“Hi Tom, I recently discovered your podcast as I’m having problems with my 2 year old Vizsla attacking my new Great Dane who I brought home at 8 weeks, now 5 months old. My vizsla has always been nervous/submissive with dogs. She used to go to agility training until one day she attacked a dog she was training with in the arena. The trainers put it down to resource guarding and said she may be a reactive dog, which has become true as she is increasingly becoming more unpredictable and aggressive with dogs (within the last few months, not before I got the puppy). I have an older dog at home who she loves, she has attacked him over food, but I manage this by feeding separately and there isn’t an issue. With my new Dane, it’s a lot worse. She will attack her for walking into the living room, attention, space and me mostly. Even randomly when playing she will snap (I think when she is overstimulated). I don’t believe she doesn’t like her, as she loves to play with her, they play constantly and get along for the most part, but she is acting like a control freak and basically ‘policing’ her around resources (mainly me). She doesn’t growl or snap, she circles her like a shark and sometimes just loses it and goes into attack if the puppy doesn’t read her cues. 2 minutes after an attack, she is loving her and trying to play again - it’s becoming very stressful for my Dane, I fear she will start to defend herself or become dog reactive as a result. My question is, can I help my vizsla to manage her response/emotions to make a better decision before going into full attack mode, even to lower her response to a warning (growl for example). Can I encourage positive interactions between the two, to make her feel more secure vs her feeling jealous/possessive/under threat? Thank you”
H.E Aussie via Apple Podcasts ·
Australia ·
07/09/24