Staffiex Ab Dog Attacking Other Dog

[moodymare019]

Hi,

My staffie x American bull dog(bitch) decided to attack my lab x puppy.(dog)

There was no warning. She just went across the room and attacked him.No toys or food was involved.

I have had her for around 7 months. She was a rescue dog. The pup joined her 4 months ago.

They were getting on great. Best of friends until yesterday.

Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[banana]

Welcome moodymare (I am sure this isn't true btw!! lol)

Oh dear - was the puppy damaged?

I am not sure what to suggest, but it must have been very scary.

 

[Strix]

there HAS to be something else to this - something else that you didn't pick up on maybe?

can you tell us any more details?

 

[eingana]

I agree, more detail is needed.

Did she really harm him? Dogs can have a disagreement that looks appalling but results in no serious injury, and if that happened in this case then yes, she told him off, but she showed huge restraint and therefore it was a disagreement rather than an attack and could well be down to making sure that he knows that she's the boss.

How old are they both? What are the interpersonal dynamics between them normally, and between each of them and you?

 

[Andrea s]

One of the difficulties with rescue dogs is that you don't always know their full background, it could be that she has done this before , it could be just an accumulation of incidents she had logged up in her head and just chose that moment to deal with it, agreed that your older dog if really wanted to could have and would have caused serious injury to the lab x ,Maybe until you can determine the cause of the disagreement you should not leave them alone together, positive kind leadership should have your dogs not jockeying for position as you should be the ruling authority in the house, do you feel that this is the case or could you be guilty of allowing your older dog to rule the roost ? Also with rescue dogs they can sometimes do themselves no favours by adopting an i" I was here first " approach and could be fighting to keep their place if they feel insecure , this in the eyes of the human is bad behaviour but to a dog its survival tactics, We've seen this several times with newly rehomed dogs who try so hard to fit in they want to dominate and trying to secure their position in the family. Hopefully things will settle down and it will be a one off incident but be vigilant and try to keep a constant eye on things.