# And so it has begun; "jealousy" between the brothers (broke up a fight today.)



## chelle (Feb 1, 2009)

*And so it has begun; "jealousy" between the brothers (broke up a fight today.)*

The whole history is just too long to post here, so I'll try to keep it as simple as I can.

I took in my boy's brother about six weeks ago. (They're just over 11 mos.)

Fast forward. They play very well together. Drink out of the same water bowl. Play tug. Chase, tumble, all good. Literally no problems UNTIL/UNLESS it involves me. 

When I'm sitting in the recliner, for example, and Tucker (new guy) comes up, Bailey gets upset and tries to nose in. Today he launched on Tucker. Went totally after him for nosing in on me. It was more noise than damage, but Bailey meant it, Tucker recoiled and was scared off. Bailey got a fairly severe reprimand out of it, because it really was totally uncalled for. 

Then later this evening, we were in the yard and if happened again, but this time, it was not about me or nosing in on me. I don't know what it was about. They had both been outside for hours and were hungry and testy perhaps. There was no toy involved, I have no idea what set it off. I got right in there and broke it up, but got a tooth in my hand for the effort. I have no idea whose tooth; it's just a tiny hole in my hand.

This cannot be allowed to escalate. 

I'm not really sure what to think or do right now. 

My first instinct is Bailey needs extra attention to assure his position, but with that come expectations that he isn't a jerk and doesn't pick fights due to insecurity/jealousy. 

?? Advice ?? Thank you.


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## mebully21 (Nov 18, 2011)

im going thru this with my female gsd guarding me and my roommate against my male pitx... same situation , both dogs adore each other, play, nap, etc together... when my male comes over to either of us humans for attention sadie gets inbetween us and rufus and gets all whiney /pushy... to the point rufus has pummeled her, she grovels to him, then it starts all over as soon as he tries to get attention from either of us humans... i am hoping to get some good advise in my thread , hopefully you will too


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## chelle (Feb 1, 2009)

mebully21 said:


> im going thru this with my female gsd guarding me and my roommate against my male pitx... same situation , both dogs adore each other, play, nap, etc together... when my male comes over to either of us humans for attention sadie gets inbetween us and rufus and gets all whiney /pushy... to the point rufus has pummeled her, she grovels to him, then it starts all over as soon as he tries to get attention from either of us humans... i am hoping to get some good advise in my thread , hopefully you will too


I must have missed your thread... what's the title?

You have opposite sex dogs, not that that makes a difference in a really significant way, since the behavior seems to be pretty much the same.

Are yours both intact? (Not that that matters, I don't really know, I'm just trying to figure things out!) (One of mine is intact, the other not.)

For now, until I get better advice, I'm going with my gut instinct to ensure the first dog gets tons of love and attention but also gets shut down when he misbehaves after getting that met. 

I might have to call the trainer back in that came here awhile back when I was trying to introduce the two boys. I'm just not sure what to do and don't want to accidentally make it worse.


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## shepherdmom (Dec 24, 2011)

chelle said:


> For now, until I get better advice, I'm going with my gut instinct to ensure the first dog gets tons of love and attention but also gets shut down when he misbehaves after getting that met.
> 
> I might have to call the trainer back in that came here awhile back when I was trying to introduce the two boys. I'm just not sure what to do and don't want to accidentally make it worse.


I really don't have any good advise I just want to wish you good luck with this. My boys grew up together. Every once in a while they got into it but I stepped back and let them work it out. Only because I could see that neither really was doing any major damage. Sounded horrible but no blood. LOL


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

I know tomorrow's Easter but if you'd like to call me I can go over some things we do here to keep the peace/keep balance.


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## chelle (Feb 1, 2009)

msvette2u said:


> I know tomorrow's Easter but if you'd like to call me I can go over some things we do here to keep the peace/keep balance.


I'd love to get any advice you have to offer.  Please PM with a good time and number to call? I'm pretty open. 

Thank you!


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

Well I could offer a bunch of "tips/tricks" but I think it'd be easier as a dialogue, you know?
I'll pm ya


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## mebully21 (Nov 18, 2011)

mine are both speutered, the female is new here i have had her since july 2011 so its been almost a year.. my title is Resource Guarding human or dog in the training section.


