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  • New To Danes and Having A Problem

    I have adopted a 5 year old Great Dane Named Marley, she is beyond perfect and my family loves her but recently began being food aggressive with our 9 year old pit bull named Ammo. We have had to take him to the vet for puncture wounds and gashes. We have owned Marley for 3 weeks and normally feed them separately. Well, the other day I left for work and came home to a bloody mess in my yard. One of the dogs dug up an old bone hidden in the yard and I am assuming a fight broke out. Ammo being a pit bull is surprisingly not dog aggressive and doesn't leave a scratch on Marley. I am afraid that one day that might change and he will decide to really do inflict damage on her.

    We have taken him twice to the vet this week and we are just so lost. Marley is not dog aggressive until there is food present.

    Can anyone share their thoughts? Can we retrain her somehow? We are desperate to keep her, she is a wonderful dog.
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  • #2
    You definitely can work on food aggression and resource guarding. A great resource is the book Mine! by Jean Donaldson.

    THat being said, they really should not be left alone unsupervised together. That goes for any new additions to a family. 3 weeks is not near enough time for them to have really gotten to know each other or for you to know they are safe together (and honestly, many people never would get to that point and will always crate or separate whem gone).

    For now you have to manage manage manage. Be hyper vigilant. It could be worse now as she is still settling in and things or new...or it could get worse as she settles in. Read that book, find a trainer who's process looks similar to what the book discusses.

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    • #3
      I'm going to echo everything GreenMagicK said below.

      You're going to have to be incredibly diligent about the separation for a while until you have a trainer who can work with and as made some headway -- l mean, separate yard time, separate feedings...

      Three weeks is like no time at all to expect an older Dane with who-knows-what sort of history to not only acclimate, but also shed her previous learned habits. Go slow, be gentle, be firm.

      Best of luck!!

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Greenmagick View Post
        You definitely can work on food aggression and resource guarding. A great resource is the book Mine! by Jean Donaldson.

        THat being said, they really should not be left alone unsupervised together. That goes for any new additions to a family. 3 weeks is not near enough time for them to have really gotten to know each other or for you to know they are safe together (and honestly, many people never would get to that point and will always crate or separate whem gone).

        For now you have to manage manage manage. Be hyper vigilant. It could be worse now as she is still settling in and things or new...or it could get worse as she settles in. Read that book, find a trainer who's process looks similar to what the book discusses.

        I understand it takes a few months, at least, before a new addition should be left with an old, but do you think that never leaving them alone together extends primarily to rescues?

        I have always felt significantly more comfortable with animals I've raised and known since they were a few weeks old, so I would think, assuming everything went well between the new and old addition, it would be easier to allow them alone together after a few months? Probably a dumb question, but just wondering [emoji4]


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        • #5
          Never leaving along applies to whatever dogs need it Some people are never comfortable with it, some dogs are never ok with it. I have always felt safe leaving my dogs together loose, even when i had a resource guarder, but I was very vigilant about checking the area AND even when they did scuffle, they never full on fought.

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          • #6
            I have had my dane since November and he is still not left unsupervised with my other dog even though they get along just fine. I don't see them being together alone for a long time.
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