i once told a story about the sacred relationship i have with my dog, charley. if the good lawd ever gave me a proper guardian angel, it would be this some sort of aussie/spitz/healer mix. i am her person. she is my dog. and so it has been since may 2004. end of story.
at least, that was the end of the story until h and i moved in together. she has a dachshund/aussie mix (i’m not kidding) named lucy. though she has no legs, she is still very much an alpha bitch. [read: serious napoleon complex.] charley, too, is a very alpha bitch. the two came to blows many times during their first year living together. lucy would end up with a bloody ear and wounded ego. charley won every time. when our boy dogs, moe and clem, entered the picture, a proper pack was established. charley was, by far, the leader of that pack, submissive only to h and me. the bloody fights ceased.
until…enter jude.
in the beginning, as we were establishing just how to go about living every day with a newborn, charley’s routines were severely messed with. gone were the frequent walks, the snuggles, the acknowledgement of her existence. when she was acknowledged, it was to be told to move, or go outside, or stop licking my hands and feet already. and then there was this squawking baby, who smelled like me, but wasn’t me. wtf was that thing? also, there was a steady stream of people coming into her house.
charley does not do well with transitions, and i know this has a lot to do with her life before me, when she was left alone all the time, chained to a pole, and tormented by neighborhood kids. when we pack for a trip, she worries. when we pack to move, she really worries. she becomes tense and insecure. and here was all this change, all at once.
charley and lucy had one smackdown fight, when jude was a few weeks old. they worked out their balance soon after, but i was hormonal and a new mama bear, and i was SO angry with charley for awhile. i know she sensed this.
fast forward several months. charley mellowed out considerably, and found her place in our bigger pack. she accepted jude as my puppy, or at least as an extension of me. as jude became more mobile, charley deferred to her when she approached. she simply stayed out of the way.
and then, jude began to walk. no longer was she this crawling, squalling, little creature. suddenly, she stood eye level with charley, and was intensely interested in her. though both h and i were relentless about showing jude how to properly approach, pet, and not sit on dogs, we began to experience harrowing split seconds when jude would dive for charley without warning, and instead of nervously trotting off, charley began to stand her ground. and then she began to growl nervously when jude approached, though she never bared her teeth or snapped at her.
[a little backstory: a couple years ago, h’s rough and tumble nephew, age 4, ran up to charley and kicked her hard in the ribs with cowboy boots. charley immediately retaliated by knocking him down and pinning him to the ground by his shirt. she could have easily bitten him, but she did not. she subdued him like a pup out of line.]
i didn’t know what to do, but when i smelled a threat to my baby, the balance of loyalty tipped mightily toward jude. and so h and i began to talk about the very real possibility that we’d have to rehome charley. but who would want a 6 year old, extremely alpha dog, who would undoubtedly revert to all her old unhealthy habits when ripped away from her pack? i put feelers out, sought advice from friends who’d faced similar situations, and began to work with jude and charley together.
though i’d made it a point from the beginning to introduce jude as a pack leader (i love you, cesar), i started working with charley and jude together to put jude’s dominance into practice. i began by teaching jude how to sign “sit” to charley, and i would let her make the command while holding her high above charley. charley acquiesced quickly to this. and then i set jude down to stand next to charley and tell her to sit. this worked too. several times a day, i would make charley roll on her back in submission while holding jude.
one day, something must have clicked for charley. she simply approached jude as she does me–with deference and affection–and licked her hand. we allowed jude to pet charley on the head, on the back, and then the ears and finally the snout. charley appeared a little nervous, but was submissive. since that day, charley has shown nothing but loyalty to jude.
h & i remain vigilantly watchful of jude’s interactions with charley, but charley has learned to relax. she has taken to guarding jude as she guards me. when jude is being danger baby, charley groans audibly from across the room, so that we will pay attention. she kisses jude’s toes and allows jude to pat her over and over.
once again, i trust my guardian angel.
in honor of uncle g’s birthday today (happy berfday! i love you! let’s have some whiskey!), here is an old photo of him with charley, who will continue to be my dog.
What a great dog 🙂 It’s nice to see that you were able to find that alpha spot for Jude. We love Cesar around here and use his techniques constantly.
What an amazing dog.
What a great job you guys did!
(Wanna come help us figure out OUR dog?)
I was nervous reading this…I didn’t know how it was going to end.
That sound you just heard, was a sigh of relief. 🙂
Wow! Our Maggie, all dachshund, is so beta that the first thing she did when we brought J. home in the carseat was assume the submissive posture. Now, the poor girl puts up with him climbing on her and announcing “horsie.”
I think my biggest fear is how Harley (my alpha dog) will react when I have children.
Well done Anne- a truly committed dog honor and mother. I am SOOOOO impressed that you stuck with it. Not an easy thing when you are trying to do EVERYTHING else as well. I don’t think I would have had the stamina for it.
Talking of battles- it’s now been 35 minutes since I first put Zeb down to sleep and its not happening yet! Ugh. (PS I haven’t left him crying for the whole time… just in case you are wondering 😉 )
jude, i feel for you. it just took nearly 45 mins to get jude to take a nap.
I”m a professional dog trainer, and it sounds like you’ve done a very good job.
However, I don’t think your problem is necessarily a dominance problem. It sounds like fear aggression, and tis is different from dominance.
From what it sounds like, your Charley has a pretty sad life before you rescued her. Dogs who are tied to a pole instead of socialized during their early months of life tend to suffer from a lot of fear, and fear is paralyzing to dogs.
Here’s an easy way to tell whether your have a dominance or a fear issue: If Charley growls when someone (like Jude) goes near her toys, food bowl, or favourite bed, it’s a dominance problem. If she growls when Jude is looming over her, or when she doesn’t have a good escape route (feels trapped) then it is fear aggression that you have. Also, you can tell by her body language. If she growls head up, body square, tail up (if she has a tail) it’s dominance. If she growls head down, body hunched, backing up, it’s fear aggression.
Either way is scary. The more Jude feeds Charley (you can begin asking her to put down Charley’s food bowl at dinner time, for example, or get her to offer Charley treats, her fear will continue to reduce.
Sounds like you’ll always have to watch carefully.
My other advice to you is to watch Charley’s health very carefully. Take her to the vet for regular blood tests as she gets older. My coworker’s fear aggressive dog suddenly up and bit her two year old, who hadn’t even been tormenting him at the time, right in the face. They re-homed him immediately, and the boy’s eye was saved by fast work at the hospital, but six months later the dog was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which was causing uncontrolled diabetes. The fact that he felt sick and was in pain was enough to tip him over the edge… My coworker feels permanently guilty that she didn’t catch his diabetes and make him feel better before he gave her child a permanent scar…
i was so relieved for the happy ending.
ohh i love a good dog story!!! and the pic was icing on the birthday cake for uncle g 🙂
I’m glad you’re managing to sort through this with Charley and Jude. I have similar concerns about our dog, though I think he’s fear aggressive more than dominant. I’d be interested to hear the specifics of what you’ve been doing, if you ever have time and inclination to email?
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