Puppy Appears "Jealous"

robdunne

Hi,

I know that dogs don't do jealousy but my puppy displays all the signs of it.

I have a Scottish Terrier 8-9 yrs and we got a puppy, a beagle, in early august.

Over the few months, the beagle (not yet neutered as he's just shy of 6 months) appears to be establishing himself (or trying to) as the alpha. However he just seems to want everything the other dog has.

We have to feed them apart otherwise the puppy will relay from bowl to bowl bullying his way to the scotty's food and gobbling it down. The same happens with pasta bone treats.

Also, if the scotty decides to play with a chew toy, the puppy has to have it. And if he gets it and the scotty picks up a different toy, the puppy goes for that too.

This is leading to very aggressive fighting between the two which is very upsetting.

At first we thought it best to let it play out to allow one or the other claim the alpha position but it is going on a very long time now and seems to be getting worse.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Robbie

shinikins

Dogs can definitely become jealous! I'm getting the feeling that perhaps you are letting the Beagle away with a lot because its only a pup still. In turn, he is trying to dominate the older dog, and is seems to be winning, and if the behaviour continues, your scotty will become very disgruntled indeed!

You need to show the beagle his place in the pack-because thats how he views your family. He thinks he's top dog, and is asserting himself, when in fact he should be the bottom rung on the ladder. If he takes a toy from the scottie, take it away and tell him NO! If he tries to eat the scotties food, again NO and lead him back to his bowl, and stand over him so he can't run back over. If he tries to run in the door first, out he goes and let the scottie in before him. Keep it up, keep it consistent and you should see results. Don't let him away with his bad behaviour or you'll just see more problems occuring between the two.

Best of luck!

LucyBliss

In fairness, if anyone is going to assume the alpha position, it might be better if it's you. I have a dog like that, when he was a pup he'd go around and try and shove the other two away from their food and if they took a toy he wanted, he'd bark his head off until they either gave it to him or walked away. So I had to always step in, reprimand him and then claim all the food or toy for myself. It took some work - he's a determined little brat and smart to boot, but once he decided to use some of this smarts for good instead of evil and realised that I wasn't going to back down, the behaviour stopped. Now if he finishes his food first, he will look at the other two still eating, look at me with his head sideways and I tell him no and he looks back at his own empty bowl a bit dejected.
And if the other one has a toy he wants, he goes and sits in the hall like he's dejected or sulking - seriously, the first time he did this, I thought he wanted to go out so brought him out into the garden and he just stood looking at me. When we came back in, he saw the toy was free, took it and sat on his bed all chipper.

The puppy might be a bit easier once he gets neutered. It can help to calm them down. Best of luck with it. It can be upsetting when they don't get on.

Graces7

We have seemingly permanent jealousy issues with our two. Wee dog was only dog until we stumbled across collie and took her in and that was four years ago.

It just is a fact with them... They.. love to "hate" each other and are very different dogs of course with different interests.

Wee dog is half basset so a scent hound and while collie would love to play with her, mean-spirited wee dog refuses to play. I cannot pet collie without wee dog rounding on her and no way can I have one one each side of me.

They are possessive of all the other has and no way could they be fed together. Nor will they sleep together which on cold nights is a great shame. So they kind of alternate with each other's beds now in different rooms.

Yet if they are apart, they greet each other warmly and when collie was missing eleven days it was wee dog who alerted us to her being near.

Dogs are different from us is all. And abused dogs most of all of course.

So we are used to it now.... Just is how it is and each is happy in their own way; and WE ARE BOSS.

robdunne

Hi all again,

I have been working on the tips mentioned above and we can now feed the dogs side by side without any problems now. He is still possessive over one toy in particular but not too bad on the others.

However, whenever we are not around, he still is very aggressive with the older Scotty. He has taken to humping her and in the last week, we have come home or woke up to find he has chewed her collar off 3 times. I even rubbed mustard powder on the collar last time. This is really worrying. I am certainly the boss as they pretty much do what their told when their told but if I'm not around it all goes out the window.

He's scheduled for the snip on thursday.

dvet

Hi Rob,

Thought I'd post a link to this thread, in which the OP had a similar problem to you! It might help, especially if they're still having problems after this long.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=69439681&postcount=7