Trouble with new puppy.

[ange77]

New to the forum...hello!

We have three dogs. Bella the beagle (2 years) Summer the lurcher (1 year) and Rolo Lab x (9 weeks)

We have only had Rolo a couple of days.

Yesterday our lurcher went to be spayed. All fine but this morning she has had a go at Rolo over a toy. Sadly has bitten him and left a nasty hole in his head.

Just not sure what to do moving forward. Do I keep them apart, was this just a freak thing as Summer is clearly not herself. Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[eingana]

Hi Ange77 and welcome to DogForum

It's very likely that this is a product of Summer not feeling well and Rolo not knowing when to stop. She's probably still a bit woozy and will also be in a bit of pain, which together are likely to give her a sense of humour failure and cause her to be a bit snappy.

This is really bad timing actually, and I would have worked to make Rolo's introduction not happen while Summer is going through spaying. If he'd been introduced a month ago (I know you couldn't because of his age, but you know what I mean) or in a month's time then she would have been her usual friendly self through the time when she's not feeling good and won't be associating his introduction with bad things, as she may be doing now.

I don't think that you've got much option other than to separate all 3 of them unless you're watching them like a hawk, and remove the toys when they are mixed to remove the risk of the same happening again. They need to sleep apart at night, if only to prevent Rolo from hurting Summer while she's trying to lie comfortably and to prevent the risk of Bella potentially grooming the wound (as often happens if the patient is wearing a cone to prevent her from grooming it herself). It's also very likely that you'll have to work with Rolo over time to reduce the fear that he feels towards her because of the damage she's already done to him.

When Summer is feeling less sensitive and back to her normal self you can do all sorts of mixing and training around toys and boundaries, but right now the medical needs of both Summer and Rolo take priority. In the interim you may find a DAP diffuser or spray helpful to reduce the amount of antsy behaviour and generally calm all of them down, but it won't solve all of the problems I'm afraid and you've got 3 young dogs, all of whom are likely to be interested in playing with a toy, so you need to manage them carefully to ensure that they all get the right messages. Clearly you can't watch them 24/7 and when you're not there, they need separating and for the toys to be removed so that they are all aware that the toys belong to you (not to any of them).

 

[ange77]

Thanks for your reply. It's a good read. I did remove all toys this morning and have watched them most of the day. Things seem ok at the moment. They are all crated when we are out and at night at the moment anyway. Will need to watch them and try and give summer some space. Fingers crossed. They are all flat out on their bed at the moment. Very irresponsible of us but have to admit I'd not thought about this happening. We had Bella spayed last year and Summer was great. In all honesty Rolo isn't your normal pup. He is so quiet (even before today). Lesson learned the hard way today