# Handling 'bullying' between dogs



## halie lenk (Sep 1, 2013)

So a recent issue coming up in my 10m old rottweiler: bullying the older female. Anytime they go outside together, he constantly rushes her, grabs her by the hind end and drags her to the ground, any time she even tries to walk somewhere, he follows and will push her around with his body. She used to correct him, but he got so persistent that she quit doing that. And now its to the point that she is super hesitant to go out with him. I've just been letting them outside separately. Also the constant trying to mount her (she's spayed) and pissing on everything in sight, but I figured this was normal behavior for his age and being intact.
If I am out with them, I'll tell him to knock it off. And he listens for a few minutes, but right back at it as soon as she tries to go anywhere.
So how would you guys handle this? Just keep them separated, or is there a way to teach him not to do it completely?

For those that helped me with my motivation question awhile back, training has been going much better since your help! Just haven't had time to make a new video. Will here soon.


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## Karin Sable (Aug 31, 2014)

I'm always a bit hesitant responding since I consider myself pretty novice to problematic behaviors but my pup used to be a maniacal humper. I trained him to an eclair...hahah autocorrect...ecollar... and used it only to train a bomb proof recall, which we have, and to stop him from humping every dog he met. It worked. 

Just two cents worth.


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

I would not tolerate it. I usually let mine sort it out among themselves but ultimately, I am the alpha bitch in my house and I lay down the law and they better respect that or I can take it south in a hurry. I do not tolerate 

If you don't get a handle on the domination issues of your male, pretty soon (if he is not already) going to injure the female and then you will be in his crosshairs. Because you failed to rein him in early you now have an aggressive bully on your hands. You say that you tell him to knock it off but clearly this is not working because he's not stopping. You need to step up to the plate. It is time for you to establish the ground rules and enforce the boundaries. You need to take control of your household. I would not tolerate ANY abuse on the female. Period. A lot of this depends on you. If you are not strong enough to take charge then it would be best to find a new home for this pup. If you have access to a trainer that has worked with big, bullying dogs they can help you see what you are missing and direct you how to change YOUR behavior to regain control.

Verbal (or any light-hearted physical correction) is not working so now its time for something else. First thing I would do is take away any "privileges". That dog doesn't do anything that he doesn't earn or I chose to bestow. If he has free fun of the house. No more. He is under constant supervision. Any "freedom" is my choice not his. His behavior toward the older bitch stops now. Bad behavior is not tolerated. Correct behavior, no abuse of other dogs is rewarded. 

This could be a stronger collar (pinch) and putting him on a long line when he is out in the yard so he can't get away from you. And lets you can get your ahold of him and stop or correct for stalking or attacks. You can try an ecollar but only if you are versed with using it because if you screw up the timing you can actually make the situation worse. 

Other things are: you can admit defeat and keep them separate but just remember if you end up getting another dog down the road he's going to bully that dog to. I don't see neutering as fixing his bullying behavior. Just remember that as you assert your command on this dog, he is going to push your buttons to see where the lines are drawn. You need to decide up front where those lines are. There are lots of things you can try but so much depends on you and how you interface with your dogs. Good Luck.


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## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

I think you may be reading too much into it ? He's being a typical young male. When she has enough she'll put him in his place. Unless there is real damage I'd let them sort it out themselves.


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## rick smith (Dec 31, 2010)

i'm assuming if it was a small problem you would have waited to see if the dogs would sort it out and not request help here

hope my PM was helpful

regardless, unacceptable behaviors are best dealt with before they become conditioned habits.

pissing is not the same as marking. one is natural. one is a behavior that can quickly become unacceptable


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## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

rick smith said:


> i'm assuming if it was a small problem you would have waited to see if the dogs would sort it out and not request help here
> 
> hope my PM was helpful
> 
> ...


Often pack behavior is exacerbated by well intentioned human interference too


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

I've always let my dogs work thing out them selves as long as it doesn't get overly serious. it takes a good eye to see that though.

In the case of your female no longer correcting him THEN I would step in. Not all underdogs will stand up for them selves and can become overly submissive. 

If it's allowed to continue in another 8-10 months and he'll really hit his stride and run the show.

As Sarah said

"not working because he's not stopping. You need to step up to the plate. It is time for *YOU* to establish the ground rules and enforce the boundaries."


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

Thomas Barriano said:


> I think you may be reading too much into it ? He's being a typical young male. When she has enough she'll put him in his place. Unless there is real damage I'd let them sort it out themselves.


 
The only reason, I would get involved (if these were my dogs) is that the elder female has tried to tone down the male but, either through age, infirmity, or the tenacity of the younger dog, has not gotten the picture through to him. Since he appears to be escalating the behavior - intensifying rather than easing up now that he's in control - and because of this, I could see the elder female getting injured - would make me get involved. The older female needs the owner's help to reinforce the "get the crap off me" directive.


