training a dog not to be agressive.

Actually that is a great course of action. That is ALWAYS what you do when two animals do not get along. Seperate them entirely and then reintroduce them after a week or so, slowly, as if they had never seen each other before. This is a process that can take multiple weeks so you may have to try again.


Geez, all anyone is doing is trying to help.

i said you start to reintroduce them by taking them on walks together. i didn't say turn them loose together.

take the dogs somewhere that is NEUTRAL, put them on leashes, don't let them get in each others faces, and walk them together. give them a good experience together but not interacting. then put them away separately. repeat many times until both dogs show relaxed, calm body language. then slowly start to let them interact. some dogs do well interacting through a barrier, some dogs don't. some dogs do ok with on-leash introductions, some dogs don't. but YOU need to take action in this. you need to control the situation.

why would you just stand there and let her attack him? that's what i don't understand. why are you not standing up for your dog and protecting him? why do you think it's a good thing to turn them loose together at all when you know she's attacking him?

she can still attack him with a muzzle on. she just can't bite. what you're doing has done absolutely nothing to address her agitation or her state of mind or her intentions.

i really really encourage you to get the help of a professional behaviorist in this before somebody gets seriously hurt.

You've been given good advice by Elegy, who is IMO an expert in handling this very situation. And you've been given good advice from others who understand dog behavior. Then you insult these knowledgeable people by accusing them of attacking you and giving you advice that doesn't make sense. How on earth would you know what makes sense???? By your statements, you clearly, unmistakably do not know canine behavior or how to treat this type of problem. You even came on here asking the question. That right there says that you don't know what to do and need help. There is nothing more obnoxious to me, than someone, an obvious novice with dog behavior getting advice from experienced, knowledgeable, educated in behavior kind of people and then insulting them. Do what you want. But pulleeeze don't ask for adivice and when you're given it, bash people for trying to help. Didn't your mother ever teach you to say, "thank you." ????

I have JRTs So in this house a 'squabble' often leads to vet bills. Trust me Even if you were 'pack leader' which IMO means you are buying into the urban myth of dog behaviour. But the lesser 'wolves' will still attack and hurt other lower ranking wolves. Has nothing to do with the leadership.

You can be boss over her. And she can still want to be boss over the other dog. And while a straight linear hierachy is nice on paper, its not the way the world works.

Hey guys everyone has given wonderful advice, I am going to stick up for my sister and say that I think she is just really frusterated over this whole situation and stressed out too. Which doesn't help the dogs any for that matter. I don't think she ment to sound as rude as she came across. At least I don't think so. Sometimes things sound a bit different over the internet then they would in real life.

Hopefully she takes the advice given. Step one was getting them both seperate crates. But they can't be crated forever. Any sort of collar to control barking isn't really going to help the aggression, it will just cause it to build up inside her and build pressure and frusteration and stress until one day she snaps. Barking is fine, excessive barking is not. First need to get her over the aggression issue, then worry about stopping her from barking so much.

Jesse needs some help, a behaviorist is a great idea, but with money being tight, I don't know if they will agree to it. If it comes down to it being too much to handle then maybe she should consider adopting the dog out to a more experienced home that has more time to focus on the needs of Jesse and just share their home with one dog. Sometimes two is just too much to handle at a time. I can't even handle having one right now so I know how that is.

You're absolutely right AnimalLover, frustration does make us act differently and say things that we might not otherwise. I'm sorry.

Thank you for all your advice. I've tried it, and it didnt work. As someone else accused me of, I am NOT going to stand there and let my dogs attack eachother. I have not taken the dogs for a walk together, because I am certain that she would attack him again during the walk. Seeing as it took 3 grown men to get her off of him last time (and not before she cut him up some), so me walking both dogs together, they would fight until someone died. (which obviously i dont want to happen) it would be nice if we could get an animal trainer to come, but i've only been able to find one in the area (i'm sure there's more, but that was all i could find nearby) and she charged $50 an hour. Maybe that's the norm, but that's definitely not something I can afford right now, since i'm sure it would take more than just one session of one hour to work with her. Also, any time that she is near columbo, his tail goes between his legs and he starts to shake (obviously scared). I really think that the best thing for everyone is going to be to find her a new home where there are no other pets. have i mentioned before that she goes after my cat too? we thought it was both dogs 'terrorizing' the cat, but columbo and charlie (the cat) are fine around eachother. it's jessie that chases the cat... she even tries to stuff herself through the cat door to the basement to get to him. any suggestions on that? obviously i cant do the slowly introduce them, because that's how they met... being slowly introduced, and she still goes after the cat just as much as always.

I really think that this is such a sad situation for all . If you cannot afford a behaviorist for Jessie , I'd re-home her . This is no life for humans or both dogs. I'd personally be scared to death with a baby in the house !! I agree with all the posts that say treating aggression with items that can bring on more agitation do not work !!! I know if my hands were tied , and I was sprayed or zapped every time I tried to express myself .... I'd be a raging idiot !! Has your vet suggested any drugs ??

Wow, this is realy sad.

I remember a long time ago my Bullmastiff Rollip was very aggressive towards our other dog Astar. We eventually had to put down Astar because he had a tumor the size of a lightbulb near his heart, and if it was removed he'd die, and we'd rather not spend the money on a surgery that wouldn't work.

We kept Rollip and Astar seperated through a gate in my basement for a while. They barked and snarrled and howled at eachother for 2 WEEKS before settling down and just giving up. Then after that, they spent a month in the divider. We took them out for walks after that, not together though. My sister and I took them out and made sure they saw eachother before we'd go opposite ways. Then, to the basement they'd go, never within 2 meters of eachother. Then one day we dropped the gate half way, and the dogs didn't notice. We lowered it over the course of 2 weeks, and on the 3rd week, we got rid of it. They ignored eachother for a bit (don't think they noticed the gate was gone) until the next DAY. It was realy a miracle.

Perserverence pays off. It took over 2 months to get Astar and Rollip to get along.

However, if you don't have the patience or the money for Jessie, re-homing her is the best option. However, if you can't afford sessions for Jessie, what happens if your other dog develops a behavioural problem?

I wish you the best of luck, realy. I've been there.

Where there's a will . there's a way !!! Kudos to you !!!

I agree with doberluv, don't come asking for advice if you are not open to taking it. Getting a dog to change this kind of behavior takes a willingness to learn, implement and repeat. This kind of behavior is not going to be correct in a few days, even a few weeks or months. Keeping in mind that the muzzle and shock collar have probably been very detrimental to the issue as well.
How long have you been trying?

Giving up the dog for adoption is the easy way out of this type of situation.
You took on the commitment when you got these dogs.
There are way to many people dumping dogs for issues they helped to create.

As for the jab against the bully breeds in your first post, really poor taste.

I think doing a search and some research on dogs is in your dogs and your best interests. The "wasting your time" in order to research a question does not make it sound like you want to put much effort into this situation.

If it was just dog aggression, I would say work on it, bring the situation to a manageable level.

But it sounds like your dog also has an extremely high prey drive (trying to kill the cat basically--correct me if she isn't going to that extreme but that's what it sounds like.) That being the case, I would rehome the dog. Your cat shouldn't have to spend the rest of its life looking over its shoulder.