Shuffling The Dog Pack
I wrote the other day that my dear, sweet Emma had passed away. I also mentioned that if you had a multi-dog household, as I do, that you should take extra precautions because your dogs could be unsettled. They might have to try to sort out new roles in the “pack” in your house. That’s been going on in my house this week and it’s not fun.
English Setters are usually pretty laid back dogs so this problem might not have surfaced except for the fact that my visitor, Sarah, has been in season. Since I do show and breed dogs, this is an unavoidable side effect once a year for my girls. Of course, if you are not interested in showing and breeding, then spaying and neutering your dogs will remove one cause of tension with your dogs. But Sarah’s situation has caused my two adult boys to generally growl and be disagreeable with each other. Nothing serious, but it’s annoying. Taylor is the older, more alpha boy, so he has designated himself as Sarah’s boyfriend and lies beside her. Younger brother Beau is down in the dumps and watches them from across the room.
(What neither boy seems to understand is that they are not going to get the chance to make puppies. No breeding. Sarah is retired. She is going home to California this weekend. All gone. I’m sure they will be heartbroken.)
With Beau being excluded from a “relationship” and set at the low end of the totem pole, he keeps turning his anger on Pearl and Blue, the junior members of the household. Maybe he’s jealous of the attention they get — and puppies get a lot of attention — or maybe he’s just trying to make sure that somebody besides him is at the bottom of the dog pack hierarchy. Beau is mad at everybody right now. He makes me think of a poor middle child. But since he keeps jumping on the younger dogs I have been giving him time-outs. He spent a lot of time in his big crate yesterday, something that we rarely do here. I mostly use crates for travel purposes, and the dogs like to play in them on the patio. But I do have a huge crate in the house where some of the dogs like to sleep sometimes. And I made Beau go in the crate yesterday when he jumped on Pearl a couple of times. He was scaring everybody with his growling and bad mood so I decided he needed some time alone. The growling stopped and, as long as he could see Sarah, he was happy.
Beau is the dog who was having trouble with Emma dying. He was going to the room where she died and sleeping in her spot for a few days. He was coming to me for extra petting, so I think he took her death hard. She had always been in his life from the time he was born, like a favorite aunt or a grandmother. I think his emotions are all over the place these last couple of weeks. I’m not sure how he will react to Sarah and Blue going to California this weekend. Maybe he’s not handling the changes well. But I hope things will settle down soon so he can relax and get back to being his sweet self.
Having your dogs spayed and neutered can certainly reduce some of the problems that Beau is having (though it’s not an option in this case). It can take away one source of disagreement. (Though spayed and neutered dogs can still fight about sexual issues. They still have girlfriends and boyfriends even if they can’t reproduce.) But any time one of your dogs dies or there are big changes in your household your dogs can be sensitive to them and react in ways like these. I think the best thing to do is try to be understanding and know what’s going on. You can’t let one of your dogs intimidate or harm the others. You certainly can’t let your dog intimidate or harm you. Crating may be necessary through some of the rough patches. Doing things to re-establish your dog’s position are a good idea — feeding dogs separately and in a certain order. Making dogs sit to obtain a treat. Making sure you enter doors first instead of allowing your dog to barge in ahead of you. Making sure you eat first instead of your dogs. Getting your dog outside, on leash, for walks or other activities that emphasize you are in charge, is a good idea. All of these things tell your dog that you are in charge in your home instead of the dog. If you let your dog sleep on your bed you may even need to temporarily restrict his privileges. If the troublesome behavior persists and your dog is still trying to assert dominance in the home, either over your other dogs or over you, think about contacting a Certified Dog Behaviorist.
