Strange Behavior

[jetscarbie]

I have 3 GSD's plus one terrier. I've never had any problems with any of them attacking each other. The oldest male does show teeth to the younger male and growls but the youngest just flips over on his back. My oldest male is neutered. My terrier is neutered. My female is spayed. The youngest is not. He's almost 2 years old.

The last couple of weeks....my youngest GSD has been randomly attacking my male terrier. It's been pretty scary when it happens......b/c it seem to be vicious and so out-of-the-blue. It's actually freaked me out b/c it scares me. When he is seeing red, he won't listen to me. I have to pull him off and make him get down. At this point...I am really scared for the terrier. The hatred/danger in the attacks seem to be getting worse.

I've been watching them so close the last couple of days. My GS can be just laying there......but if the terrier moves.....GS's eyes are following him everywhere. They are really focused eyes (if that makes any sense?) My hubby calls them crazy eyes.

Does anybody have any advice or suggestions on how to make this work out?

A little info on what I've done in the last couple of weeks to try.....I've walked terrier and GSd together. No problems. They go outside together....no problems. GSD will let terrier eat from his dish...no problems. When he attacks the terrier...it's always so random and QUICK.

[jetscarbie]

no advice or suggestions? Anyone?

I wonder if having him neutered would help?

[BMoore]

Neutering always seems to help. When my spayed female was faced with my unspayed female going into heat she FLIPPED (You'd think it'd be the other way around) she attacked the unspayed female repeatedly, but after the second dog was spayed, everything was fine.
What type of training do you use? Do you treat all dogs equally? Or do you treat the dominate dog as the dominate dog? I use the "Nothing comes free" method of training and I've heard it helps with pack issues.

[jetscarbie]

All dogs are treated equally..

My youngest dog is completely submissive to everybody in the house...and all the other dogs except the terrier. He's basically just a big goof ball

Yesterday was a disaster!!! I have been taking the youngest and terrier walking together. Everything has worked prefect for a few days now. About 1/2 a mile from my house.......the youngest just jumps on the terrier and starts attacking him. Right away, the jerk from the youngest caused me to belly flop from the wet grass....right in the ditch. My terrier's leash went from my hand and he took off in the woods. My shepherd still had the attack look in his eyes. I couldn't get the terrier to come back. I had to run home like flash gordon and drop youngest off and drive back with my truck. Thankfully, my terrier was still laying in the woods....and he was alright. Just scared.

I walked back in the house....and the youngest was so happy to see him. He wagged his tail and lick the terrier. All was good. My terrier used to be a happy-go-lucky dog...but I can def. tell where he is becoming a little timid.

One thing yesterday taught me......never walk without a cell phone or extra leash. AND I will never walk the youngest with the terrier again. AND I also need to get my youngest in more advanced training and take him for another vet checkup.

[BMoore]

See, you MAY be causing some of the issues. You CAN NOT treat the dogs equally because they are not equal. You have a pack of dogs. There is a natural pack order. You are at the top of the pack, and then everyone with four legs has his own place. By treating all dogs equally, you're bound to have the more dominate dogs feel the need to reinforce their place in the pack order because you are not treating the dogs that are higher ups as they should be.

I would make sure all dogs are neutered/spayed and have a trainer who has experience with pack order to come to your house. I hope I don't sound like a Dominate trainer/theory spouter, because we use only positive-training methods here. But when you have multiple dogs and you don't understand the pack order, there are going to be issues.

The fact that you had an attack out of nowhere, on leash really worries me. Not only are your dogs at risk, but you could be injured as well. What would have happened if your were walking on the street?
Obviously there is a lot of stress on your family right now, and I'm sure everyone is feeling it. Keep us updated on how everything gets addressed!

[jetscarbie]

Thank you for the advice BMoore.

I do treat the dogs equally...what I mean is that I give them all there own individual time with me, one on one. I don't favor one over the other.

There is a pecking/pack order with my dogs.

My oldest GSD is the alpha. My female is 2nd.

I do believe it's the 3 spot that is causing problems between my youngest GSD and terrier. I'm no dog whisperer or trainer....so I don't know. Could be something else. Could be I am completely wrong about it all.

I guess it's weird to me b/c my youngest and terrier have always gotten along just fine. This problem just started about a month ago. When my youngest attacks...it's not just a random "back off or you're invading my space" nip....these are vicious attacks. And they are random. And very scary.

I've never though for a minute that I wasn't their pack leader. They all listen and respect what I say......well, I guess if you disregard the youngest attacking the terrier. Maybe I need to rethink what I "thought"

All are n/s except the youngest GSD. He's 1 1/2