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protecting siblings
We have two lovely older (nearly 9) rescue dogs, male and female
siblings (dark haired lab crossbreeds). We were told that the female only shows aggression occasionally, notably when her brother is under threat from other dogs. The male is fairly laid back with other dogs. A couple of times when he has gone to another dog, and that dog reacts aggressively, he'll just walk off but she will make a beeline for the aggressor with a growl, no attempt to bite though. It's more when she is on the leash, which makes me think that she may feel more easily threatened or anxious when leashed. When the other dog is friendly toward them they both respond quite happily. They're both good off the leash but we don't want to risk them when near unpredictable roads etc. It's not really a problem, they both respond to 'leave' or even just some kind words. Just wondering if you've experienced similar 'protecting' behaviours (which seem perfectly natural to me). incidently the dogs were being overlooked in the rescue home for months because they were a pair and because they were older and had some medical history. It seemed some folk 'score' dogs like you might score a car on how much rust it has! They 'get on' fine with our similarly aged rescue cat too, btw! Both had in previous lives known the other specie and the cat is bold enough with the dogs, they've settled into mutual ignorance which seems reasonable. The male dog does quite like cat food though, but we are not into punishing dogs for doing 'wrong' (what can that mean to a dog anyway!), a word seems enough to put him off the thought and if he occasionally gets a mouthfull i can't really get upset toward him. |
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