Why is she doing this?

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Jindo
Posts: 122
Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:30 pm

Why is she doing this?

Post by Jindo »

Sonata has matured a lot over the past year. She doesn't pick fights with Gong-ju anymore, they get along pretty well and has been tolerating it when I go to pet her.

Main problem now is when there's another dog over.

I've dogsat for my friends Yorkie a couple time and he and Sonata get along pretty well, that's until I walk into the backyard.
Through the window I'd see that they're doing fine, even if the Yorkie gets a little rough, Sonata tolerates him and just bats at him a bit, soon as I go to see the two dogs she suddenly starts attacking the Yorkie. It could be the moment I open the door to my backyard, I wouldn't even have to try to pet him, Sonata would just go berserk.

Another time my friend brought his dog, Miko, over to meet my dogs. Sonata was merely curious and sniffed at her a lot, there was no growling or rough housing, everything was fine. Then I picked up Miko and then the nipping and growling began. When Miko went back to my friend, Sonata calmed down and went back to her sniffing.
Is this some insane jealousy issue? Or over-protectiveness? Both? D:

I spend as much time with her as I can after I return from class and finish my work. Her interactions with other dogs beside Gong-ju is not much. I have exposed her to other dogs when she was young, she did pretty well and wasn't very frightened with them at all, a bit cautious but she really liked playing with other dogs. It was only after being attacked by a shiba inu that she got a bit hostile, but she seemed to have gotten over it now.

I feel awful because she can get along with other friendly dogs fairly well and the only thing that ruins that peace is when I walk into the picture.
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jacksdad
Posts: 4887
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:48 pm

Re: Why is she doing this?

Post by jacksdad »

Jindo wrote:Is this some insane jealousy issue? Or over-protectiveness? Both? D:
resource guarding would be where I would start. Maybe a little jealousy type behavior thrown in. over protective.....I don't know. I would look at resource guarding type behavior first before going down the "protective" road. protective would be more

Luna is very "on guard" about people/dogs outside her "circle of trust", and she isn't always happy with other people and dogs getting near what she considers her resources. but i am still not so sure it's protection in the sense of "ah, she is protecting me"...ie body guard.

from what I understand, true protective behavior isn't very common in dogs compared to fear/uncomfortableness with new people/dogs OR people/dogs getting close to highly valued resources such as those to feed, walk, play with them triggering a resource guarding behavior.
Jindo
Posts: 122
Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:30 pm

Re: Why is she doing this?

Post by Jindo »

jacksdad wrote:
Jindo wrote:Is this some insane jealousy issue? Or over-protectiveness? Both? D:
resource guarding would be where I would start. Maybe a little jealousy type behavior thrown in. over protective.....I don't know. I would look at resource guarding type behavior first before going down the "protective" road. protective would be more

Luna is very "on guard" about people/dogs outside her "circle of trust", and she isn't always happy with other people and dogs getting near what she considers her resources. but i am still not so sure it's protection in the sense of "ah, she is protecting me"...ie body guard.

from what I understand, true protective behavior isn't very common in dogs compared to fear/uncomfortableness with new people/dogs OR people/dogs getting close to highly valued resources such as those to feed, walk, play with them triggering a resource guarding behavior.
There was a time when my youngest brother Felix (he's 5 years old) was outside with the dogs and the Yorkie. The Yorkie does NOT like my brother at all and always barks and tries to bite him. When the Yorkie started lunging at him, both my dogs kinda gave the little dog a bit of a threatening growl - didn't attack of course, only made him back off. Would this be more of a protective behavior?


The resource guarding behavior makes a lot of sense, thank you.
Do you know any good ways I can show her that there is nothing wrong with other dogs being near me?
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