HELP please! My Jack Russel Terrier is attacking my OES.
We have been dealing with Gertie's behavior issues from the beginning. She has that submissive piddling problem - happy, sad, scared, whenever - she pees! That I could live with. But it's gotten to be much more than that. We have had to take all the bones and virtually all the toys out of the house because if Ava tries to play with them, Gertie attacks her. By attack I mean - she jumps up and bites her in the muzzle and around her eyes. Leaving marks most of the time. Poor Ava cannot seem to figure out what she's doing wrong. In addition to this, Gertie will sit on the bed and snap at Ava if she tries to come up. She snaps at me if I trie to put her on the chain to go outside. She bites both Darren and I when we try to put a muzzle on her to trim her toenails. The last time she went after Ava I got in the middle of it and ended up with a welt on my arm for two weeks. Which leads me to my current situation. When Gertie bit Ava two weeks ago i didn't realize the extent of the damage - until two nights ago. I noticed Ava's face looked dirty, so I went to wipe it and she pulled away from me. Upon closer inspection I noticed her fur was matted on the one side of her muzzle and underneath was a big puss filled sore - from where Gertie had bitten her. I trimmed the fur around it, cleaned it out and put some antibiotic on it. Yesterday morning I decided the best thing to do would be to take her to the vet to avoid any permanent damage or pain for her. The vet said she had an abcess and they had to drain it. They also had to shave her whole muzzle - and they found 5 other puncture marks. So far I have spent around $600 in the past 3 months - mostly because of Gertie. The vet said that she was likely the cause of the problems Ava has been having with her eyes - as a result of stress. The money is not an issue - I have insurance. The issue is that Ava can no longer stay at home with me. She is currently staying with my mom and dad because I do not feel comfortable with her being anywhere near Gertie. This is not a permanent solution though. Gertie has never had any sort of training, so I offered to take her to private lessons - Darren has no interest at all in that. I've offered up other solutions as well, such as keeping both of them in kennels at night (Ava sleeps in a kennel now, but Gertie is always on the bed). He refused that one too. Darren brought up with he thought was the solution to me this afternoon - he thinks all of this aggression his dog has can be fixed simply by walking them every night. He keeps saying that it's Ava's fault because she instigates it. She is a puppy and yeah, I admit she always wants to play with Gertie - but she never hurts her. Gertie is just downright mean - and it's not like it's just directed at Ava or even me - it's directed at Darren as well. I don't know what to do |
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| Oh that is so sad!! Poor Ava!! I really feel for you. Doesn't sound like your bf is very sympathetic. . . Is he otherwise fulfilling your needs? Gertie sounds like a mean dog. |
| I'm so sorry you are in this position. It's terrible.
Jack Russels are frequently, in my opinion, "mean" little dogs. What I mean by this is that they behave just as you describe, and I don't know if that's correctable. Perhaps with training or a good intervention by a trainer, or maybe some meds the JRT can calm down. I don't know but in my gut I'm not optimistic. So maybe you'll have to make a very very difficult decision; do you want to keep an OES or a JRT? Wll the OES be better able find a good new home, or will the JRT? I REALLY HOPE that someone else can bring or suggest a solution to you that is a winner all the way around. |
| Boy I really wish you luck, it's a tough situation!
I am wondering is it the naughty dog that is still living with you? That was the way I understood it. The aggression issues probably will not resolve even without the other dog there. I am afraid it may be directed at others in the house instead. It would seem in that case that the good dog is being removed, and the other gets to stay? You may want to check your area for a behaviorist, or maybe ask the vet for a good trainer to give you some help. There have been several here who have had luck with similar situations after they found someone who specializes in these issues. Hope this all works out for you, and the dogs! I wish I had an easy answer for you. Shellie |
| A long walk never hurts. Exercise can help allieviate tension but won't take away all the problems.
