Desperate... Need Help... Advice, please!

I'm still kind of frazzled so this may be kind of rambly, but I need help and advice and I don't know where else to turn. Tonite was quite possibly the scariest night I've ever had. I almost lost my Charlie boy. Arthur almost killed him. We discovered fairly recently that Arthur is very food aggressive with other dogs. Not with people, tho. I can stick my hands in his dish and he ignores me. But Charlie has a tendency to try and steal his food, once he's eaten his own. We've taken to staying outside with them while they eat to make sure nothing happens, as Arthur has already gone after Charlie once for trying to take his food. That was scary enough. Tonite was horrible.

I went outside to feed everyone like normal. Made the rotties sit before I gave them their food, then gave the other 2 theirs. I then noticed the door was open, and I didn't want the cats getting out so I walked the 15 ft or so to the door to close it. It was only 3 seconds! The next thing I know, Arthur has Charlie by the neck and is whipping him around, dragging him all over the yard. I have never been so scared in my life! I thought he was going to kill him! I jumped in and grabbed Arthur's collar and tried to make him drop Charlie. Nothing. I even put my hands in his mouth and tried to pry his jaws open. Nada. I was desperate. I was muddy and covered in blood. I picked up a rake and started beating Arthur with it, screaming for him to drop Charlie. (please don't judge me on this, you have no idea what I went thru tonite) I hit him, I kicked him, and still he wouldn't drop him. Charlie was losing strength and I was getting more and more blood on me. I didn't know what else to do. I dumped a bucket of water on them, which didn't do anything but create more mud. Anna and Chloe were standing off to the side, crying and crying. Finally I ran inside, hysterical, and called a friend. (Bella wasn't home) I don't remember what I said... something about Arthur killing Charlie, blood and please come. I hung up and ran back outside. Screaming, crying, bloody, muddy, I socked Arthur in the side of his head and he finally dropped Charlie. I had to kick Charlie to keep him from coming back at Arthur. I had left the door open, and managed to get Charlie, Chloe and Anna inside, while Arthur was dragging me thru the mud to get Charlie. I stuffed Arthur into his kennel, closed the door and collapsed inside the house in a bloody, muddy heap until my friend got here.

Luckily, Charlie only has one puncture wound which has been cleaned and has finally stopped seeping. Arthur's wounds were superficial as well, and we got him cleaned up too. I noticed then that I had gotten bitten on the arm, but that was the least of my worries.

But what do I do? We're going to make sure that Arthur is fed separately from the others, in the laundry room, in his crate. And I can't blame him. I have tried so hard to curb this behaviour, and staying out there usually helped. I feel so bad for beating him tonite, but i didn't know what else to do. I haven't stopped crying since around 5pm my time. They're my babies. All of them. But will this get worse? Will I end up having to put my little boy down? What do I do? Do I rehome him? Find a rotti rescue? I feel so horrible right now. I hurt so bad inside. I love my babies. I love them desperately. Please help. Any advice would be hugely appreciated. And please.... don't judge me. I hate myself enough as it is right now.

How scary!!! :( I don't blame you at all for anything you did. I would have no doubt done the same, as would anyone. No one would stand by and let one dog hurt another, so DO NOT FEEL BAD.

I have no advice to offer, other than what you already know, to feed Arthur seperately. But I know you'll find a solution that will work for everyone. It can be difficult when one dog has issues like this. Best thing is to avoid it, but you know that.

I hope you and Charlie are ok. It was pretty scary just to read that, I can't imagine being there! :eek: :(

That kindof behaviour is probably going to be very hard to break.Im sorry that you had to do that,i had to deal with my RB Dalmation for 9 years.She was always aggressive towards other dogs and was always getting into a fight with my RB Beagle.I couldnt rehome her though,she was my baby.
I dont think you'll have to put him down,unless this behaviour gets alot worse.And i dont think you'll have to rehome him.He's still young so he might grow out of it.Next time you feed them,try to feed Arthur and Charlie as far away from eachother as possible,or even one inside and one outside.
If he doesnt have any other aggressive issues,probably the best way to solve it for now is to feed him in a seperate room,with the door closed,and his crate is a good place too.You could probably talk to a behaviorist also.