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## gsdraven (Jul 8, 2009)

chelle said:


> When I'm sitting in the recliner, for example, and Tucker (new guy) comes up, Bailey gets upset and tries to nose in. Today he launched on Tucker. Went totally after him for nosing in on me. It was more noise than damage, but Bailey meant it, Tucker recoiled and was scared off. Bailey got a fairly severe reprimand out of it, because it really was totally uncalled for.
> 
> *Then later this evening, we were in the yard and if happened again, but this time, it was not about me or nosing in on me. I don't know what it was about.* They had both been outside for hours and were hungry and testy perhaps. There was no toy involved, I have no idea what set it off. I got right in there and broke it up, but got a tooth in my hand for the effort. I have no idea whose tooth; it's just a tiny hole in my hand.


Living it here too with Raven and my female foster who guards me from Raven. The reason the second fight happened was because their hormones were still in overdrive from the first fight. You need to stay really on top of things for the next 3-4 days until they level back out or you can expect more and more fights over "nothing".

About a week or two ago, I screwed up when finishing up breakfast and didn't pick Dixie's bowl up quick enough. Raven went over to investigate and Dixie flew at her from across the room. It got broken up quick, no damage and I learned my lesson but then Dixie started a bunch of other smaller fights with Kaiser over nothing for the next 2 days. It was not fun at all.

Best thing is management. Doing obedience together is a great idea to help show the heirarchy. Purposely put Bailey in a down stay and call Tucker over for attention and then switch.


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## chelle (Feb 1, 2009)

Still want to talk to you, msvette2u! Sorry I missed you on Easter. I PM'd you. Again, thanks for your offer.

I sat back and thought about this, and I do think I was giving off some vibes to the boys. When Bailey would nose in, it made me a little nervous because I could easily see what he was doing...

No problems since. When tensions seem to go a little higher, we go do obedience stuff and so far, it is working great. Tucker is respecting Bailey more than before. I am keeping a cool head and just not worrying or feeding into the nonsense.

I will never let my guard down, but my own feelings, confidence, etc, seem to make a big difference. I think I was almost "waiting" for the "first" fight. It surely had to happen sometime? They had to feel that "fear" in me. So now it has, and there's no sense in being tense or worried about it. Vigilent, sure. Worried and scared, no. So interesting to see how they both "feed" off me, my attitude and feelings. I'm praising them much more for anything and everything positive they do with each other.

I pray there's never another fight/scuffle, whichever, but I feel 100 times better about dealing with it.


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## chelle (Feb 1, 2009)

gsdraven said:


> .... Doing obedience together is a great idea to help show the heirarchy. Purposely put Bailey in a down stay and call Tucker over for attention and then switch.


You definitely hit the nail on the head here. Thanks for that excellent advice, it was dead on and has made a huge difference.!


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

chelle said:


> Still want to talk to you, msvette2u! Sorry I missed you on Easter. I PM'd you. Again, thanks for your offer.
> 
> *I sat back and thought about this, and I do think I was giving off some vibes to the boys. When Bailey would nose in, it made me a little nervous because I could easily see what he was doing...*
> 
> ...


I was going to ask about that. And you still have my # 

What I do when tension starts mounting, before it gets to going, is a nice big "That's ENOUGH!", but said in a lower tone of voice, nothing "high pitched" because it can amp them up to be talking in a higher tone of voice. 
I can sense when there's going to be issues, and head them off at the pass. 
For instance, the stitches incident we had recently was precipitated by my daughter eating on the couch and two dogs wanting to be "closest". That's an easy fix, really (food in the kitchen only) or dogs only on the floor while watching one of us eat.


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## kiya (May 3, 2010)

Unfortunately I have the same kind of issue with Lakota's guarding, I watch her and try to stop her from getting into that mode. Sometimes it seems as if it starts over nothing. She starts by licking Apache or Kiya's mouth, you would take it as a submissive behavior but it starts to get more intense and then she'll get vocal. So now as soon as she starts doing that I yell out "leave it" if she doesn't stop "NO". 
This seems to stop her, most of the time. 
What ever you do don't pull one dog off by the collar, that always just amps Lakota up. I will stomp my feet, pound my hand on something, walk inbetween while yelling in the "she devil" voice I can. Anything to break her focus. The only thing I have going for us is that both Apache & Kiya don't fight her back.


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