New deaf pit bull puppy into a Older abused pit bull's home

[Sabiate]

I have an older Staffy who has always been dog aggressive, terrified of strangers & has extreme separation anxiety. Adopted in 2007, she had recently weaned her 2nd litter and had clearly been abused. She runs up to my kids if they jump or even play Wii & usually just pokes them aggressively with her nose. She has snapped at them a few times usually when they reach over her to me but never broken the skin. This of course terrifies me but I've set rules that we must be calm around her or put her in another room. Also tough as my boys are quite ADHD. She has such extreme separation anxiety that when she went to my x's house (I thought she'd be ok knowing the kids there) while I went out of town, she didn't eat the entire time. She has tried to "save me" when we were sliding down a small river into a pool by diving in after me & almost getting taken down the wrong way on the river. I recently adopted another puppy who was 6 months old & deaf who is a pit bull mix. Annie, my Staffy took to him pretty well but there were a few tiffs when first arranging meals, etc. I have now had the puppy about three months. They seem to really love each other, meals go well, toys are shared well & even bones have been almost a sweet arrangement with one usually laying very close to the one eating it with their head resting on their paws patiently. This morning out of the blue there was a huge fight. I literally could not protect the puppy from Annie. She was desperately trying to get at some part of him and was clearly out of her mind & impossible to calm. I did not see who started it but while trying to break it up the puppy did have a solid hold on her ear that I could not break for almost a minute! I have been disciplining Annie for being "too" dominant to the puppy. I read that is a bad tactic as they will try to balance the power as they see fit & if the owner messes with that, they will simply correct it after awhile. I have been to several trainers and have had varied advice but as a loyal fan of the show, I trust Victorias methods the most. I also recently did research on an argument paper for BSL & learned a lot about Pit Bulls. My question is, is there anything I can do to help the situation? Do I really need to get rid of one? If so, which one? My heart is torn because my child has really become social with the puppy & that is something he ha definitely struggled with but I know Annie is older, and would probably die of a broken heart without me. Please help me. I really want a peaceful happy home with both of them.

[JudyN]

Hi, and welcome to the forum. I'm sorry you're having problems with your dogs. You will probably find you have more replies if you repost in the Training section, as I suspect Annie's issues are more to do with her background than her breed.

I'm not an expert, and this is a difficult situation, so I won't go into much detail, but from what I've learnt from this forum I would say the following:

1) Don't discipline Annie in any way for being 'dominant'. Dominance is an outdated theory , and a true 'top dog' would not need to attack another anyway. She is clearly very stressed and uncomfortable, and disciplining will only add to this.
2) Don't feed them together because even if they seem OK together, this may add to the stress. In fact, given the fight they have had (which would have had some trigger, even if you couldn't see it), you should probably keep them separated from now on as it will happen again at some point and one or the other could be badly wounded or worse.
3) I think it is likely that you will need to rehome one dog. Generally we would advise you to rehome the one most likely to find and adapt to a good home, which in your case would be your youngster. It's a shame, as he was helping your son, but rehoming Annie would be very difficult, and hard on her.
4) Do make sure that you have everything in place to safeguard your children from Annie. And she also needs protection from them - a safe refuge where she can learn to go when they are being rambunctious and unsettling her. Crating her for some of the time may be a solution - is she crate trained?
5) We should be able to suggest a lot of ideas to help Annie's various issues. To help the experts, could you please give a full run-down of her daily routine - walks (how long, on or off lead), feeding (what and when), training and play, how she reacts near other dogs and how you deal with this, how long she is left for and what she does while left.

I stress, I'm not an expert, so may be overruled on some of my thoughts!

[Sabiate]

Wow. That's good advice. I will be devastated if I need to get rid of the pup. But yes, I'm quite sure Annie will not make it anywhere else. I will repost this in training. Thank you for suggesting that I post the daily routine info. I was already worried my post was too long but I need help!! I love these dogs so much.