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07/12/2023
Many of you will know already that I greatly value transparency as an animal trainer.
Having a multi-dog household can be quite a challenge and take a lot of work to run smoothly and make sure they are all happy and have their needs met. This can be particularly difficult when you have dogs with very different needs to each other (as each of mine do).
Whilst young puppies are typically gregarious and love all dogs and people, this usually changes as they mature. In a multi-dog household, the dynamics are constantly changing as a puppy matures into adolescence and then adulthood. I have certainly found this with Inka: he and Freja get on very well. They play together daily, willingly share food and bed space (you can't ask for more from a dog-dog bond) and always have done. However, whilst Grabby Inka Puppy (an inherent drive and need that he has as well as part of his personality that cannot be changed) was tolerable for Freja, Grabby Inka Adolescent - especially now Inka is bigger than Freja - is not tolerable for her. Freja has also recently obtained a cut on one of her paws, which will be painful and reduces her level of tolerance to stressors. Her hurty foot has led to space guarding by Freja (which is always her sign of being either over-tired or trigger-stacked), and all of these factors cumulatively has let to a few spats between Freja and Inka. Freja even redirected onto Blue yesterday - a first and hopefully a last - due to being trigger-stacked and Blue 'policing' Freja and Inka a lot (when they are playing or there is tension, he will tell them to chill out, bless him).
Whilst puppies will typically defer to other dogs, adolescents and adult dogs won't always: especially confident, assertive dogs, high drive, guardian breeds and working line dogs.
Minor spats between co-habiting dogs are not uncommon but dogs do need to be carefully managed to prevent tensions from rising and tolerance being pushed too far.
The solution? Constant supervision, daily tuggy games for Inka (currently about 40 minutes long) to satiate that need to grab and hold, muzzle training for Inka (still in progress) and management, using crates. Baby gates aren't an option due to having an open plan home (first world problems, I know). The crates give Freja a safe space at night and in the day, where noone will disturb her. Today, she chose to spend all day in her crate. A bad thing? Not at all when she has the choice of being in or out of it, and needs to recover from her hurty foot.
Being a dog trainer doesn't protect your dogs from ever going through behavioural or emotional problems. If anything, you beat yourself up more over them, expect more of yourself, and probably work harder to ease the problems (knowledge is power and all that).
(The black blob in the picture, inside the crate, is Freja - black dogs never come up well in photos!)