 Aggression Problems
Our 1 1/2 year old male Brady (15 lbs) has suddenly become aggressive towards other dogs including our 2 year old male Tanner (6.5 lbs). His aggression towards Tanner is intermittent at best as they are best friends one minute and the next Brady is attacking Tanner. Most of these attacks occur during play time. We are very careful when playing to keep their paths from crossing as we've had incidents in the past with one dog accidentally bumping another and setting off a fight. When Brady attacks he charges at Tanner from some distance out of nowhere.
Our vet had advised us to let them work it out on their own and keep a water bottle handy to break it up if it goes too far. Last night Brady attacked Tanner and we allowed them to go at it for a bit. However, when Tanner escaped and tried to run for cover Brady pursued him behind the couch and continued attacking him. He was not responding to the water at all - even when I just dumped it on him. I could hear Tanner screaming and we could not get Brady to relent. Eventually, after they took out a lamp that was on an end table they separated long enough for us to get ahold of one of them. Tanner is at the vet now getting checked out - He had a puncture mark on his forehead and his eye had blood in it and was all gunky this morning.
In addition to Tanner, I was told he tried to go after a standard poodle at the groomer last week, and I've seen him try to go after our friends' pomeranian and another friend's schnoodle.
I'm very concerned. I'm not sure what is causing this. I will confess that Brady very rarely gets walks, which I'm guessing has contributed to the problem. I've been dealing with a lot of medical problems the last 6 months and it has just slipped through the cracks. We've also been letting him sleep on the bed more often than not now that it's gotten cold. Additionally, we just found out I'm about 8 weeks pregnant and I wonder if he could be picking up on hormonal changes in me.
We are supposed to go visit my family this weekend and we had planned to take the dogs with us, but right now I don't know if I can trust Brady to be around my parents' two dogs which is where we will be staying. If I board him it is going to have to be at the vet where they keep them in wire cages all day b/c I don't trust him to board at the groomer where we usually board after last week's incident. I also worry if we'll be able to trust Brady around a baby come June.
I know it's not fair to Tanner to keep getting beat up on by Brady - this is the 2nd time in 3 weeks we've had to take Tanner into the vet b/c of injuries (though none have been too serious).
We have had some issues in the past with Brady and Tanner. We got Brady as a puppy from a friend of the family who is a breeder. Tanner didn't come to us until ~3 months later - he had been abused previously. They did go through a period of similar fights before, but they worked out the pecking order and we didn't have any more issues.
I really don't know what to do with Brady. I feel like I'm left deciding which dog to find a new home for.
Is there anything I can do to try and regain control of the situation? We've been through obedience training with both dogs already.... |