I ran into something similar when I put down my two old dogs that were the alpha and segundo of my pack within a short time period. The next senior dog under went surgery and was out of commission for 6 weeks. Because I prevented the senior dog from interacting with Gus, Gus thought he was now top dog. Sam started to reestablish himself but then underwent another surgery which laid him up again. Once he was able to rock and roll, Gus had had several months of thinking he was in charge. The re-establishment of Sam's authority, on several occasions, almost escalated to a dog fight because Gus is a bit irrepressible - much like this rotti pup - and thought Sam was no longer alpha male. I would see Sam increasing the weight of his message but Gus just not believing the message. When it started amping up to the someone's-gonna-get-hurt point, I got involved. It really didn't take much to clarify everyone's position and things stabilized quickly. Humans do get involved to much especially if they can't read their dogs but the necessary actions at the proper time stops a world of other issues.


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## Gillian Schuler (Apr 12, 2008)

Sarah Platts said:


> I would not tolerate it. I usually let mine sort it out among themselves but ultimately, I am the alpha bitch in my house and I lay down the law and they better respect that or I can take it south in a hurry. I do not tolerate
> 
> If you don't get a handle on the domination issues of your male, pretty soon (if he is not already) going to injure the female and then you will be in his crosshairs. Because you failed to rein him in early you now have an aggressive bully on your hands. You say that you tell him to knock it off but clearly this is not working because he's not stopping. You need to step up to the plate. It is time for you to establish the ground rules and enforce the boundaries. You need to take control of your household. I would not tolerate ANY abuse on the female. Period. A lot of this depends on you. If you are not strong enough to take charge then it would be best to find a new home for this pup. If you have access to a trainer that has worked with big, bullying dogs they can help you see what you are missing and direct you how to change YOUR behavior to regain control.
> 
> ...


Sarah,

I always like your Posts and agree with them.

For me it doesn't really matter what the dogs get up to when I am not around but, if there is any bullying whilst I am in around and in charge of them, then I would chastise the bully.

Our two GSD males were often at each other's throats, especially in the house. I would stop the elder but then the younger one would seize his chance and try to get one over on the older one so he got a "knocking into shape" too

It's a difficult for someone to give advice here but if young males are not made to obey rules at around 10-11 months old, they will never learn. They are like today's 14 year old teenagers.


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## rick smith (Dec 31, 2010)

there's more than one way to fix this

since Sarah related one situation, here's another one to consider

i board dogs often.
my house dog is not social and will try and eat any dog that shows up if he was left to his own devices
when i get a new dog i spend time with it. one on one. especially in the presence of my house dog.
- i condition him with a new dog the same way i conditioned him when he first came here and had to deal with a number of house cats 
- i show him clearly the new dog is "mine" and he better not mess with it.
- i don't need to leash him up; i just leash the new dog and keep it close, and he knows he cannot come thru me to get to another dog, and he keeps his distance.
- eventually i will start feeding them next to each other, and then it's a done deal, and they will hang together without an incident. fortunately i rarely get dogs who are overly dominant, but i do get dogs who are punks and have gotten away with intimidating other dogs. that is easily worked on when the new dog is on a short lead

i only mention it because you might want to try it out and stay a little closer to the older dog for awhile and make sure the young one gets the point. 
- if your pup respects you it will probably be easier and faster and might prevent having to deal out some harsh corrections directly to him 

done this many many times. you would think he would have gotten the memo by now, but i still need to go thru this drill //lol//


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## halie lenk (Sep 1, 2013)

Yeah, this problem is past the point of the dog handling it herself. That's what I was trying to let happen. I'll definitely be out there with long line and pinch until this stops. He's most definitely respectful of me (had a trainer tell me he was TOO respectful actually). I was just being lazy and didn't want to screw anything up by getting into him too much. (which I did attempting to work on food refusal, but thats another story. working on fixing that now) But that's gonna be needed for this behavior. 
Thanks for the help!


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## halie lenk (Sep 1, 2013)

Sarah Platts said:


> I would not tolerate it. I usually let mine sort it out among themselves but ultimately, I am the alpha bitch in my house and I lay down the law and they better respect that or I can take it south in a hurry. I do not tolerate
> 
> If you don't get a handle on the domination issues of your male, pretty soon (if he is not already) going to injure the female and then you will be in his crosshairs. Because you failed to rein him in early you now have an aggressive bully on your hands. You say that you tell him to knock it off but clearly this is not working because he's not stopping. You need to step up to the plate. It is time for you to establish the ground rules and enforce the boundaries. You need to take control of your household. I would not tolerate ANY abuse on the female. Period. A lot of this depends on you. If you are not strong enough to take charge then it would be best to find a new home for this pup. If you have access to a trainer that has worked with big, bullying dogs they can help you see what you are missing and direct you how to change YOUR behavior to regain control.
> 
> ...


Perfect! I most definitely will not admit defeat. haha


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