help introducing dominant dog

jaynes2326

Before I splash the cash on a dog trainer I thought I would see if anyone here has some advice.

I have a four year old spayed staffy !!!!!. Got her from a rescue two years ago - she was supposed to be dog sociable and friendly and turned out not to be! I call her a dominant bully - left to her own devices she charges dogs, jumps on their heads / backs and can give them some verbal. Never never tried to bite or snap however. I have worked really hard with her and she has improved. Some dogs she gets on well with and she has some friends but I would never allow her off leash with new dogs.

Anyway, someone I know is moving to Australia (in ten days time!) and has a lovely neutered male staffy. He is very nervous and reserved. We would love to take him (and have no idea what might happen to him if we don't!)

The problem has been introducing them. My other half let my girl off the lead as soon as we started walking the dogs. :mad: She stormed him and jumped on his back. He freaked and grabbed her muzzle and it took a while to separate them. No blood and no wounds but both a bit shaken up. We carried on with the walk and have done two more walks since then, bringing the dogs closer, feeding them lots of sausages and lots of praise.

They walk side by side fine and really just ignore each other. I have no idea what to do next. I know that she will try and jump on him again and he will react. Do we muzzle them and let them get on with it? Muzzle them and referee? Give up on the whole idea? I'm really stuck and would appreciate suggestions.

krlyr

Firstly, I would lose the "dominant" idea. Yes, dominance does exist in a form but it's quite a misused/misunderstood term. A dominant wolf wouldn't act in the way you describe your dog acting - a dominant wolf wouldn't constantly pester and bully its packmates or they'd soon get fed up of it!
http://www.apbc.org.uk/articles/why-wont-dominance-die

A more likely cause for this kind of behaviour would simply be a lack of manners or social skills. One of my own dogs lacks much in the form of social skills, and lots of his misbehaviour revolves around a fear of other dogs, mixed with inappropriate interaction (he would, if allowed, grab at the back of the neck, for example, in an attempt to incite play - normally just annoys other dogs though which is why he's not allowed to do it!).
When I first got him, I had to stop him doing this to Kiki - so plenty of timeouts, separate walks, walks with a second person so we could practice calm, parallel walking without him jumping on her, and keeping him on-lead in the garden so I could stop the chasing and jumping behaviour. It only took about 3 weeks of this controlled, supervised interacting before he chilled out, and they're now best of buddies. He still doesn't have the best skills with other dogs, but he's learnt to read Kiki's body language a whole lot better than he used to, and she's learnt to give him a bit of leeway for his unpolished social skills, and they've come to a great understanding between them!

A friend has a dog with social issues that result in similar behaviour - he's part-Akita and one of their traits is to "splat" other dogs in a playful way, but as he's a 45kg, large boy, there's a risk of him injuring another dog despite a lack of aggressive intent. Both of our boys also misread other dog's body language so fail to notice the subtle signs of an unhappy dog, therefore interaction may be more likely to result in a spat between the dogs if we weren't there to referee it ourselves.

It sounds like your girly is capable of positive interaction, and doesn't have an immediate dislike to this boy either as they can manage to behave together with the parallel walking and so on. I would simply say go really slow, keep walking them together, keep them in the house but separated with babygates and crates. Make each interaction positive - so really fun walks without the risk of any aggro (so keep them close but give no opportunity to touch and therefore squabble), have them nearby in the house (with a physical barrier) and reinforce this interaction by making it positive - yummy chews or bones, or stuffed Kongs, that are only given when they're within close range/sight of each other so they learn that the presence of each other brings positive things. It may take a while but it certainly doesn't sound hopeless from what you've said.

I wouldn't muzzle them and let them 'get on with it' - they may not be able to bite but they may still harm each other physically, not to mention the mental damage it could do. The more they fall out, the more they practice the behaviour and breed negative associations, so I'd really avoid any kind of conflict at all. Lots of short, very positive interactions under complete control, and you'll get there with time. A good behaviourist may be willing to help and come up with a longterm plan too - http://www.apbc.org.uk to find one locally