Desperate for advice regarding aggression

Hello everybody,

I desperate for some help and advice and apologise in advance for the long post

I have two dogs both jack russell x's the oldest of which is 18 months, Barney and the youngest is 10 months, Max, we have had both since they were puppies. And until recently they have both been very good friends.

Barney has not been neutered although we are planning to do this and Max has been neutered but only yesterday ( only one of his balls had dropped and we were advised to wait an extra few months by the vet to see if it would appear on its own, it didn't so we went ahead and the vet discovered it and removed it)

Barney has been a dream dog he is extremely intelligent and has the sweetest personality you can imagine, Max on the other hand has been a challenge although he is a lovely dog and we love him to pieces he has been very difficult to train ( I don't know if this is down to training a dog with another dog in the house or just him) it took weeks to learn sit and we have only just mastered house training.

Until recently the dogs always played brilliantly together and seemed the best of friends then a few months ago we looked after a friends puppy who is female for a week all the dogs played happily together and Max and the puppy seemed to be inseparable, a few days after the puppy went home we had the first fight between Max and Barney, I say fight but really it was Max attacking Barney who in turn sat in the corner shaking like a leaf, we managed to separate them and removed Max from the room until he calmed down before letting him back in and although Barney wouldn't go near him for an hour or so and shook every time Max approached him eventually it all settled down a few weeks later there was another fight and so on until it got to be everyday and eventually everytime they saw each other this escalated in the space of 3 months.

There were no major injuries but eventually Barney started fighting back (Max is 9 kg Barney is 15) and max started to get scratches and cuts.

We hired a behaviourist who told us to separate them until he could visit ( this was on a Saturday the earliest he could make it was the Wednesday morning) I couldn't get the time off work to be there when the behaviourist came but my fiancée and my housemate could and they have filled me in on what happened.

He observed them together ( even. Tho I had bought them both muzzles the week before, they neglected to put them on and max ended up with a nasty cut) and came to the conclusion that Max was dominant but we needed to teach Barney to be and get Barney to show Max this, he recommended no treat no toys no sofa no sleeping upstairs. 3 walks a day set meal times where Barney is fed first but they eat in the same room ( previously they were free fed and no fight ever occurred over thier food dish in fact they would always quite happily share the bowl and eat from it at the same time, this is one of the reasons I choose to free freed no greediness and no aggression however the trainer believes free feeding let to food aggression) muzzles on 24/7 except for meal times and to leave the room if they start fighting and allow Barney to put Max in his place if he ever decided too. He promised to send a detailed report so I could read it as I couldn't get out of work and said he would return the week after for another 3 hours. We did all he asked and went 3 days without a fight at one point but even in days where there was a fight there was a definite improvement. The report never arrived despite him promising it was in the post and us chasing it. On the Sunday when he was due to come back we received a text 15 minutes before he was due saying he was ill and he couldn't make it even though he is based at least a 25/30 min drive away, I text back and asked him to let me if he couldn't commit to the dogs as I was unhappy with the lack of contact and still have not received a reply. I now need to hire a different behaviourist, I am aware that this may never be resolved and I will re home Max if necessary but it will break my heart to do so and I want to give him everything I can to resolve this first, he has never been aggressive to a human or another dog. And this has only started in the last 3 months.

I am just desperate for any advice or any recommendations for a behaviourist in the nottingham area. Money is not an object as I will be able to find it somehow.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this

Hello Rachel there is so much going on there I don't know where to start

I would suggest getting a referral from your vet to a behaviourist belonging to a recognised organisation like the APBC...

http://www.apbc.org.uk/apbc/memberlist

If you have pet insurance your consultation may be covered.


ETA forgot to say in most instances a veterinary referral is necessary..

Thanks very much for the reply Max is due at the vets on Friday for a check-up so will ask then for a referral, I've had a look at the members list in our area and there are only 4 so hopefully one of them will be able to help us.

Good luck Rachel please let us know how you get on..

There is hope, I have two male terriers who started out the best of mates until their play fighting got out of hand and spilled over into real fighting. Mine are a Staffordshire bull terrier and a jrt cross. They are now 6 and haven't had a bundle in years but at it's worst it was several times a day and they meant business. I have never resorted to muzzles and would never suggest the dog wearing one 24/7. I have a zero tolerance policy on bullying, always have had to be honest but with these two it was absolutely essential. I've always fed them in the same room as the others at set times, I never took my eye off them while eating and picked the bowls up as soon as they finished, never allowing them to approach the others bowl. No toys around unless I was there to supervise play and if they ever started to get even slightly ar$ey with each other all play was stopped. I had covered crates for them to go into for quiet time whenever they chose and if I had to leave them. The aim is to give them as few possible opportunities to kick off as possible, so as soon as you think they are showing the slightest sign you have to stop them in their tracks, easier said than done at times but I taught my staffie to back off to the rattle bottle, which was shaken very close to his head and loudly as a behaviour interrupter. He wasn't the actual aggressor but could do far more damage and was the more responsive of the two in a fight situation. After a while I only had to tinkle the bottle for him to walk away. I should add he's not scared of it, he 'gets' it's use as an interrupter and he's the reason we managed to sort the problem tbh. These days they have the sense not to go there and no longer play with each other but they can be trusted together in all situations. Diesel my staffie plays with all the other dogs without incident and Frankie the jrt x only plays with Rio my brown female Dobermann or humans. I didn't use a behaviourist because I have years of experience and have dealt with aggressive dogs in the past so felt confident I'd be able to sort it. Hopefully you'll find a decent behaviourist via vet referral. Sadly there are a lot of naff ones around.