Dog Experts

[SuzMax]

We just took in a male Boston Terrier who is maybe a year and a half and has been abused. He is not fully house trained and has submissive peeing issues (but we haven't seen much of that yet and we've gotten him to "go" outside). The only way I could talk DH into it was by saying that I would do everything I could to find him a home. I just had to get him out of his current situation.

Anyway, we have 2 dogs, a male and a female. Many of you already know Gizmo, the sweet little guy who was also abused at just 6 weeks of age when he had his jaw broken in 2 places by some sort of blunt force trauma. Well, bless the little angel, he is the alpha dog. Amber, our female doesn't really care too much. But now that we have Chewy here Gizmo will not let Amber and him have any fun. If they start to play rough AT ALL, Gizmo jumps in and "attacks" Chewy (not like tearing him up, but just going after him like a bully). He scares the daylights out of Chewy. We are trying to make sure that we are taking the alpha roles in the home so that Gizmo doesn't have to wonder who is in charge, but has anybody had an issue introducing a 3rd dog? We've had 3 in the past and it always seems like 3 is much more of a problem. Of course we do have strong breeds - Amber is a pit bull and they told us Gizmo was too but we're pretty sure he's mixed with something.

When we first brought Chewy home we took all 3 of them for a walk before even bringing him in the house, just like Cesar Millan says.

 

[dss62467]

I'm having sort of the same issue....only without the emotional scarring of the dogs. Crickets is bossy and b-wordy. She plays a lot with Buster (the new baby), but gets possessive of toys. As soon as I give Buster something to chew on, Cricket comes and yells at him, then takes it away...even if I've just given her something else and she's happily playing with it across the room. She circles the kitchen at meal times, and even though they have their dishes at opposite ends of the room, she guards hers. She's not fed first....Duke is. Then I give her hers and Buster his. He eats like a maniac, and she just stands and waits.

She runs up and yells right in his face, and the first couple days it seemed to scare him. Now he just sits down and waits for her to stop. They do play a lot, and he's spending the week with my daughter while she's at her father's....and Cricket seems sort of out of it. I've never seen her sad, so I can't be sure....but she just doesn't have her "gusto".

Cricket acts like she thinks she's the alpha, but I see a lot of submissive behavior with her. Not to Buster, but definitely to Duke....who really does not take on the alpha role at all. He's very polite.

I'm doing a lot of moderating and trying to figure out how to deal with the toy thing. Cricket goes into a frenzy sometimes and it seems like she's going to bite...but I just grab her and hold her face between my hands, then look her in the eyes and say, "calm down". It works.

I'm looking forward to seeing the advice you get.

 

[kathryn]

No dog advice (I'm a cat whisperer, not a dog one, LOL!), but I just wanted to say bless you for taking in these previously abused animals and giving them love and care. If only there were more people in the world like you, and NONE like those that did the abusing...

 

[sunnyside]

Hey Suz! Bless you for saving this little doggie! Bostons are so cute! We need pictures for sure.

I hope Gizmo can learn to accept him and be nice. I'd let Gizmo and him spend some time together without Amber. Let them get to know each other with out the added pressure and competition of her. Let Amber play with the new guy without Giz around. Slowly introduce all three of them together. I think they'll all be more comfortable if they get to know each other one on one. Also it's best to reinforce basic training with all the dogs, especially Giz.

I've been through this and know it's hard. I ended up having to separate at certain times and situations (you learn those pretty quick). I could never keep the Alpha from being a H*ll B*tch. She was the 3rd dog introduced and completetly changed the pack structure.

 

[SuzMax]

Thanks for the responses.

Kathryn - I just couldn't stand it anymore, knowing that he was in that house getting beat for trying to play with the babies' toys when they look just like his toys and getting beat for peeing in the basement when he has no way to go outside and they are too busy with 4 babies and another dog and a cat to pay attention to when he needs to go out. It just made me sick to my stomach. He had never been house trained in the first place so this poor guy had impossible odds. He's only had one accident in our house and it was TOTALLY my fault! And then all I did was a stern NO and you'd have thought I just told him he was the ugliest dog I'd ever seen and nobody was ever going to love him, EVER. He was devastated. He ran off and was soooooo sad and was so afraid. Then when I went to clean it up he was hiding around the corner just peeking his head around looking at me. SO CUTE...but so sad b/c you know he thought he was in for more trouble. I assured him he wasn't.

Dallys - I was thinking the same thing. I'm going to take Amber with me downstairs when I work out and let those two have time alone with DH. I'll do that this week. I'd love for them to get along. The gal at the rescue in NE has his page all ready to go "just in case" (they do rescues in our state and neighboring states). But I would sure love to keep him. He's a great little dog. DH's grandparents have his brother. For all he's been through he has a great personality and isn't nearly as scared as he could be or as we were told he was. I'll do another thread and post pics (since this one isn't too popular).

 

[andtckrtoo]

Well, there are two things here. First, have you socialized Gizmo beyond Amber? Does he go out and play at a dog park or something with other male dogs. Even if he's mixed, Pits tend to be strongly reactive to other dogs. I would not let the two male dogs alone without supervision until I was certain that Gizmo would not get extremely protective of what he considers his property (Amber and to some extent, you and your DH - and this is not necessarily a bad thing - and has nothing to do with you and DH being Alpha's, etc - it's just dogs).

Gizmo's relationship with Amber would be different - male/female relationships are completely different than male/male or female/female. I would also let Amber and your new Boston hang out together supervised as well until you are confident they are okay together. It may be vibes that Amber is setting off that is making Gizmo more protective. So, let them work out their individual relationships seperately, then try them together again.

 

[SirenSongWoman]

No dog advice (I'm a cat whisperer, not a dog one, LOL!), but I just wanted to say bless you for taking in these previously abused animals and giving them love and care. If only there were more people in the world like you, and NONE like those that did the abusing...

Yea, I'm with Kathryn. It just touches my heart that you're loving and caring for animals who thought nobody cared. They'll love you more than you could ever believe and they'll never forget.

 

[SirenSongWoman]

I just couldn't stand it anymore, knowing that he was in that house getting beat for trying to play with the babies' toys when they look just like his toys and getting beat for peeing in the basement when he has no way to go outside and they are too busy with 4 babies and another dog and a cat to pay attention to when he needs to go out. It just made me sick to my stomach. He had never been house trained in the first place so this poor guy had impossible odds. He's only had one accident in our house and it was TOTALLY my fault! And then all I did was a stern NO and you'd have thought I just told him he was the ugliest dog I'd ever seen and nobody was ever going to love him, EVER. He was devastated. He ran off and was soooooo sad and was so afraid. Then when I went to clean it up he was hiding around the corner just peeking his head around looking at me. SO CUTE...but so sad b/c you know he thought he was in for more trouble. I assured him he wasn't.

Who were those people and how did you get them to surrender their dog to you?