A Dog that doesn't play well with other dogs, NEED ADVICE

My dog Jack is wonderful. He's well behaved and gets along great with his older brother Owen.

The problem is, we took him to the dog park to see if he would get along with other dogs. We are going out of town for Christmas, and my boss offered to watch both of our dogs. So, when we took him to the dog park he was not very good. He ran around like crazy barking and growling at all of the other dogs. Occasionally he would get defensive and would make us nervous but he never hurt any of them. Mostly he would chase the dogs close to his size but was MORE threatened by larger dogs.

My boss is still going to watch him and Owen at Christmas, but my question is: How do we get him to be okay with her dog? Her dog is the same size (probably smaller) as Jack and we want to make sure it will be okay. Any suggestions on getting the two acquainted? Owen gets along with anyone or any dog, and Owen and Jack play happily together. It's just strangers that Jack is wary of. He loves people, but strange dogs threaten him.

Any advice on how we can go about this before we leave for a week during Christmas?

Thank you in advance.

 

Its great that your planning ahead with this, so many people make the arrangements to leave their dog (s) with a friend who has dogs and the dogs never actually meet until the day theyre being left....and all kinds of problems can arise.

The best thing to do would be to arrange a meeting of all the dogs regularly between now and when you they stay there.

I would start by just taking Jack if your sure they wont be any problems with Owen. Jack and Owen are technically 'a pack' and that can sometimes create a problem when meeting a new dog.....Meet your boss with her dog on neutral ground, away from her house (doesnt have to be far just not in the immediate area). You could start this at a dog park but keep in mind that there will other 'distractions' there and your goal is to monitor just these dogs when they are together. Once theyve met away from the house, maybe go for a walk with them both, let them get acquainted (hang out for a little while) and then take both into the house and see how it goes.

If all goes well then add Owen to the group, again start outside, (some people say you only need to do the initial introduction outside but personally if there is any tension between them at any time I would do this on every visit, you can lessen the time outside with them the more they see each other).

Is your boss completely comfortable doing this, she could make sure that things like feeding time the dogs have some distance between them, food is a major cause of fighting but it can be avoided, even feeding them in seperate rooms and making sure that even empty food bowls are picked up straight away after the dogs have finished eating. Being careful with toys, some dogs just dont like to share, bones and rawhides can cause problems. Also getting them over-excited like chasing a ball, some dogs do get carried away, its like the adrenilin kicks in and then out of the blue tehy go for the nearest dog to them. These are just some of the problems that Ive seen but that doesnt mean this kind of thing is gauranteed to happen, a lot of dogs get along great with no problems at all.

Its not unusual for a first visit to a dog park for the dog to go a little crazy, theyve usually never been able to run around in a place were there are so many dogs unrestrained, it can be a little over-whelming for them but once theyve been a couple of times they settle in and usually have a lot of fun. Dogs are great at reading 'doggie body language' so the majority of problems are settled with a bit of a low growl...some huffing at each other and then 9 times out 10 its over. Ive spent a lot of time in dog parks with various dogs, not all my own, we used to take shelter dogs to one park in LA and the only time I ever saw a serious fight was when 2 dogs started to get a little stroppy, the owners started screaming and grabbed at the dogs....this usually makes things a lot worse. That said though, it doesnt mean that a dog wont fight at a park and you do have to be aware of what your dog is doing, one of my dogs, BJ,....I would never have let her step foot in a dog park as she was extremely agressive with other dogs.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

Oh, one other thing. Whenever Ive had a friend taking care of my dogs either at their house or had someone stay at my house with them its a good idea to talk to your vet ahead of time and give them the persons name who they will be staying with and make sure your friend has a couple of phone numbers were they can reach you or if thats not possible then maybe a relative and of course your vet just in case there is a problem.