julemsmarie
05-30-2009, 02:06 PM
My 18 year old son adopted a 9 month old Australian cattle dog / blue heeler mix from a dog pound the other day, named Bella. By looking at her, it appears she may have some German shephard mix in there as well. She is very sweet to all of us humans who live in the house, but I am concerned about her behavior toward my 6 lb. chihuahua and his toward her.
The chi is my dog who I have had for over 10 years and I am very attached to. He can get hyper and could growl if he feels threatened but has never bit or attacked another dog. Bella hasn't exhibited any aggression, but we are still trying to get to know her.
My concern is Bella has not growled or shown her teeth, but has made lunges at my chi, especially when he scurries around quickly like chihuahuas do. He can be a fairly active dog. Bella has also lunged at him when she was sitting on the couch with us and he wanted to join us. I am not sure whether this is aggression or another normal dog behavior. When she lunges, we have always been there to immediately tell her "no" and pull her back since we do not know what her intention is. Another thing I have seen her do is reach her front paw/leg out to touch or pat him as he walks by. Because of their size difference, we have not let them "work it out" themselves. I do not want my chihuahua hurt...or worse.
Bella does not appear to be a hyper dog at all, especially for being less than a year old. But she is new to our household and is still recovering from being spayed so we may not have necessarily experienced her actual personality yet. She appears to have had some sort of training. She is house broken and knows to sit and shake her paw. The one behavior I have noticed is she will chase rabbits that are in our backyard. This is something that concerns me. First, I don't want her harming the rabbits, as our other dogs and the bunnies have coexisted in the backyard very well for over a year. Secondly, will she know the difference between small animals and my chi, or will she see him as another small animal/prey? Clearly, I am no animal expert.
My chi is accustom to freely roaming the house but due to the uncertainty of Bella's behavior, we are keeping the dogs separated in different bedrooms unless we are with the them. I have also resorted to keeping one or both on a leash, inside the house, when we let them out of the bedrooms at the same time. I know this is not the right thing to do nor a good way for dogs to live, but I feel I can quickly control anything that may happen with that leash control. However, this is becoming very stressful for me and I am sure the dogs are picking up on my anxiety.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with regards to this? If she was going to "attack" him, what would the warning signs be? There are times she looks sideways at him, which gets me nervous. Is that a sign of aggression?
TIA
The chi is my dog who I have had for over 10 years and I am very attached to. He can get hyper and could growl if he feels threatened but has never bit or attacked another dog. Bella hasn't exhibited any aggression, but we are still trying to get to know her.
My concern is Bella has not growled or shown her teeth, but has made lunges at my chi, especially when he scurries around quickly like chihuahuas do. He can be a fairly active dog. Bella has also lunged at him when she was sitting on the couch with us and he wanted to join us. I am not sure whether this is aggression or another normal dog behavior. When she lunges, we have always been there to immediately tell her "no" and pull her back since we do not know what her intention is. Another thing I have seen her do is reach her front paw/leg out to touch or pat him as he walks by. Because of their size difference, we have not let them "work it out" themselves. I do not want my chihuahua hurt...or worse.
Bella does not appear to be a hyper dog at all, especially for being less than a year old. But she is new to our household and is still recovering from being spayed so we may not have necessarily experienced her actual personality yet. She appears to have had some sort of training. She is house broken and knows to sit and shake her paw. The one behavior I have noticed is she will chase rabbits that are in our backyard. This is something that concerns me. First, I don't want her harming the rabbits, as our other dogs and the bunnies have coexisted in the backyard very well for over a year. Secondly, will she know the difference between small animals and my chi, or will she see him as another small animal/prey? Clearly, I am no animal expert.
My chi is accustom to freely roaming the house but due to the uncertainty of Bella's behavior, we are keeping the dogs separated in different bedrooms unless we are with the them. I have also resorted to keeping one or both on a leash, inside the house, when we let them out of the bedrooms at the same time. I know this is not the right thing to do nor a good way for dogs to live, but I feel I can quickly control anything that may happen with that leash control. However, this is becoming very stressful for me and I am sure the dogs are picking up on my anxiety.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with regards to this? If she was going to "attack" him, what would the warning signs be? There are times she looks sideways at him, which gets me nervous. Is that a sign of aggression?
TIA