months later, my husband, who is in the military â went to Colombia for 7 months, leaving me alone to care for our 3 dogs in Alaska solo. So it goes with the military.
In that time, the girlsâ behavior escalated and they became more jealous over attention and would stare eachother downâŚbut by the time I caught on, theyâd be growling and on top of eachother, fightingâŚit got worse each time it happened and separating them or trying to manage them by watching themâŚdidnât work, because once it stopped happening, I got lulled into âtheyâre over itââŚand thatâs when it would happen again.
I put e-collars on to manage it from that time forward using the vibrate to distract and redirect them or crate them if needed as a time out session. That worked until my husband came home and we again got lulled into them being good againâŚmy mother came to visit shortly after my husbandâs return. They fought over attention then againâŚe-collars went back on.
I suppose it may be our fault for not constantly making them wear the ecollars â as the behavior doesnât seem to change between the females â and Kaida seems to instigate it so much with Jade. Sheâll just give Jade the cocky stare down for no reason and we didnât have the ecollars on this weekendâŚand it happened againâŚ
I will do whatâs needed as far as training goesâŚbut even our vet said that once theyâve gotten to eachother, itâs not likely to stopâŚ.weâll always have to manage them and try not to trigger anythingâŚBUTâŚI wonder if Kaida would be better off in a home where she can be the lone dog, or at least the lone female dog? I donât want to re-home her, but at the same time, I want her to be happy and not get hurtâŚand for there not to be constant tension at home where we can comfortably care for our dogs without constantly having to be on edge or on the lookout for the next fight.
Has anyone gone through this? Sheâs gotten puncture marks from Jade (as Jade has from her) and itâs scary everytime it happensâŚas we donât know what the damage is until we clean the two up and assess it. I donât want our little Kaida to keep getting hurt â sheâs a petite bulldog at 38 lbs, but thinks sheâs 100lbs. Super stubborn (they both are) and will not give in.
Has anyone had this happen and trained in some way to successfully have the home be harmonious and stress free again? Or is the best solution to rehome her to ensure she is safe and happy without other dogs in the home?
Thoughts?