Growling? Attacking

[carl19692]

Little Mogwai our whippet has come into season and Poppy our greyhound has started growling at her whenever she moves near her. She also growls sometimes if we move too.
She launched at Mog earlier but i managed to get my hand on her side and push her out of the way. It s very strange behaviour for, what was, a very timid greyhound.
Sometime she, Poppy, will growl at her, Mog, even if she looks at her on the settee or bed.

Just now she laid herself down on the settee next to Mog and then laid touching her then when Mog moved to get comfy she launched herself at her as if she was miffed Mog moved and disturbed her. Poppy was sent straight into the garden and the door shut.

Would this be a natural reaction to another bitch in heat? Poppy is already speyed and Mog was due to go, after our wedding, but has come into heat so we will leave it six or seven weeks for her to settle back down.

Once poppy has her growl we tell her NO but it doesn't stop her the next time. I have made her get off the bed before for growling when someone comes into her little space.

I would assume Poppy is the boss as she always takes front seat at the feeding queue while i make their dinner.
Mog always gets hers first, basically she gets her bowl put down and then i give the others, Poppy and Eddison have theirs at the same time.

Poppy always goes running into the garden barking at the slightest noise. She has even ran growling onto the landing and chased our little girl back into her room when she heard her rustling about on the landing.
We had visitors around on Sunday, one being a small two year old, after about an hour she made a beeline to him with her mouth open luckily i managed to divert her before we found out what would of happened.

Seems to of happened recently and we are unsure of which direction to take

I hope my post makes some sense

[julies]

Hi Carl

Lots of things going on so apologies if I miss anything and others will come along and offer good advice

If the behaviour has just started - how long have you had Poppy? I find after about 6-8 weeks in a new home greys settle a bit and get more vocal/confident with their reactions so maybe things which Poppy tolerated (but worried her) now she feels she can say that she doesn't like them ... maybe Mog being in season has upset things - hormones are a strange thing and I'm sure others with experience of entire girls will be along to help too.

Greys can have sleep aggression or can guard high value resources - and sofas can be high value resources- there are some good threads on it but basically you need to have a quiet place out of the way for Poppys bed and noone go to her when she's on it - even if she looks awake - always call her to you as they can sleep with their eyeys open. I'd not let them on the sofa if there's any chance they'll fight over it .. a crate or a safe, out-of-the-way place to have Poppy's bed may help so she can go and chill on her own and that's her own space - most greys like to have a hidey hole - have a look at the post Sassbu put on about greys reactions to their new world to see where they 'come from'

If you think Poppys the boss and the others allow her to stand first in the food queue then I would feed her first to acknowledge that- I always go with the order they sort themselves into then they all know where they stand- if you feed one out of order it can cause trouble in other areas.

Greys rarely have anything to do with children and can find the way they speak and move frightening plus they can pull dogs and fall on them - if you have visitors I'd oput her well out of their way and not let them near her till she has been with you longer and is more confident.

Her growling is telling you she's not ok so you need to work out what is worrying her - people, other dogs, too much new experiences, no 'own' space so you can put uit right for her- if she gets more frightened she can only escalate her signals which could mean a nip or a bite and that wouldn't be her fault ...Childgates can be fabulous - the dogs can see whats going on but can't come closer and are safe behind a barrier, Kongs are great too (tho always supervise if you give to more than one dog in case they squabble over them)

My grey gets very barky when she hears the foxes and cats about at night but check out her food - I always find that less than 20% protein and even no chicken or rice are best .. at the RGT kennels we feed Burns - they do a pork and potato which can really help I guess you stand between the dogs when they eat? and you feed them from a stand?

Good luck with them and keep asking questions

Julie x

[carl19692]

All of what you are saying is making sense
All three are fed raw, and i think pork makes poppy a little runny, Mog has her own corner to eat in whilst Poppy and Eddison both eat from my knee, i squat down, there is no food aggression whilst they have food to eat only when they are "queuing" which is when poppy may growl or snap. We have a stair gate at the kitchen door which Mog just jumps over, although she gets nothing before they are all in. Just a quick post as we have to go out but will post later

[julies]

Great .. I'm sure others'll be along to help too

J x

[jodav]

Hi Carl

As Julies says, the new behaviour you're seeing in Poppy could be due to hormones and could well settle down but you do say that she's always running into the garden barking if she hears the slightest noise. Has she always done that ever since you've had her? If she has, then she does sound a little similar to one of my hounds who is a nervy dog. He is pretty much always 'on red alert' to all sounds, stares hard and runs into the garden like lightening! As well as that, he growls and barks at our other hounds if she disturbs him when she walks past his bed and has launched himself at her because she was lying too close By the way, she is not scared of this behaviour, just looks fed up. However for a young child, this is very scary. What we do now is manage the behaviour the best we can by prevention and the dogs rarely sleep close or lie together. It does seem to happen more when he is very tired but we can go for long periods when it does not happen at all. However, we use stairgates to separate at times and both dogs are required to be completely calm before they are fed together which means waiting for the 'release' command. Maybe a higher stairgate to the kitchen, then no dog gets there first?

Hope your situation with Poppy improves.

Jo

[julies]

You could also have her checked over by a McTimoney chiropractor to make sure there are no old racing injuries that need a tweak or two and are making her a bit niggly round the others It usually costs about £20 for a session and well worth it .. just Google Mctimoney chiropractor and there's a list of chiros so you can find the closest one to you

Good luck with her

Julie