When we first had Roxy we had a gfew problems with her attacking Toby for no apparent reason. We took lots of advice & consulted a behaviourist & things improved with no further attacks.

We have always been vigilant with Roxy as she still very occassionally can get her 'look' which we recognise & immediately diffuse any potential incident. This is usually when she is on our bed & Toby gets up.

Both dogs get on really well now although she is a typical pushy bitch & will boss Toby around. He seems fine with this & as long as she doesn't steal his beloved raw hide chew then everything is great.

However I have always noticed that Roxy has to be the centre of attention & will try to 'muscle in' on everything. We tried to rectify this with play sessions & she did learn to wait her turn to play tug, ball, etc & accepted that Toby did get his 'turn'.

She does still seem to think though that every visitor is 'hers' & try to keep Toby away, her body language is very subtle but Toby knows what going on & backs off.

Yesterday my sister, nephew & their dog (18mth male, black Lab called Benson) came to stay. All the dogs get on great together but especially Roxy & Benson & they charge around the garden all day. We have to make them come in to have some quiet periods espeically as Roxy's paw is still quite bad.

All was fine but when Benson tried to instigate play sessions with just Toby Roxy got very jealous & immediately stopped these. I should have been more vigilant in hindsight but unfortunately becasue Roxy has been so much better lately ignored the signs

I don't know if the excietment throughout the day just built up or the dogs were tired, I don't know but in the evening they were all alot quieter & settling down when Roxy started to get her 'look' again. I immediately took her out of the room but should have been a bit more on guard. I wasn't & an hour or so later she went for Toby who was sleeping next to me on the sofa. Unfortunately my instinctive reaction was to try & stop her with my hand which was stupid as I ended up getting bitten. She didn't mean to bite me but did, quite badly. It looks like her canine tooth went through my hand so is quite deep - it didn't stop bleeding for ages. It hurts so much today

This has really upset me, mainly because it just shows that we still have to be so vigilant with her, it is a massive worry had my nephew had reacted as I did he would have been the one to get bitten (maybe he wouldn't have been so stupid as me though), & that I thought we had overcome these jealousy issues.

We have agreed that if we have anyone over now Roxy will be leashed when we are all sitting around (as this is when things can escalate) but I'm not sure how I should go about getting her to understand that any visitor is not 'hers' & that Toby is 'allowed' to have attention & interaction with them.

We felt we had made such progress lately that this feels like a massive set back again

Jealousy is an emotion that has very little evidence to be present in dogs. It implies that a dog posses a 'theory of mind', in this situation that she realises what Toby is involved in is also beneficial to her, and thus she wants the benefits to herself. This is attributing so many cognitive abilities to the mind of domestic dogs, that it is highly unlikely that Roxy is jealous.

Some of the most startling and astonishing behaviour in animal cognition research has been found to be the result of simple associative conditioning- classical and operant conditioning.

Roxy is a rescue dog right? Do you know much of her background? Perhaps the setting of everyone sitting down in a room has some negative associations with it. Frustration builds and builds, she gets her 'look', and she may re-direct onto Toby. Dogs are great at discriminating between situations- generalising is difficult for them- so even the most specific situation could prompt certain behaviour patterns. For example, my parents' dog will walk backwards out of the utility room because the last time she turned round to walk out the right way, the close horse fell on her. Because the situation was so aversive to her (she's a nervy dog anyway- lack of socialisation etc), the association was quick to form, and thus she now sees walking backwards as the safe way out (turning to walk out forwards is dangerous).

What I am getting at is that Roxy could be associating the simplest of situations (to us) with a very stressful, previously learned experience, and thus her reaction is very severe.

You know her triggers, so limit the chance of the triggers appearing. If that means for management sakes you can not be sitting in the living room with both dogs, then so be it, IMO.

It is a difficult situation, I can appreciate. But I would suggest that the behaviour is a result of prior learning and maybe a redirection of frustration onto Toby. And what happens when she does this? The situation changes, perhaps offering a relief to her and thus positively reinforcing the situation. I am making it very complex, most probably, but long-post-cut-short, I don't think it has to do with jealousy.

