| Agression toward my runt
Hello all,
Little background. I have 4 dogs. 1 Yellow Lab (4yrs old Male), 2 Rotts (2.5yrs Female), and 1 female 1.5 yr Rottador (Rottweiler/Labrador mix, my runt). Here is my problem. I have them all in a dog run together, the dog run is about 80ft long by 35ft wide. Everything was fine until about 4 months ago when I heard some fighting. Denali (The aunt of the runt) was attacking Karina (the runt). I broke it up and let things go for the night. Same thing happened again the next night only this time Denali had hurt Karina enough to cause her to limp, so my wife took Karina inside and we let her stay in the house for the night. The next day I brought Karina back outside and let only Denali out of the dog run with Karina, this was so I could watch them together for a while. Denali was fine with her. Later that week Denali was attacking her again. Needless to say, If I'm outside with them Denali will USUALLY leave Karina alone, but if Denali walks by Karina then Karina will cower to the ground right away... even if Denali isn't attacking her.
I have put Denali on a 30ft leash within the dog run with the other 3 dogs. I have 10 acres of land but no outer fence yet. My wife won't let me keep any of the dogs in the house with us because we also have 3 cats and she thinks that would be "too much". Denali does not show any aggression toward any of the other dogs or any person. She is very loving and I really am having a hard time thinking of getting rid of her.
What would cause this behaviour and can anything be done to correct it? I know it's not fair to keep her leashed up, and after reading some other posts I see it's not a good idea to leash her up. I had no idea that a leash could cause agression. So what are my options?  |