Jealous Issues

[Mr-Remington]

I took in a 1 year old Queensland heeler today. Her owners couldn't keep her because they just had a baby and the baby turned out to be allergic to her. From what I've learned she was an only dog, no other animals. She is very shy as her owners made her a home body, they didn't do much with her.

As soon as we got her home we took her and Remi out on a walk on mutual territory. Remi loved her, and wanted to play. She on the other hand growled and tried to bite him. I took them home and we seperated them. I let her roam the back yard while Remi stayed in with me, and them I let her investigate my room on her own. After she was calmed a little (2 hours.) we took her out and let Chance out with her since he is calm also. They were fine.

When we let Remi out, he tried smelling her and she snarled at him. She didn't go after him just growled, and bared her teeth. Remi walked away. He played ball, and she laid down and didn't care anymore.

After bringing them in my mom was petting her and Remi tried to get attention too and she gave him a warning nip, not hard but enough that Remi walked away.

I can tell Remi is upset anytime I show her attention, and he nip her once when we were in the living room, she didn't react just stepped back.

If Remi is in the kitchen she lets out a long growl and steps very slowly towards him. Remi doesn't know how to react since he has never been around this kind of dog.

Right now she is following him around just growling at him.

I don't know how to handle this. Is there something I can do? Or do I need to just give back to the owners?

I'm looking out for Remi here as he is my number one priority and don't want him in a dangerous situation.

Please help.

 

[Mr-Remington]

She just went after Remi after he tried to get on the couch. And doesn't want me to show him any attention or she goes after him.

 

[648117]

When we first got Lewis (as a 2 year old at the start of December last year) he would growl (well, snarl and show teeth) at Holly and the cats everytime they went near him, even if they were paying no attention to him and were just walking past, especially if he was near a human.
And if he was on someone he would snap. We've never had a dog act like that and Holly has never had a dog act that way around her so she was confused by his behaviour. She would stand close enough to him to make him growl but not close enough for a snap and just stood there looking at him until he stopped (I actually found her reaction really interesting, Holly seemed to be studying him because of this odd behaviour). He also spent a lot of time trotting around our house panting (he was pretty stressed) and for the first day kept going to our back gate because we took him through the gate rather than the front door when we brought him home.
Lewis kept doing the growling for a couple of weeks, if he was on the couch or on someone when he growled he would be put on the floor so he could understand that Holly and the cats are allowed up too and if he doesn't like it then he can get off (we never told him off though).
Then after a while he started to relax and would play bow at us (humans) but not Holly which confused Holly because she thought he wanted to play with her but he would growl, until eventually he started to play bow to her but then would get grumpy when she got too excited. This is also around the time he stopped growling at her if she walked past him/got too close (although he was still growling at the cats). From there the relationship between them grew and now they are fine together, they play and sit together etc (also, they went through a phase of humping each other all the time which was anoying). I think it just took him a long time to trust Holly even though he had lived with both cats and dogs before.

But for those first couple of weeks we were really worried that we had made a mistake in getting him, my mum even cried because she was so worried that it was upsetting Holly, I had to reasure her that Holly was coping fine and that I would tell her if it got too much for Holly (I can read Holly pretty well most of the time and she wasn't too stressed by it all).
We seriously discussed what we would do if he didn't settle down and stop being grumpy. Ideally we wanted him to play with Holly but we didn't mind if they ended up just ignoring each other. But it has all ended up fine in the end (although Lewis does have issues he is fine with Holly and mostly ok with the cats now).

SO that was my experience with Lewis. Obviously your situation is probably different and it is especially difficult to know over the internet. But maybe your new dog just needs more time, being rehomed is pretty stressful and I know Lewis was extremely stressed when we got him home (even stopped eating for a while). He only recently stopped getting totally stressed and hyperventilating in the car which we are pretty sure was due to being rehomed (he would freak out when we took him somewhere, but would be fine on the way home, it's like he was worried that we were going to leave him somewhere). I think with adult dogs it can easily take up to 6 months for them to properly settle down (we are still discovering issues that Lewis has).

If you like this dog and want to keep it then maybe give it two weeks and if it's no better then find a new home for it.

 

[MaryK]

Good advice 648117. I have found that in most cases, the dogs will sort it all out between themselves without anyone getting hurt, just as Lewis and Holly have.

Don't push either dog. You may need to work on the lead at first. Having Remi a way off from her and gradually bringing her closer in an arc, until she will stand and behave.

Heelers are a 'nippy' breed, I have one, and I would also work on correcting the nipping by distracting her and then duly rewarding click/treat. You could use a toy to distract her.


It's only been one day, not long and as Holly's owner says, just rehoming alone is very stressful.

She's trying to establish her place (not in a dominance manner) with the other dogs. Plus of course, she's not versed in 'canine behavior' never having been socialized as a puppy.

I would start training her as if she were a young puppy, on the socialization side, if possible taking her to a good doggy school would be best.

I would give it at least a week, maybe more if all is still safe, before making any major decisions. I totally understand Remi is your first priority, but give this girl a chance to settle down, she's had a major trauma in her life.

 

[Mr-Remington]

So today we had two major incidents. Chance tried attacking her, and she went after Remi again. Remi would no longer go anywhere near any person because he knew she would go after him. He refused to come inside around noon and ran away scared if we tried to go after him.

My roommate had a fit about it, and called the old owners explained what had happened and they agreed it was best that she go back to them until they could find her a home.

I'm upset as I had already got attached to her, but I knew there was no point in fighting with the roomie over it. She wasn't backing down, and she figured it was her choice since she wanted the dog to began with. I'm disappointed that she didn't give me a chance to work with her.

 

[Anneke]

That's too bad It sounds like she was just trying to find her place and with the right help she would have been fine. Hope she gets a good home, though.

 

[Mr-Remington]

I'm still upset, I spent yesterday crying. The owners said they have a friend in Northern Cali that wants her. So it's working out for her. I really wanted her, I told her the same thing you guys said, she was uncomfortable, and just trying to find a place to fit in.

Unknown to me, its because my roommate is looking for another dog for herself, and she wants an easy going no problem dog and she felt that's what Ebony was, until she got her home. Sometimes I wish she saw things the same way as me.

 

[southerngirl]

I'm so sorry to hear that Ebony was given back to her owner. She was just trying to find her place.

 

[MaryK]

Sam here, she was just trying to find her place. Hope all works out well for Ebony.

 

[Mr-Remington]

I had the pleasure of taking Ebony half way to meet her new owner. We met him in Santa Barbara, it was love at first sight! She was shy but warmed up to him. He is a single guy, no other pets or animals. He wanted a dog that could just chill with him. I'm happy to say that the made it home safely.

I may not have been able to keep her, but I'm glad she found someone perfect for her.

 

[threenorns]

that's good news, at any rate.

but your roomie is in for a rude awakening, since it's as rare as hen's teeth that a dog just goes into the house problem-free, no worries, and (what it sounds like) no effort on her part.

my bff has had *easily* fifty or sixty dogs go through her house (we used to run a pet rescue) so she knows what she's doing and it still took a month to integrate her easy-going, laid-back plott hound into her household with abby, a 5yr old shepherd/husky/golden mix (possessive diva) and googoo (purebred chocolate lab -highly intelligent but BIG and a total lunkhead).

 

[Mr-Remington]

that's good news, at any rate.

but your roomie is in for a rude awakening, since it's as rare as hen's teeth that a dog just goes into the house problem-free, no worries, and (what it sounds like) no effort on her part.

She isn't very good with dogs. Her jack russell is her first dog ever, She's learning, but she's hard headed when I try to tell her somethings.

 

[threenorns]

i hear that!