Please dont blame yourself:( ,i could imagine how scary that was:(

Yup, I agree. Feed him completely seperately from the others, Even feed him at a different time/place, then put him in a room with the door shut when you feed the others. This is nothing to take lightly. Keep a close eye on him, and do not leave he and Charlie together unsupervised for the next while. I know you love them both, and this is very scary for you. This may not be something he can be trained out of, you'd have to check with a behaviorist for that, but do plan on seperate feeding forever.

How scarey that must have been:eek: And I for one wouldn't judge you. You did what you had to do to make him break his grip.

Only advice I could possibly give you is to make sure they are seperate when they eat. One inside and one outside so there is no way that they could possibly get to one another.
I can't see you having to rehome him or put him down if they are kept completly seperate when food is around.

Good luck.

Forgot to give you a big hug. You certainly deserve it, for being so brave and for saving Charlie, and I bet you're still shaky enough to need a hug. So consider it done, you've been hugged.

How frightening. I'm glad the damage wasn't too major. I agree with everyone else--you did what you had to break them up. I've had a couple fights here where I am not proud of what I did to break it up, but gentler methods had already failed.

My Kayleigh has a similar issue. She was starved by her first owner and is highly food aggressive. I don't believe the behavior of protecting her food can be changed any further. Kayleigh is like your dog--she would let me take her food, but doG forbid another dog tried it. Kayleigh has some generalized dog aggression issues too.

This is what we do--Kayleigh has her own pen. She can see the other dogs and verbalize with them. The dogs she gets along with, mainly Heyoka, are let into her pen daily to play with her. I go in first and pick up her treasures, just in case she wanted to protect them! Kayleigh gets taken for walks regularly with her buddies. She gets lots of one-on-one walks too. She probably gets more alone time with me than the other dogs do due to her aggression issues. When no other dogs are loose, Kayleigh gets run of the big yard.

Kayleigh is on a Nothing in Life is Free program as well. She wants a treat, she sits. She wants a ear rub, she obeys a command first. She gets nothing good without listening. Nothing bad happens when she doesn't listen, she just gets ignored.

Kayleigh is a doll, I love her dearly, but she has issues. We considered all the same things you likely are--putting her down, rehoming her ect. But she's our baby girl, she's just a problem child! Her issues can be managed and so Arthur's. You have to be diligent and constantly aware of his issues though--it's your responsibility to him, your other dogs and others he may meet.

Feel free to PM me if you want too--Dog aggression is unfortunately something I have lots of experience with.

Whoa - scarey! First, know that you did what you had to, not out of meaness, but of necessity. Faced with all that, you did your best.
My rotti-mix developed some aggressive behavior as she came into adult-hood. My trainer called it "resource-guarding". it's aggression in response to a perceived threat to anything the dog considers "MINE" - including food, toys, and people. It got pretty scary, because my other female (husky) is the dominant dog and would immediatly get aggressive back -and it turned bloody more than once. The trainers taught me several techniques to discourage this, and also what little behaviors to watch for (like when Rosie would lean on me or put her foot on top of mine, she was "claiming" me in front of my other dog.) These little things add up to bigger problems, and I just wasn't aware that they were going on.
Contact a local trainer asap who's willing to work with you one on one, there's probably several things you can do to improve the situation- good luck, go easy on yourself!

Thanks you guys... I'm still shaken, and my irregular heartbeat is even more out of whack than usual. :( We're going to be keeping the boys completely separate for the next couple days, and Arthur will be never be fed outside of his crate ever again. Charlie's looking sore, and more bedraggled than usual, and Arthur's all stiff and sore too. sigh... Arthur isn't aggressive in any other way. He's great with the kittens, Anna, Chloe, Bella and myself. And he's usually good with Charlie too, until the butthead goes after his food. :rolleyes: I hope that eventually things will get somewhat back to normal. But again, thank you... and thank you for not being mad at me. This has been one hell of a night.

I'm so sorry to read about your traumatic experience! Dog fights are really scarey things!

Feeding the two dogs separately would certainly help, but won't cure the problem. As long as one dog tries to take another's food, there is going to be trouble. Charlie MUST learn that he is not *ever* allowed to take another's food, or he will be punished. Help from a behaviorist might be needed.

In the meantime, I would put a trailing leash on both dogs whenever they're together, making sure there are no loops on the end that could catch on something. The leashes shouldn't bother the dogs, as they probably won't even notice them.