Who was in the house first? I know you said Gertie was 2 years old but have you lived with your boyfriend the whole time? If he and Gertie are an addition to your household, he needs to be even more sensitive to the situation and work with you. If Ava's getting hurt, the important thing is to make sure that stops happening-- who's right or how much it costs doesn't even matter. Why do you need his permission for private sessions? Go on the walks that he thinks will cure everything for a week or so and when it doesn't work, let him know it's time to try something else and get a behaviorist in. This doesn't seem as much a training issue as it is a behavioral thing between the two. If you want to live in harmony (all four of you), everyone has to compromise! (And for the record, I must have officially reached adulthood for that to have come out of my mouth. *sigh* Say it isn't so...) |
| On Christmas day two years ago, my evil little sheltie bit my oes pup in the eye. We spent seven hours on Christmas day in the pet ER. Thank God, there was only soft tissue damage and no permanant damage to the eye, but Ben looked like hell and wore an elizabethan collar for a month.
Ben, being a pup, would antagonize Ruby, who was very high strung. And it didn't take much to antagonize her, either. Fearing more injury, I put the sheltie in a wire basket muzzle whenever she was out of the crate with the puppy. She could still bark and drink water, but she was not able to bite. This kept up for about four months, and during that time the dynamics between them changed. I was able to retire the muzzle. Now, they might tell each other off once in a while, but no more serious fighting. That muzzle saved my sanity. |
| Well, Ava is home and things are not a whole lot better. To answer some of the questions:
Ava and I moved in with Darren & Gertie I've contacted a trainer in the area - the one Ava goes to classes with. He agreed to private lessons, but Darren is still not very agreeable. He thinks it's all Ava's fault because she is a puppy and wants to play. The thing is, her play biting never hurts Gertie - while Gertie's on the other hand is just MEAN. We've taken the first step of keeping them both out of the bedroom - the vet suggested that because Gertie tries to attack Ava if she wants to get up on the bed with us. So now neither one gets to be on the bed. We were going to try the walking thing, but now the weather here is in the 90s so I don't want Ava to get sick from the heat. Where would I get one of those wire cage muzzles? |
| When we first got Pirate, we had a JRT...some of you may remember mean ol' Molly (aka MOM). She was a really nasty dog, but I loved her and she loved me! Pirate had only been with us a few days, when MOM bit his ear so badly, he was bleeding all over. I rushed him to the Vet. They only lived together a little over a year. MOM went paralized from a herniated disk (this had been an on going problem for years) and we had to help her to the bridge. They were never really friends, but had established their relationship. MOM the boss, Pirate the servant. After MOM left, Pirate truly missed her. Their relationship was not loving, but they understood each other. It took several months to get to that point. Hey...I still miss Miss Molly..... |
| Deborah,
Do you have any pics of Pirate and Molly together? I don't see any in your album. |
| I do at home or somewhere on photobucket. I will up load when I can find it. They really were a sight! She weighted in at about 15 pounds, but he kept his distance. Our neighbors are Chinese and speak very little English. However, they used to call Molly and Pirate, "Big and little!" |
Ok...I've uploaded the picture.  It makes me laugh to see how Mutt and Jeff they looked together! |
| Awwww...thanks Ron. I hadn't seen that you linked the picture here. Sorta a nice tribute to a feisty gal! |
| Are Jack Russells that mean usually? I know someone down the street from me who ended up putting her's to sleep because it viciously bit several people unprovoked.
Ava should eventually get the message not to go near Gertie but it might take longer than you want. I think it would be nice if your boyfriend gave you more cooperation to make peace in the house. Gertie definitely should NOT be sleeping in your bed while Ava is in a crate as this is not helping the dominance situation. Check out the behaviour books for sale in this section of the forum http://forum.oes.org/viewtopic.php?t=4488. Definitely recommend the Dog Listener and please make your BF he needs to understand that the situation needs to get straightened out before one of your dogs really gets hurt. |
| Its interesting that in the Dog Listener, she goes into great detail about a JRT she had. They are very high strung animals. And, very...I repeat...very smart. My Molly was mean because she had numerous health problems (she was a rescue from a puppy mill in Ohio). She was often in pain. When she wasn't, she was nice. She come from the Wishbone/Fraiser/My Dog Skip era, when everyone wanted a JRT...so they "cranked" those puppies out. Ava and Gertie will adjust. But, it will take a long time and a lot of patience. I agree about not being let on the bed. Molly was never allowed on our bed. I hope this all works out, because as I said, Pirate and Molly weren't ever the best of friends, but they were very close companions. |
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