Re: Fighting dogs

In Reply to: Fighting dogs
Category:   
Posted by:  T.J. and Natalie
Posted on:  August 31, 2002 at 00:14:54

: We have a male Jack Russell that is a year old and we recently got a female who is 4 months old. They get along wonderfully. Our room mate has a beagle/basset hound mix that is around a year old as well. The dogs have always gotten along wonderfully until recently. Our room mates dog, BARKLEY has all of a sudden become very obnoxious. He is continually going in our room and peeing on things and tearing our stuff up. He also growls viciously and will lunge at our male Jack Russell, OPEEY. They then get into huge fights every day. BARKLEY tends to do this when someone else enters the room. For instance, if I come home from work, all of the dogs will get along and play. As soon as a visitor or my fiance or room mate come in Barkley immediately growls at Opeey and will start a fight. It is almost like he is very jealous and wants all of the attention. It has gotten very ugly. Tonight Barkley struck again. While I was trying to get Opeey from him before they fought, Barkley bit my arm. He punctured my skin and has left a terrible mark. My room mate does not seem to discipline him for his horrible actions, nor will she take any responsibility for it or him. I don't know what to do. We spend a lot of time playing and talking to our Jack Russell's, they are our children. Barkley does not get that much attention from my room mate and I feel that he may be jelous. Do you have any ideas or suggestions of what to do??? I am very concerned that something terrible may happen if this does not stop.

Response:

Well, geez...what did you expect when you brought a puppy into your household? At best, both boys feel left out because of the attention given to the pup; at worst, both boys feel protective of the female because they both want to breed her.

Frankly, I think you caused the problem by getting the female pup so it's up to find a way to make it work. Please review the following link and take advantage of our search engine to learn more about the problems/issues of living with two (or more) JRTS...

Good luck,
Leslie