Alright, so I have a half American pit half Lab. She is mostly awesome, super cute, listens to me, usually plays well with other dogs, BUT. . .
I moved back in with my parents while I finish school, before my eventual trip over to Taiwan. They have two Border Collies (one male, one female). These two breeds don’t exactly mix well because they play differently. My dog likes to wrestle, they like to herd each other. But my Dog has seemed to sort of get their game, and they play a game where she has a ball in her mouth and they chase her.
Anyway, I got this dog when my scum bag ex-roommate skipped out on his rent and left his dog behind. When I got her she wasn’t potty trained, would bite, and was pretty much completely wild. She has made great strides since that time, and, with the exception of jumping on people she doesn’t know when they first walk in the door, she is pretty well behaved.
Now, another game the three dogs know how to play is fetch. However, one day my dog attacked the smaller of the two Border Collies, when that dog “got” the bal first, she made her bleed. I don’t remember how I broke it up but I did my best to let her know that this wasn’t acceptable without hitting her. Held her on the ground, yelled at her, put her in the cage, whatever. Then she did it again about two weeks later, did the same thing. But by this time my dad was talking about getting rid of my Dog, which would pretty much kill me. I’d sell all my possessions and drop out of school before I let that happen. Then one day, while we were all shoveling snow, she did it to the other Border Collie (the male). She wouldn’t let go of him, and, I am ashamed to say, I hit her. I know I shouldn’t have, but I did. I did it out of fear for her life. If she kept attacking my parents dog, and I was unable to get out of the house, she would have to go, and Virginia doesn’t adopt out Pit Bulls (even mixes) preferring instead to “put them down”. So I hit her, hard, a few times, and she let go of him. When I think of her face at this time it still hurts my heart. She was scared of me until the next day.
But the thing is, it worked, or at least it seemed to. She didn’t attack either dog for 18 months. But about a week ago, the female Border Collie was “guarding” a toy (something she does, which is annoying and causes conflict between the dogs) well my dog decided she had enough of it and attacked her. This time I just smacked her, fairly hard, to get her to stop. Again, I know I’m not supposed to do that, but telling her to stop didn’t make her stop, trying to pull her away didn’t make her stop. The only thing that did it was a semi-hard smack with an open hand. (still much better than really hitting her like I had to the last time)
She is strong enough to kill either dog, though I’m not sure if she would, it is still scary seeing her attack them. I know that hitting her only causes more long term problems and makes it more likely that she will do it again. But this isn’t a common enough behavior that small corrections will teach her to stop. And even if it were, she won’t listen to that.
So what do I do? I thought we were passed this, after all we went 18 months without an attack. But it only takes one time for her to kill or seriously maim one of them. I obviously can’t, and don’t now, leave them alone together, but is there anything I can do to ensure this won’t happen again? How should I react if it does?
Thanks in advance for your advice, I pride myself, normally, on my dog raising experience, so this has been quite a big blow to my ego having to ask for help, but this is unacceptable behavior and I don’t know what to do or who to ask for advice.
Maybe you want to take a look at some breed specific ideas for breaking up a fight. When I had Staffies and Bull terriers, who “locked on”, I learnt to straddle the dog, grasp it around the neck and push the nose down into the flesh of the other dog, When they loosen their hold to take a breath, you can pull them off.