Hi all

Before I go in to the issues we're experiencing, I will give you the background in to our situation;

About 4 years ago, we got an 18 month old collie/whippet cross. We soon learnt that she had problems, she had obviously been taken away from her mother too soon and she had severe separation anxiety and confidence issues. Despite working with her for months, she showed no signs of improvement so our last ditch attempt was to introduce a new dog in to the pack.

We were offered a 10 year old collie/lab cross called Suzie. Things changed from the minute Suzie came into the house as she was a strong female and most of the issues we had with Lilly disappeared.

Fast forward four years to Christmas 2010 and we had to say goodbye to Suzie after months of illness. Lilly immediately went into a state of depression whilst in the house (but livened up whilst outside).

We got through Christmas and on Saturday we went to visit a dog rescue after seeing a dog which seemed to fit out lifestyle perfectly.

On the walk we did whilst at the rescue, both Lilly and Billy played and interacted in a way we couldn't have imagined - it was amazing to see. Billy pushed his luck a bit so Lilly gave him a verbal dressing down which is exactly what we wanted to see.

Now the problems started when we got them home - Lilly has become totally subdued again, is submissive to Billy's demands and spends her time trying to get away from him (hiding, going into the kitchen where Billy can't get due to a door he hasn't learnt to open).

As a Patterdale/JRT cross, we appreciate Billy is a strong character, but as the established female, Lilly should not feel she has to give in to Billy's demands.

On walks, they do their own thing and appear happy, and on the lead they walk side by side with no issues at all - it appears the root of the problems lies with us bringing a new dog into the house.

We have followed a lot of information on introducing a new dog, and continue to give Lilly a high level of fuss (as she's used to) but she just sits looking depressed.

I am looking for any tips on how we can bring Lilly's mood up and how best to approach the dominance thing - she here's some questions for a starter;

1) Is it just early days and Lilly is feeling pushed out - something that will correct itself with time
2) How should we approach the dominance issue - should we continue to encourage Lilly to be the dominant one? Is it wrong to allow Billy to become dominant despite being the new boy in town?

Apologies for the long post but it's best to get as much of the facts out there to help you lot to help me

How old is Billy?

He is a 9 month old (approximately), neutered male.

We have just come back from the park and they have both had a whale of a time - Lilly likes to rough and tumble with other dogs and she's just spent the last hour doing it with Billy

I wonder if our issues are territorial more than anything becuase they get along fine in the car, outside and at other peoples houses.

EDIT: Attached some images that shows Lilly's dominance - Billy (currently being renamed to Oscar/Ozzie) wouldn't get up until Lilly had walked away. Apologies for the poor quality - they are stills taken from the video I filmed of them so lots of motion blur

Attached Images

	P1000273.jpg (90.7 KB, 9 views)
	P1000274.jpg (108.9 KB, 9 views)
	P1000267.jpg (94.0 KB, 8 views)

With your older dog when she came at 10 years old and probably had a quiet calm personality she was probably a role model for the younger nervous dog giving her confidence and a firm quiet grounding that at the same time wasnt a threat. A nervous dog can be helped with a calm confident dog so that was why she blossomed with her.

With a JRT/patterdale mix who can be feisty full on little devils at the best of times and also if he is young and hasnt been taught any manners or not trained it is obviously going to be a culture shock to her. If also she isnt the type of dog thats going to be confident and tell him where to get off and when enoughs enough, then she is going to feel at a loss. It is still early days also and she probably hasnt had time to adjust to life without her companion and roll model that gave her her confidence and stability.

If she hasnt got what it takes to keep the little devil in order, then you will have to do it for her. If you havent already it would be an idea to crate train him and also start training him in general to teach him manners and impulse control. With a crate she can get used to him being around and have some space. I would make sure that she can eat in peace by feeding them separate with him being fed in the crate. By training, supervising them and management so at the moment she has some peace and quiet when she needs it hopefully things should maybe start to calm down. If they are ok going out on walks together then keep it up as that is positive interaction or a positive exercise that they can do together. I would also though take them inbetween for separate walks, so she has one to one attention and a break from the house and him. By also taking him separate and also doing individual training with him too, that should also help you to get more control of him especially as it looks like your the one going to have to help her out and keep control of him at the moment at least as shes not up to the job.

Hope some of this might be of help

__________________

While I was bashing away at my reply they seemed to be having a good time .
I would just keep focusing on the positive stuff, help her out if she needs it indoors for the time being, and just give them time to sort themselves out with you maintaining control in the meantime.

__________________

Thanks for the tips - it sounds as if we're on the right track. We currently feed Lilly first and will not feed Ozzie until Lilly has finished. She is first to get treats and has certain other rights that she's used to (i.e. her own chair) which we discourage Ozzie from using.

I've ordered a crate as Lilly has her crate which she escapes to when she feels the need to.

I had thought of the individual walks but wasn't sure if that was a good approach - in the house I am "sneaking off" to give Lilly some one-to-one attention in the hope she realises she is still important to us.

We are also going to enrol BOTH of them on a training course - although Lilly is much older, I think her confidence would be boosted by doing some basic training (stuff she can do with her eyes closed) and be rewarded for it - at the same time getting Ozzie to conform.

All credit to him - for 9 months old he is fairly well behaved - he walks well on a lead (even better with a harness), knows basic commands and appears fairly good with other dogs (if a little over-powering but that is to be expected with his genes ).

Other than the house situation - our biggest concern is he, often randomly, growls and barks at dogs on leads when he is on the lead. It's not every time, but he does look rather agressive when he does it. Hopefully some training and socialising exercises will sort this out.

We're back in the house now after our play and walk and Lilly does seem a little bit better - maybe being boss outside will reinforce her dominance inside the house...fingers crossed.