Rescue Dog

tina_foskett

We have recently rescued a male staff approximately 18 months old who has not been neutered. He is a lovely, lovely boy with humans but our concerns have been raised as he has been aggressive towards our other dog - he has gone for her more than once and it seems as if he is spoiling for a fight, not just giving her a warning. He did not get hold of her but it was not nice.

Can this behaviour change or be changed or should he really be in a home where he is the only pet? While I really would like to keep him I am not prepared to put my other dog or my cats at risk. He came from a kennels that has a few spaces for Rescue dogs who were about to be put to sleep. We were told that he was stray but fine with other dogs and cats. Unfortunately, we have not seen that side of him yet, infact the opposite. We really would like to keep him but not to the detriment of our other animals!

Admittedly he has only been with us for a day or so and I could be over reacting but his aggressive behaviour does seem excessive; although I accept that I could be wrong and it is him putting down his boundaries but the aggression when he has behaved like this seems excessive and I am concerned about the harm he may cause to our dog or even to our cats.

Can anyone help? How can this be addressed if it can or should we just accept he is not the dog for us and hope the extra information we can now give about him will ensure he goes to a home forever that he is suited to. Thank you.

ellives

Is your existing dog male of female? If he is male also, then you could well have problems.

The worse case is that they are both boys and neither neutered. Add the staffy breed (I have one by the way) and it could hardly get tougher.

All is not lost....BUT you have a lot of effort ahead of you to minimise the possible fall out.

Google "introducing a second dog" and you'll find plenty of good advice.

Good luck

gettingready

From OH it is pretty clear that the dog she rescued is a neutered male and her other dog is a female....

OP- sorry, can not offer any advice, hope all goes well - for all concerned.

Mutter_2

tina_foskett wrote: »

We have recently rescued a male staff approximately 18 months old who has not been neutered. He is a lovely, lovely boy with humans but our concerns have been raised as he has been aggressive towards our other dog - he has gone for her more than once and it seems as if he is spoiling for a fight, not just giving her a warning. He did not get hold of her but it was not nice.

Can this behaviour change or be changed or should he really be in a home where he is the only pet? While I really would like to keep him I am not prepared to put my other dog or my cats at risk. He came from a kennels that has a few spaces for Rescue dogs who were about to be put to sleep. We were told that he was stray but fine with other dogs and cats. Unfortunately, we have not seen that side of him yet, infact the opposite. We really would like to keep him but not to the detriment of our other animals!

Admittedly he has only been with us for a day or so and I could be over reacting but his aggressive behaviour does seem excessive; although I accept that I could be wrong and it is him putting down his boundaries but the aggression when he has behaved like this seems excessive and I am concerned about the harm he may cause to our dog or even to our cats.

Can anyone help? How can this be addressed if it can or should we just accept he is not the dog for us and hope the extra information we can now give about him will ensure he goes to a home forever that he is suited to. Thank you.

I have no idea what to advise. Hopefully others here will help.
Have you asked the rescue if you may return him?

Sagz_2

tina_foskett wrote: »

We have recently rescued a male staff approximately 18 months old who has not been neutered. He is a lovely, lovely boy with humans but our concerns have been raised as he has been aggressive towards our other dog - he has gone for her more than once

gettingready wrote: »

From OH it is pretty clear that the dog she rescued is a neutered male and her other dog is a female....

I would have said it was pretty clear that the new dog is male and not neutered.

foreign_correspondent

gettingready wrote: »

From OH it is pretty clear that the dog she rescued is a neutered male and her other dog is a female....

OP- sorry, can not offer any advice, hope all goes well - for all concerned.

No, the OP says:
male staff approximately 18 months old who has not been neutered

Is your b1tch neutered?

How have you gone about introducing them?

Its very normal for dogs not to get on immediately, and introductions need to be managed with care.

Where is this rescue that is sening out unneutered SBT's? PM me if you like, I am just wondering if it is one I am thinking of!

ETA - posted at the same time as norbert's mum!

