Strange (Aggressive) Dog Behavior

[TheBealge]

Recently we adopted a Australian shepherd mix. She is one year and three months old and she resembles a rottweiler. When we first brought her home, we had her meet our existing dog in the front yard. Everything went well. After a few hours inside, they got very confrontational over some popcorn. Our existing dog started by growling and then he lunged at our new dog, who lunged back at him. The fight was broken up and nobody was hurt. A few hours after that, the new dog was lying on her mat and our old dog walked pass, looking straight in front of him with no hard eye contact, growling, or other aggressive body language. She lunged at or current dog and he backed away and snarled. We had a behaviorist come and look at them interacting. The existing dog was barking at me and asking for attention from me, ignoring the new dog. The new dog started staring at Remi (our existing dog), and then Remi looked at and started barking at the new dog. The behaviorist said the Remi's bark was a trigger for the new dog, and that we needed to find more triggers for the new dog to find out what the new dog does not like. The behaviorist also said to take the dogs on pack walks, come inside, have them meet each other, then have them sit and stay on their mats. So far we have not had any snarling. But the new dog does occasionally run up to Remi and start licking his face and nipping his ears and sniffing him. I don't think Remi likes this. Also, the will lay down together and take turns gently nipping each other's ears and paws. I break it up when it gets out of control. Its really strange how the new dog all of a sudden runs up to Remi.
Just today, she did that on a walk. Since they were both on leashes, they did not interact, but Remi did start barking at the new dog. When the new dog runs up to Remi and nips his ears and licks his face, is she being dominant or aggressive? When they lay dog and nip each other are they really just playing? Thanks.

[Fundog]

These things do take time, and it sounds to me like things seem to moving in a positive direction, so that's encouraging. Some dogs hate each other at first sight and never become friends.

When we got our second dog, she was extremely resource guardy, anxious, and fearful (to some extent, still is, after seven years!). Dog #2 (Dottie) would lunge across the room to attack dog #1 (Annie), with no provocation on Annie's part. Rather, the triggers were resources such as affection -- either Annie getting petted or Dottie getting petted, didn't matter, Dottie attacked Annie for merely being in the room when the affection was being given. Food was another major trigger. For several weeks, we put up a barrier between the two dogs at mealtimes, so they could not see each other, and one of us humans stayed in the area, between the two dogs also, supervising.

Even now, seven years later, though no barriers are needed, and the two dogs can eat very close to each other, we always hang around to monitor things and supervise.

We have to be vigilant about dropping food morsels on the floor, and either be sure to clean it up right away, or be sure to deliberately drop another morsel and then call both the dogs in to get it under supervision.

Now that they have gotten along well (and are even friends!) for several years, they do a behavior that some people would mistake for "kissing" ("Aw, how sweet!") but what is really happening is they are checking each other's breath to know if one got something to eat that the other did not. And believe me, they KNOW.

So anyway, that's where we've been with my two dogs. Kind of similar to your situation, except my first dog never became aggressive toward the second dog, never growled at her or anything. It was always the first dog doing all of the aggressing.

In your situation, I don't know about the ear and paw nipping, so hopefully someone else on here has seen that type of behavior and will know. Going for group walks and having them practice laying on their mats without attacking each other is really good, keep that up. And of course it's always good to break up any kind of interaction you are not sure about or are not completely comfortable with.

Sorry, this probably hasn't been all that helpful, but at least now you know you are not alone, and that others have overcome similar challenges.

[Erica]

Some dogs play by mouthing/gently biting legs and faces, like the dogs at this link.

If you're not sure that they're both enjoying it, it is perfectly fine to break the play up. Delta and Opal, our two dogs, like to play like this...but Delta quickly escalates too far and Opal stops enjoying it, so we always break up this kind of play. It depends on the dogs!

[Nettle]

Really we would need to see the actual behaviour in context (what happened before, what happened after) but I have seen many instances with herding types especially, where the nipper is trying to herd the nippee by goading until s/he gets up and moves.

I would stop this as soon as it starts, and when you get 'the look' that nipper is going to nip, move her before she starts.

It would be very helpful to know about your other dog too - age, breed mix, health issues etc. and also to know about a typical day for your dogs. then we can help more.