Nasty 4 And A Half Month Old Bites 12 Year Old

[sasha66]

I've just got back from the vet with Sasha my 12 year old whippy girl who has 4 new stitches, courtesy of our 4 1/2 month old boy whippy. It was definately not play as he has lost a tooth in the scuffle.

Play has been getting rougher, and unfortunately at 12 years, Sasha won't fight back.

Apart from seperating them indefinately, or rehoming the youngster, has anyone got any suggestions? Is this irreconcilable?

Michelle

 

[Seraphina]

Four months old pups are getting new teeth, so they do loose the old ones. That does not mean that he bit in anger. Pups do sometimes play very roughly. Unless you saw what happened you cannot judge. It is possible that she hurt him, either because he pestered her, or unintentionally. I would just watch them carefully, and at the first sign he is getting too excited or rough tell him off. :luck: :luck: :luck:

 

[Ridgesetter]

Hi Michelle

To be able to answer you, there needs to be more questions, so unfortunately, there's no quick fix.

Were you present when the fight occurred?

Was there food present at the time of the fight?

Is Sasha dominant over him or is he dominant?

Have you ever reprimanded Sasha for growling at the pup?

How does the pup react with other dogs?

Quick fix - feed, pat, talk, let inside, put lead on Sasha first. Both dogs have to know the pack heirachy - You, Sasha then the pup.

Teach the pup to sit and only reward and praise him when he does as requested. He has to earn his privileges. Definitely take him to obedience school. It certainly won't hurt.

A 4 stitch wound is something I would be concerned with and am surprised that a young puppy could inflict such an injury. I wouldn't say that this is normal behaviour for whippets so I can only guess there was something that triggered the fight.

I'm sure there are others with words of wisdom and experience that can help you.

Good luck.

 

[Misslara]

Gosh i feel shocked reading this as one embarking on a puppy whippet and having an older one in the house :sweating:

 

[sasha66]

Hi Michelle
To be able to answer you, there needs to be more questions, so unfortunately, there's no quick fix.

Were you present when the fight occurred?

Was there food present at the time of the fight?

Is Sasha dominant over him or is he dominant?

Have you ever reprimanded Sasha for growling at the pup?

How does the pup react with other dogs?

Quick fix - feed, pat, talk, let inside, put lead on Sasha first.  Both dogs have to know the pack heirachy - You, Sasha then the pup.

Teach the pup to sit and only reward and praise him when he does as requested.  He has to earn his privileges.  Definitely take him to obedience school.  It certainly won't hurt.

A 4 stitch wound is something I would be concerned with and am surprised that a young puppy could inflict such an injury.  I wouldn't say that this is normal behaviour for whippets so I can only guess there was something that triggered the fight. 

I'm sure there are others with words of wisdom and experience that can help you.

Good luck.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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Some more background. The pup has been with us for 6 weeks tomorrow. We picked him because he was the quietest of the litter, and some people had thought our older girl had dominance issues. Having said that, she has not had a problem with any visiting dogs, goes to a kennel that have group off leash time and we have never had any problems with her.

(Sasha now 12 years, had been the second whippet of my sister, and had been introduced to that family when the older was 8 years. At 12 years, my sister's bitch became frail and we took over Sasha then aged 4 years.)

When our new pup was introduced, Sasha displayed some mounting which we remained neutral about, she should be dominant so we did nothing. Last week, something had happened, the pup was sulking when I got home, and the older girl had a small nip on her shoulder. Overall, the pup seems to be trying to take over the "pack" there's a lot of barging, getting between the older girl and whatever she shows interest in, a lot of bed stealing by the pup. Wherever Sasha is sleeping, he'll take over and she moves to the next bed.

Sasha rarely growls, she just pricks her ears, stands on guard and raises her hackles. The pup generally jumps all over her, and starts what we assumed were play fights- we discourage this. Sasha has bared her teeth once only to the pup (that I have seen). I think the problem is she won't/can't defend herself.

The major incident occurred when I was home, the usual routine of a couple of rawhide chews to calm the pup who seems boistrous of a morning. I heard the yelp, let Sasha in, and thought nothing of it till I took her coat off around half an hour later.

The pup has just completed Puppy Preschool where he was fine with all the others, but they were all male except one neutered female aged 9months. She tended to growl a lot. The pup has no problem with sit, wait, drop, walk on lead, fetch, release the toy on command, and has begun weaving- he's not silly.

I can seperate the 2 as I have divided the yard, but I don't want to develop 2 territories. For the next 10 days, when I go out they will need seperating so the stitches aren't pulled out.

Any further advice would be appreciated.

Michelle

 

[hellybobs]

It does sound like a dominace thing to me. I don't think its nastiness as such but dogs can appear that way when they are trying to be the dominat one or top dog and accidents can happen...they can be very upsetting to see too.

I had a little of this when I introduced Dippy to the house.

I made sure she knew my older one Inca was boss, Inca got fed first (Dippy made to sit and wait) Inca gets her collar nd lead on first (Dippy made to sit and wait) and treats given Inca goes first etc.

It took a good few months of perseverence on our part to make sure we did this every day but it did work and even now Dippy knows to wait until Inca goes into the kitchen for her meals.

You've just got to take it one day at a time and make sure above anything else they both know YOU are the boss first and foremost and what you say goes and then work on the rest.

:luck: :luck: :luck:

 

[~elizabeth~]

Apart from the fact that a nasty bite was inflicted, I'm not sure any of the behaviour you describe is abnormal. We introduced a new puppy last year to our 7 year old, and we've had various phases where they have played roughly and our older dog has been extremely tolerant. However, the pattern of behaviour with both dogs has changed month by month, and things our older dog would have tolerated in a smaller pup (up to 5 or 6 months) now get reprimanded very quickly.

The bed-stealing thing is pretty normal, ours spend all day doing that, with the cat joining in for good measure. :wacko: Sometimes the puppy tries to mount or wrestle with him, which i don't think is a dominance thing, as the point of it seems to be to engage him in play; he usually turns his back on the puppy when he tries it on, who then gets bored and stops. I tend to tell him 'NO' as well, just to reinforce the point.

Puppies of that age tend to bite at everything, they are discovering the world and sometimes deliberately seeing how far they can go, and you do have to be quite persistant for quite a long time with the 'NO biting!" commands. Our puppy did once go a little too far when play wrestling and drew blood from our older dog (who yelped then went very submissive and the puppy licked him all over in response :huggles: ).

Whippet skins are very thin, and it doesn't take very much for them to tear; unfortunately when you have dogs interacting, even in quite a good-humoured way, accidents can happen quite easily. More serious flash points can occur when things like food or treats are involved too, I'm always particularly vigilant at these times. :luck:

 

[sasha66]

Another day, another trip to the vet- no stitches this time.

All that happened this time was the older was picking up a discarded chew, and a flying junior whippy with teeth found a neck...........

 

[Happy Humber]

You should be top dog in the house. Get a rolled up newspaper and lay down the law letting him know who is the boss. I would be really firm with him. He is probably just trying his luck and has found out he can bully the older whippy and the power has gone to his head. He is a clever doggie does he come from a working background?