[suziequeue]

We have an absolutely wonderful one year old chocolate labrador which we bought as a puppy last year. He's calm, good natured, friendly.......

We decided to get a beagle bitch pup. We bought one home yesterday. She's a bit older - six months - and up until now she has been with siblings from two litters......... a noisy pack!!!!

She's settling in and our labrador Doug is interested in her in a sniffy sort of way. She has "annexed" most of the chewy things around the place. This evening she was chewing on something. Doug went up to have a sniff and she just launched at him - just barking, snapping and growling. Gave poor old Doug a bit of a fright!! She did it another couple of times and I yelled at her. I had to leave the room in tears etc etc

I can't bear to see my lovely good-natured friend being pecked at by some jonnie-come-lately incomer who's younger and smaller than him.

I know it's up to them to sort it out and it will take time to establish the pecking order - but how long should we persevere?? And supposing my lovely boy gets knocked off the number one spot (which I suspect will happen). I want to defend him but I'm worried that my reactions are going to interfere adversely with the developing dynamics. I'm also worried that this new girl is going to change his lovely nature.

We've talked about sending her back to the breeder but she's only been here 24 hours and I think this is just teething troubles. We need to try a bit harder and persevere but I don't know what to do or how to react or how long this could go on for.

I know this is not a unique problem

Any advice?

[StarfishSaving]

Please do not send her back. These are issues that dog owners have to deal with when there are multiple dogs; unfortunately it's not as easy as returning Christmas gifts, it puts undue stress on the dogs. You have to be as committed to her as you are to Doug for this to work, as she is now your dog as well.

The good news is that you're right, this is not uncommon and it can be worked out! There is information all over the internet on resource guarding and their are really helpful books out there (Mine! by Jean Donaldson being one of the best.) They need to learn about each other and she also needs to learn boundaries. I'd pick up all the toys and chews and only give them out when you're directly supervising, trade with her frequently to teach her that you control the resources, and work on teaching her some manners. Don't yell- you aren't accomplishing anything. Time will probably help as well. I hesitate to give any real in-depth advice because honestly, she hasn't been there long enough for this to have proven itself as a behavioral problem. Chances are she's had to either compete with littermates and other dogs, or has been by herself for a while and hasn't learned social manners- both of these things can lead to resource guarding. A mistake that too many people make is giving a new dog too much freedom too soon. There needs to be a rule system and dogs need structure. As you get comfortable with each other, I would suggest teaching this dog "Nothing in Life is Free", a concept where all good things come with a price, be it a "sit" or a "drop it" or whatever.

[suziequeue]

Thankyou for your response. Yes - we rounded up all the chewy things. She has a couple of things in her crate now but we will supervise more. She had a good (quiet!) night, her crate pad was dry this morning and then she peed straight away when I took her out. We had a nice little cuddle. She is learning VERY fast. She has spent her whole life so far with a large number of littermates.

She and Doug had a bit of a friendly sniff and then she did ward him off - but not in an aggressive snappy way.

Doug - admittedly - is a bit of a sap :-) and always gets chased by the small terriers that we come across on our runs.

Here's to a better day today.

[suziequeue]

Panic over :-))

[StarfishSaving]

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Aww, that's so sweet! I'm a beagle person.

I'm glad she's getting settled in. But, don't get too worked up or panicked if there is a setback. My guess is those littermates spurred some competition and she had no choice but to tell them to back off in order to keep whatever toys she had. So any toy/chew resource guarding may end as soon as she sees that she isn't in any danger of losing them. I'd say half of the beagles we've fostered had some resource guarding issues (that dissipated before they left here.)