After a 4 hour ride in the car, we arrived at familys house, where there are 4 dogs..youngest is a intact male schnauzer about a year old, and 3 seniors, all female - a pom, a border collie, and a boxer. My Airedale, Kona, is 4 and spayed. Kona is dog tolerant but not used to a group of dogs, tolerant to a point unless unsure and approached suddenly or snapped at. The older border collie seems to be relatively ignoring her although they all did the sniff and greet and ran around in the yard well. Once we got into the house and the older dogs settled, Kona was still wandering around and approached the border collie sleeping. At that point the border collie warned her off and the schnauzer starting barking and getting snappy. Kona sounded light a vicious beast in reaction and snapped as well. Apparently the schnauzer is jealous/guarding the border collie. My actions were to keep Kona by me and away from the border collie - and that kept things settled. When the schnauzer gets excitable and barks - Kona barks and gets assertive - and I keep her with me. Seems that there is not enough room in the house for the whole group to maneuver easily and that creates some close quarters, nose up butts, backing up into another dog etc. We will be there tomorrow as well. Do you think its wise for me to keep a leash on mine (which I did this evening after the argument over the border collie) so I can keep mine near me should things escalate? They seem fine otherwise but I worry about my large dog taking a chunk from on of the others - particularly when the schnauzer starts yapping and getting involved. What advice would you give?
Posted on: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 03:10:22 +0000