Keep her on a lead, and reward lavishly for her being in the situation (e.g. throwing bits of cheese and chicken at Roxy), without Toby. Then bring Toby in, micromanaging the situation so she does not get too close etc., e.g. a baby gate, and repeat the exercises.

I do agree with you regarding attributing this to 'jealousy' but can't really think of any other way to describe it. She is a rescue dog, her notes say that she had been passed round alot, not walked, never had training & was mainly kept on a garden.

The initial attacks were always unprovoked but we did manage this behaviour & she has been fine for a while now. Her & Toby usually get on really well but I am always 'on guard' when people are round as I know that this is when she can start on poor Toby.

I think the problem is now when another person or dog enters the equation & she wants all their attention on her hence my description of it as 'jealousy' when Toby seems to be getting any of this. With visitors she will love their attention & sit right near them almost guarding them from Toby. He's not that bothered as he always wants to sit next to me anyway.

She's fine with him sitting next to me or my OH, the only problems have been when the dogs are on the bed for a cuddle - mostly she's fine but she can get funny about this occassionally. When we are out with the 2 dogs we walk with she seems to hate it if they give Toby any attention, she always has to stop this & focus it back on her. She even stops the cats from playing with each other & tries to make them play with her. Maybe I've ignored this a bit too much & should have nipped this in the bud again.

When she does kick off we generally remove her from the room, no shouting or anything just take her out & put her in another room for a few mins. She is generally fine afterwards, there is never any continuation of the aggression & she usually goes straight up to Toby & licks his muzzle.

I just wonder how I should manage her behaviour when guests are here? We've both agreed that she will be leashed & we should probably break the evening up by talking her out for short walks to relieve any stress she is feeling

You say you have a good behaviourist so I would take advantage and ask her. She can see and assess the situation. To be honest, and I can't pretend to know anything about rescued dogs, she may never get over wanting all the attention. She has had a very insecure past and this is the first time in her life she has had a proper home. It makes one wonder if she will ever let her guard down completely and feel as secure as Toby.

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We are seeing the behaviourist on Saturday so I will discuss this with her aswell. It just is such a shame as Roxy had made such progress recently, so many people have commented that she seems a different dog lately.

I think that because of this I have been too complacent & should have noticed all the subtle signs that were there last night.

It's impossible to see all the signs and even seemingly unprovoked attacks are displayed through body language, i.e. there are always warning signs. We are just not, and never will be, adept enough at reading body language efficiently or quick enough.

I see this more as some frustration triggered by the situation, rather than jealousy, and she re-directs on Toby. Small exercises every night of having them both in the same room, feeding Roxy with a very high rate of reinforcement (treat every 2 seconds or so), keeping this up for a couple of minutes, then take her out. Do this once or twice every evening. Slowly do this with new people or dogs in the house. Soon she'll learn a replacement behaviour and will love being in the room with other people...or hopefully!

I think I'm annoyed because the signs were there & yet I chose to believe that everything would be ok becuase she has been fantastic recently.

Tonight, now everything is as normal, things are fine but next time we have guests we will be better prepared & put more preventative measures in place.

When she acts like this on walks with the other dogs & doesn't 'let' them play with Toby should I call her to me or leash her?

Yes, a good recall would be great. She may feel nervous and be 'splitting' the dogs though, i.e. going in between to relax a situation. This can be a common calming signal, so she may be feeling a little anxious in these situations.

We were talking about this tonight & realise that she does this alot. If the cats are playing, if me & my OH are mucking about - Roxy always has to come over & put a stop to this.

We do need to make her realise that she doesn't have to 'police' everything, I just don't always know the best way of doing this.

You never know, in her previous homes, she may have worked out that by approaching people who are acting in a playful manner, and using her sense of smell to pick up on the different smells we and other dogs emit during play (eustress most likely- the good kind of stress!), she will be reinforced by being played with too. This may have been very powerful for her as a reinforcer, and so now it has become a learned behaviour.

It doesn't necessarily mean she is intentionally not wanting others to play (theory of mind implications again there) just that this is some previously-reinforced behaviour pattern.