Thank you all so much for your comments, encouragement and suggestions. I will try some of your ideas and see what happens. Our daughter still lives with us while she is in college, nursing school. She plans to leave in a couple of years to pursue her masters. I doubt that she will take Chase with her then, so he will be with us a while longer.
Zoe is just so dominant. She does not want Chase to eat, she gets between him and his bowl and barks at him, so we have to separate them at feeding time. She does not want me or my husband to pet Chase at all. If we do she starts barking and gets very agressive, and Chase growls and nips back.
When Chase finds a sock or toy, he trys to hoard it, and Zoe is after him barking and growling trying to take it away.
No, I don't think it is playful. Sometimes they do play, but not often.
It is hard to walk them together due to the big difference in their size, but I will try this, and putting Zoe on her back, and look for obedience training. We have a new PetSmart. Maybe they will offer a class. Haven't heard, but will check into it.
Our daughter tried to do obedience training with Chase in 4H when both of them were much younger, and she failed, but perhaps there is hope.
No blood has been drawn yet, that I know of, but their fighting is getting more vicious. Usually one of them backs down, and the fight ends for a while.
For some reason, I hadn't thought that this would be a big problem once they got to know each other. Hopefully things will calm down when Zoe gets a bit older. I don't think Chase will really hurt her, but we keep Zoe in a separate room or in her crate when no one is home, just in case. She seems to like her crate. She's in control there.
Again, thank you all. It's so good we have this forum to share and help each other!! |