Can I blame his bad behavior on their dogs??
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Can I blame his bad behavior on their dogs??
I'm not sure which forum I should have put this in...
My chow Chewy is a great dog (I should probably note that we have only had him since April). We recently had roommates move in with their dogs about 3 months ago. Well, I find that Chewy is starting to act more and more like them. Which is disturbing to me because although not badly behaved dogs they are not nearly as behaved as Chewy has been.
For example:
Chewy would always very softly take a treat out of my hand. Not in a "I'm afraid to take the treat" way, just a "I have always been taught to take treats softly" sort of way. But lately he has been snapping at my hands and biting my fingers, like their dogs do.
Also, my roommates have 2 female dogs and 1 male dog. The 2 female dogs kept getting into fights about 3 weeks ago (3-4 bad fights in about 3 days) and even now can not be put together because they keep trying to fight each other. Chewy has been a witness to these fights. Chewy is usually amazingly passive and the most aggressive I have seen him is when another dog was wanting to play with him while he was laying down and he got up on his two front legs only and barked at the other dog. The other day I had some treats that I was giving to each of the dogs. One of the dogs missed and so it became a scramble amoungst 3 dogs. Chewy and the other male were trying to get the treats when chewy turned and was trying to bite the other male dog in a similar fashion that the two females were fighting. Luckily the other dog was too focused on the treat. My roommate also said that yesterday Chewy snapped at one of the others dogs for no reason that she could see.
There have also been a few other tiny behaviors that he is taking from them but it really is this aggressiveness that is making me nervous. Is this something that can be explained because we have these other dogs in the house as well or is his real personality coming to light? We have only had him since April so I am not sure if we just haven't had him long enough for his personality to really come out. Or perhaps these dogs just gave him more confidence to be a little crapper?
Help Please
My chow Chewy is a great dog (I should probably note that we have only had him since April). We recently had roommates move in with their dogs about 3 months ago. Well, I find that Chewy is starting to act more and more like them. Which is disturbing to me because although not badly behaved dogs they are not nearly as behaved as Chewy has been.
For example:
Chewy would always very softly take a treat out of my hand. Not in a "I'm afraid to take the treat" way, just a "I have always been taught to take treats softly" sort of way. But lately he has been snapping at my hands and biting my fingers, like their dogs do.
Also, my roommates have 2 female dogs and 1 male dog. The 2 female dogs kept getting into fights about 3 weeks ago (3-4 bad fights in about 3 days) and even now can not be put together because they keep trying to fight each other. Chewy has been a witness to these fights. Chewy is usually amazingly passive and the most aggressive I have seen him is when another dog was wanting to play with him while he was laying down and he got up on his two front legs only and barked at the other dog. The other day I had some treats that I was giving to each of the dogs. One of the dogs missed and so it became a scramble amoungst 3 dogs. Chewy and the other male were trying to get the treats when chewy turned and was trying to bite the other male dog in a similar fashion that the two females were fighting. Luckily the other dog was too focused on the treat. My roommate also said that yesterday Chewy snapped at one of the others dogs for no reason that she could see.
There have also been a few other tiny behaviors that he is taking from them but it really is this aggressiveness that is making me nervous. Is this something that can be explained because we have these other dogs in the house as well or is his real personality coming to light? We have only had him since April so I am not sure if we just haven't had him long enough for his personality to really come out. Or perhaps these dogs just gave him more confidence to be a little crapper?
Help Please
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chowhuskylass
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Re: Can I blame his bad behavior on their dogs??
the whole pack dynamic is unstable this will in turn create insecurity in dogs the knock on effect of no leadership or pack dynamic is fights also when insecure they tend to mirror each others behaviour, so your normally well behaved calm chow can indeed reflect the behaviour of the other dogs, you and your room mates need to form a pack where you all are leaders you will have to do this to create peace balance and clear human leadership you all need to sit down form a plan where you all lead, and be consistent and firm working as a team if this is not an option then, keeps chewys contact with the other dogs to a minimum or consult a professional. no point in you training your dog to have rules and boundaries when the other 2 dogs don't have any! you will only set yourself and chewy to fail this way and it wont be all your fault it will make being consistent to your dog almost impossible.