I Need Help with Skye

[borzoimom]

Okay- you do have a confused dominance problem- who is boss and where in the rank they fit. You can get a behaviorist or trainer there to work with the dogs.
I see a mixed household- meaning the ones that were boss in each others house, then simpli-ized on the last newcomer. Being a complicated household I would get a local trainer or behaviorist. I thought these dogs had been seperated at one time, and was hoping it was only the dogs that were together in one home after a second group- but that is not the case- ..

[applesmom]

Seven dogs left alone and unsupervised constitutes a dog pack. It's never a good idea. There will always be occasional petty squabbles. The majority of the disagreements usually amount to nothing. But even the mildest of dogs will eventually have enough and fight back. In Skye's situation it's just a matter of time until she is seriously injured.

Perhaps you could try seperating your yard and only putting Skye in with other dogs that you're confident won't be picking her.

Good luck!

[pitc9]

Poor Skye... sounds like being picked on has made he feel insecure and has left her vulnerable. The others know this and have made her the omega of the pack. Does she try to keep away from the rest of the pack at all?
(like she knows she'll get picked on if she goes near them or will they just out of no where run to her and pick on her?)
Does she shy away from you at all?
Poor girl...

[DrKym]

Seven dogs left alone and unsupervised constitutes a dog pack. It's never a good idea. There will always be occasional petty squabbles. The majority of the disagreements usually amount to nothing. But even the mildest of dogs will eventually have enough and fight back. In Skye's situation it's just a matter of time until she is seriously injured.

Perhaps you could try seperating your yard and only putting Skye in with other dogs that you're confident won't be picking her.

Good luck!

Well said Applesmom,

If you dont mind may I add one thing? It is the alphas place to create tolerable levels of rank, and as alpha Arieas it also your responsibility to create a safe enviroment for your pack, as it stands right now the other bitches are joining in and siding with Zoie, which means when Skye does fight back, she will be fighting against all of them. They will rush in to take up for Zoie as they respect her position in the house.

We have had the very same issue several times, and no one method is correct as all dogs and all situations are unique. Some of ours responded to me lowering the top bitches dominance level by raising the "omega up some" some didn't and the omega was only allowed to play while being supervised by me. Some we simply couldn't allow to be around specific dogs, for their own saftey. As applesmom said, 7 dogs allowed to romp unsupervised by an alpha member is looking for an accident or worse.

Good Luck and keep us posted.

[borzoimom]

We had a long talk on the phone, and she has some things she is going to do.. Good luck- and keep us posted.

[applesmom]

Well said Applesmom,

If you dont mind may I add one thing? It is the alphas place to create tolerable levels of rank, and as alpha Arieas it also your responsibility to create a safe enviroment for your pack, as it stands right now the other bitches are joining in and siding with Zoie, which means when Skye does fight back, she will be fighting against all of them. They will rush in to take up for Zoie as they respect her position in the house.

We have had the very same issue several times, and no one method is correct as all dogs and all situations are unique. Some of ours responded to me lowering the top bitches dominance level by raising the "omega up some" some didn't and the omega was only allowed to play while being supervised by me. Some we simply couldn't allow to be around specific dogs, for their own saftey. As applesmom said, 7 dogs allowed to romp unsupervised by an alpha member is looking for an accident or worse.

Good Luck and keep us posted.

So true Dr. Goodnow, that's an important addition!

All dogs can possibly be trained to tolerate Skye in a one on one situation. But she cannot remain in that pack. Even with supervision the situation will most likely escalate until someone is severely injured. A $50.00 roll of fencing from Home Depot to keep them seperated could defuse the situation entirely!

[Glacier]

Perhaps you could try seperating your yard and only putting Skye in with other dogs that you're confident won't be picking her.

Good luck!

This is what we had to do with Pacer. In my main pack there are a dozen dogs. Balancing that group is a constant juggling act. Pacer was at one time part of that pack and they treated him exactly like your dogs are treating Skye. Pacer is timid and submissive to everyone. Everyone picked on him. That pack has a very clear alpha male dog(plus the human alphas). Eventually, despite trying every thing I could think of to change the behavior, the other dogs ended up almost killing Pacer. My vet actually asked if I wanted to bother with surgery or just euthanize him, that's how serious his injuries were.

Pacer now has his own pen and that's where he spends his time with another dog who would never pick on him(Chum usually). When I get home, Pacer goes wherever I go and the other dogs are fine with that.

In the end his vet bills cost me over 2 grand; the fencing to build Pacer his own pen, about 200 bucks; not having to worry about Pacer's life when I leave the yard....priceless!

[areias]

Thanks for the replies. Like Michelle said-we talked on the phone and I'm going to do some work on this. Seperating the yard may not be possible-Mom is a huge obstacle over here-I will discuss this with her. I also think she is part of the problem-she does not make the dogs do anything, is very passive-a lot of the bullying happens when I am not home and she is.

They are never totally unsupervised-Skye, Romeo, and Star are crated when we are not home. If they are out in the back, the slider door to the porch is usually opened and we can see everything going on through a big window. I do realize it only takes a second for something to happen, even with supervision. For now, most of the time, Skye goes outside seperately until the situation is fixed.

To answer some of the questions-all the dogs are fixed.
If they all go out together-here's one scenario...they will go pee or whatever...then start wandering around..then maybe zoie will go up to her and start mouthing and bumping into her like she's wanting to play. They might start wrestling and then another dog will get into it...and then another..and all of a sudden it has escalated from the wrestling into all dogs on one. And then there is times when she will just be coming to the door, and zoie wil jump on her and then the rest follows. There is a cement bench by the back door, and usually if she can get onto that she can avoid any confrontation, for whatever reason. A lot of times they won't let her get this far and keep her down on the ground.
She is submissive and not very confident. She does her submissive roll on her back and keeps getting picked on. We are working on building confidence but it takes time.

So thanks guys for the responses-I will keep you updated.