Kimberley

Thats a real shame but to be honest the rescue should have introduced this Staff to your dog before you took him home to access how they got on with each other. They should have had at least 3 meetings prior to you adopting him. With Stray dogs you have no background history and therefore it is risky to rehome Stray dogs with those with young children and other animals. I understand he was in Kennels and was on death row but i'm afraid people come first.

Kinski

Was the dog vet checked, there might be an underlying problem with the staffie so first port of call should be your vet. I do like staffies and they are fantastic people dogs, unfortunately a lot of them aren't good with other dogs, as well as the vet check you might need to get a behaviourist in to asses him. I wish you loads of luck and I hope that it can be resolved.

Terri

foreign_correspondent

To be honest, introducing new dogs generally creates some tensions at first - it can be very ard to tell whether the dogs are just sorting the dynamics out, but I always try and get new dogs used to each other gradually - sometimes they need time away from each other, and high value things (like food, beds and toys) can spark disagreements, so need to be managed carefully.

tina_foskett

Thank you for your replies and for the advice that has been offered.

Firstly, the first dog we rescued approximately 18 months ago is female and speyed. She is a Staffie X and definitely has a defiant streak but never has been what I would consider aggressive either to people or other animals, although she has chased the cats, it has always been her who has walked away worse off with a scatched nose. Although this morning it looks like she is beginning to stand her ground more with Charlie than she was yesterday, in saying that Charlie seems to be more submissive this morning.

Part of the agreement of us rescuing Charlie is that he is neutered and I hope to get him into the vets sooner rather than later at least by middle of this week to get the process in hand. As well as a few other bits and pieces, second injection etc. We signed an agreement stating that he would be neutered and he most certainly will be. I can confirm that checks were carried out prior to the rescue home allowing us to rehome Charlie. I have kept them fully up-to-date with our concerns about Charlie's response to Izzy and they have confirmed that they will take him back.

Since my last post, I have spent some more time alone with Charlie and he really is a lovely, lovely boy. He is obedient and has good basic training such as: walking on a lead to heel, responding to commands and not taking any notice of other people/children who are either on foot or on bikes. He also ignored my cat who was in the garden when we returned from the walk. He certainly has got potential and we would be heartbroken to see him go but that does not mean we would not return him if keeping him was not good for him or our other pets or anyone else. We are still not sure how he responds to other dogs on leads yet.

From the feedback that I have had so far, I think we are taking all the correct precautions to protect all concerned and certainly have not ruled out getting a specialist behavourist to assess him and possibly Izzy who may also be as much of the problem as Charlie; while I do not think this is the case it has not bee ruled out.

Its early days but I can't help but say what a lovely dog he is and apart from his aggression towards Izzy and not so sure response to one of the cats earlier yesterday, his arrival would have been perfect.

I also acknowledge that I could be over reacting, about his aggression but at the same time given some of the horror stories I have read and while I accept some of it is hyped up and not always accurate, I don't see the point of taking unnecessary chances and being forewarned is hopefully for-armed.

Thank you again for your response and any views, help, advice and particularly similar experiences gratefully received.

Sagz_2

The early days of bringing a new dog home are always a little difficult, I always wonder if I've done the right thing and if all the other pets will like the newcomer and vice-versa.

I tend to stick to the normal routine and try and fit the new dog in with as little fuss as possible.

I'm careful about possible sources of conflict and remove all toys and bones from the garden and house. The kitchen can be a spark point as there will be lots of lovely smells to a new dog - especially if he's been in kennels for a while - so I'm extra careful there. Food is kept really boring, no titbits for the first few days, just kibble, and the bowls are as far apart as possible with me standing inbetween.

I keep all interactions calm, so no 'mad' play or over the top fussing until I know that all are happy with each other and life can slowly return to the normal mad house

I think if I were you OP I'd get the neutering done and out of the way ASAP so you can really start to settle your new dog in.

Good Luck OP xx and well done for taking a rescue:T