But, if Charlie goes for Arthur's food, you can jerk him away and reprimand him immediately. Or if a fight breaks out for any reason, you can separate them. When a dog fight is ongoing, it's impossible to punish only the instigator. A leash would let you get them apart fairly easily, without anyone getting hurt.

Sure hope you're feeling better by now!

Dot

:( wow, I feel so bad for you guys right now!! poor you, and poor Charlie... thank god it was only one puncture. I've never had to deal with anything like this, but you've already gotten some good advice. I really hope you don't have to rehome Arthur, and that this can be helped.. ;) praying for you all

I had 2 Springers who did this too. I just had to make seprate feeding areas for them. So no useable advice but{{{{{BIG BEAR HUG}}}}}}

I'm so sorry ::hugs:: I know how scarey it is, and you have to do what you have to do to save the dog being attacked, I know I did when it happened in my house with my RB Dog.

We have the same thing happening here. Nova does NOT like to share her food and will attack the other dog, normally Connor who loves to sneak into her bowl and steal a lil bit.

What did I do? Since the first attack I have never taken the chance, never. Everyone in the family knows Connor HAS to be fed in his Kennel, no If or Buts. Always. It's a rule to keep them safe and we always do it, no matter what, always. We've had Connor for 6 months now and we still do it, we always will, no matter how good I think they get, I will always feed him in his Kennel, for his safety. To me it's worth the extra time it takes me to feed him in his kennel. This way I know no matter what he is safe.

Nova was also this way with our foster dog Breeze. We had Breeze for a year while she was here. The whole time she was fed in her kennel. No ifs or buts, always.

It's something you do when you live with a dog and there wierd little Quirks, you adjust. It's a must. If you adjust to Arthur, you will not have this problem. But it has to be constant, always. You always have to put him in his kennel while feeding him, 10 years from now you have to put him in his kennel while feeding him. To keep your other dogs safe he must be fed in his kennel. And his problem will no longer be a problem (as long as it's kibble only). It's the only suggestion I can give you and I can't stress it enough, you always have to feed him in his kennel. Always.

I'm so sorry you had to go through this, it's a horrible experince ::hugs:: :)

Ashley

:eek: How scary :( {{{Hugs}}}

I don't blame you for anything you did either, it must have been so scary(like Micki said, it was even scary to read!), and anyone would have reacted in a simular way, especially if the dog was much smaller than the other.

I agree that Arthur should be fed in his crate.

I hope nothing like that ever happens again :(

How Scary!!!!
I feel for You!!!
Glad that Arthur & Charlie are alright....
You did the right thing....Just Get them apart,Anyway,anyhow!!!!

But I agree with all the Others...Feed them Seperately....Does Charlie also have a Crate????
Put them in seperate rooms....in crates...not allowed out till Both are finished....No Anger,No Food Stealing...No Fighting...

A Behaviorist might be a good thing,Especially if Arthur is Young...

Hugs for you and Yours...
Good Luck!!

What an awfull night {{Hugs}} :(. You have gotton some great advice, and hopefully the boys will be ok with one another (Without food being around).

I hope you will start feeling better soon, and poor Charlie aswell.

{{Hugs}}

First I just want to say you did nothing wrong...you reacted to a very scary situation in the fastest and likely the only way you could. Had you done nothing you could have lost a baby. This would be so traumatic for anyone with furkids. we love all our babies. No I would not put the dog down or try to find another home for him. I would for now do what everyone else suggested, separarate feedings. Food agression towards people would be much easier to fix, in fact i have fixed it in a day. Mr. Monty was food aggressive when we brought him home, likely due to his past. now meal time is so peacefull even between both dogs. I am giving you a link to go to. You can write to him by email and or order his book. it's farely inexpensive and supposed to be a great book for retraing, changing bad habits, etc. This problem can and likely will get worse and not just at feeding time. You don't want to have a hpouse divided forever or lose one of your babies over this. I believe given the proper tools you can have a happy family that lives together in total harmony but don't leave it too long. He needs to know you are the top dog, not him. Sending you lots of well wishes, hugs and prayers that you will get over this trauma quickly and stop feeling you did something wrong. ((((((Hugs, Deb, Monty and KIki)))))))

http://www.sitstayfetch.net/ check this site out, let us know if you feel this book can help you.
:)