Helping a jealous dog

strandroad

Ok so we have a bit of a situation and we want to improve it so any tips are welcome! We have a dog and now we're hosting another dog for the summer.
Dog A - resident dog, 4yo, neutered
Dog B - guest dog, 2.5yo, neutered
They are roughly the same size, lab x.

We expected them to get along fine because we used to have two dogs and there were no issues between A and the other dog (he was the younger fella then though). They are indeed fine for most of the time in practical terms, but A seems to be quite jealous, with growling if they cross paths suddenly (B is submissive and just walks away) and over the last couple of weeks they had two fights, both in the presence of food/snacks. No damage was done but they had to split and we just don't want it to continue.

We try to favour A, feed/pet him first, give him a lot of affection etc. but after more than a month he's still not at ease. Looks like simply putting them together to share the same lifestyle might not be enough.
We are now going to give dog A an extra high intensity walk (they get three a day but he might feel deprived if we don't exhaust him the way he likes it - it's more difficult when we're managing the two of them). My OH is going to spend extra time with him too (dog B is quite clingy around my OH and dog A then comes to me, but he might be missing my OH's attention and acting out).

Dog A was always quite greedy around food but his manners around food were really good at this stage and we're not sure how to work with him so that it's not lost and does not become a bigger issue. He's definitely agitated with dog B around and is slipping. Do we separate their feeding/snacks completely, or would it only exacerbate the issue?

peasant

Definitely feed them with at least one door between them ...makes life so much easier for everyone involved and stops at least 90% of the tension from building up in the first place.

With our four I find that favouring one creates more trouble than it solves ..try to be neutral and most importantly, it's you who sets the rules not one (or both) of the dogs.
So you decide how much growling/jostling etc is tolerable and at what point you call an end to it ...not your resident dog and certainly not the guest.

When you need to correct/interrupt try to be as calm and matter-of-fact about it as possible. The dogs will sense when you're nervous /unsure and only act up the more for it.

VonVix

Will be following this thread closely, I have always wondered about how to manage something like this if it were to occur in my present situation.

strandroad

Thank you! Yes it's a big question whether we should favour dog A to reassure him or treat both equally. I'm not into the whole pack theory but it's clear that he feels shortchanged and is trying to claw something back!

Nody

mhge wrote: »

Thank you! Yes it's a big question whether we should favour dog A to reassure him or treat both equally. I'm not into the whole pack theory but it's clear that he feels shortchanged and is trying to claw something back!

Look up resource guarding; everything you've described so far to me sounds like it would fall under it.

peasant

In my experience, once you actively favour one dog, you give it reason to presume itself superior/more important than the other one ..which in the end creates more aggro than it quells.

Normally socialised dogs (without behavioural issues) are very capable of sorting things between themselves in a very low key (with small gestures sometimes even unnoticed by us). Once you assure both dogs that they have "equal rights" as far as you are concerned (and you are their most important resource, remember) the rest is just small squabbles that shouldn't really amount to much and should be controllable by a few calm commands.

The mistake that some people make is that they try to demonstrate this "equality" in a human way ...e.g. hold out a treat in front of both their noses, split it in half and give one half to each dog.

That's exactly the wrong way to do it, it just increases competition and jealousy. You feed them separately (at least in opposite corners of the same room), you cuddle them separately and for everything else you treat them as a unit and not a separate entity ..i.e. dogs, come here; dogs, shut up, etc

strandroad

Excellent points, much appreciated. We are definitely guilty of "treat splitting"! Today we walked them separately and gave them lots of attention also separately. We'll see how this works!