Hi All

I would like some advice please:  Hannah my Greek rescue hound has settled in pretty well with the JR, the westie and my gorgeous sheltie, Isla. I have never owned a hound before so maybe she is typical.  She can run like the wind and needs two long runs twice a day.  Indoors however she can snooze for England and is very quiet and gentle, unlike my other yappers!  When we go out to the moor she is absolutely fine with my westie and the JR and all other dogs although she loves playing and chasing.  But she goes over the top with Isla and I don't know why but I am getting quite nervous about it.  They both love to chase but  during most of our walks at least once Hannah out of the blue will start to "play" with Isla but the play almost immediately turns rather threatening and aggressive I would say.  She (Hannah) starts to make a noise which is almost a growl and tries to get poor Isla's tiny head in her mouth, pinning her dow with her long legs.  I have never heard Isla yelp but I put a stop to the behaviour as soon as it starts as I feel Hannah could do some real damage. Isla has a lovely temperament, has never growled or snappped in her life so she doesn't retaliate.  Sheis of course quite small and delicate.

I don't know why Hannah picks on Isla as she certainly isn't a fighter by nature.  I am hoping it will go away.  I could simply not take them out together as I often take two dogs at a time.

Any advice gratefully received.

Snowflake

maybe now she's settled in she feels she wants to stamp her authority on your other girl and show her who boss. i would fornowtake things a little slower when out and try to stop the play going too far before it starts. i had to do this with my two bitches.
i would always let the bitch that gets over excited off the lead first otherwise she would chase after the other bitch and get a bit too silly. then i would carry treats and keep distracting them both while they ran round, if one of them looked like things were getting out of hand i would call her and make her sit for a treat, which in it's self would calm her down a bit and take her mind off what she was doing. if things just wouldn't calm down then the one coursing the problem would go on the lead for a while or you could alternate this so they both get a run.
if the body language is really aggressive then it would be better to walk them at different times but i think the key to stopping things getting out of hand for my bitches was to keep them pretty calm at home and in the garden etc and touch wood this works well for me. i wouldn't ever leave them in a confined space together or sleep them together just in case but if it means they can live together with no trouble then it's a small price to pay.
With your situation it is hard to judge how serious this is with out seeing the dogs but be careful if this does get out of hand it could turn nasty very quickly.
have you taken your new bitch to training classes? this maybe a good idea and give you more control in case of problems.
i do hope things sort themselves out for you all.  

I am no expert at all but it sounds as though Hannah is actually playing rather than being aggressive to your other dog although without seeing it happen it is hard to tell.

I have a Golden Retriever and a terrier cross, GR weighs 32kg and the terrier weighs 6kg so a huge difference in weight. Sometimes when they are playing together the noise is horrendous and, to those not in the know, it can appear they are fighting but it is all just play. My GR can fit the whole of the terriers head in his mouth and will often sit on the terrier - but if you look closely he doesn't put any weight on Cooper and is actually sort of hovering above him. Cooper is not at all bothered by this type of play and is usually the instigator and will always come back for more until the time when Harley has had enough and walks off or tells him off for not stopping when asked If your smaller dog is  not phased by the rough housing I would not be too bothered as it sounds normal to me - or at least it is for my two. However if your smaller dog does not like to play like this then I would take steps to stop it before it has started.

Dogs who have lived as a feral often have very good social skills around other dogs as they have to learn these early on in order to survive. I don't think I have ever seen a street person's dog that has bad social skills with other dogs - they are usually very well mannered around each other.

Without seeing it in real, it is hard to say. But I can tell you that when one of my lurchers plays, it looks like he is killing the other dog with all the growling and (pretend) biting you can imagine. And yes, that is quite typical for many hounds and is the reason I won't let mine play with dogs I don't know (unless they are hounds too) because most dogs AND owners would get very worried about it.

> Dogs who have lived as a feral often have very good social skills around other dogs as they have to learn these early on in order to survive. I don't think I have ever seen a street person's dog that has bad social skills with other dogs - they are usually very well mannered around each other.

Completely agree, we have one with us now, and she has exceptional doggy skills.

Completely agree about the street dog skills.  Hannah (the Greek) is very well mannered with all other dogs. Same with people - there is no way Hannah will approach anyone, she always hangs back.  If dogs don't want a game she leaves them alone and when she does play shows no aggression.  When a dog gets aggressive with her she becomes very submissive and runs off.  I think probably that the boisterous play with Isla is just that.  I do put a stop to it as soon as it starts but sometimes the two of them have already run across the field so it takes me a minute or so to run over and separate them.  I usually put Isla back on the lead after these episodes but maybe I should put Hannah on the lead instead.  I have to say that Isla often instigates the "play" by jumping and poking at Hannah - being a sheltie she is very fast and loves a game.  I think the play fighting often starts after Hannah has had a good run.  At this point her normally calm demeanour seems to change and she becomes very excited - which is when she start to lunge and pouce on Isla. 

The advice of offering treats to distract both of them may work so I will try that.  I do leave the four dogs in my large kitchen when I have to leave them - maybe I should put Isla somewhere else but it would have to be a bedroom I suppose.  I have never seen Hannah go for Isla at home yet.

I do wonder - sounds mad I know - whether it could be a bit of jealousy on Hannah's part.  I think Hannah - who is a very enigmatic dog - has become quite attached to me as I am with her all day and of course I rescued her!  Now Isla who I had from a puppy is my show dog and also my obedience dog so I do a lot with her and being a sheltie I do a lot of grooming of her too.  Do you think it could be something to do with that?  I did get Hannah though after Isla so Isla has always been here as far as Hannah is concerned.

Yes we do take Hannah to training classes and she is doing pretty well (apart from recall!) and she is about to redo the basic course to reinforce it.  I do hope the situation improves and reassuring  to know others have the same probs.

Snowflake

I had the same here with my lurcher, he loves to chase and play very roughly with my terrier. She is going to be ten soon so I was quite concerned about her being bashed about even though she didn't seem to mind, also I was worried that he would think that it was ok to play like that with other dogs.
I started taking one of his toys out and it really helped, I think that with my dog a plain old walk was just too boring for him and since I've been taking a toy for him to chase about he is much more interested in playing with me and the terrier gets to potter about in peace.
This only worked for me though because the older dog has no interest in the toy, if she did they could end up squabbling over it which would be worse than rough playing.
All the best luck with Hannah the greek, my lurcher Vic is the first hound type dog I've ever had and it has been quite a learning curve for me!

My eldest girl does this when excited. We used to meet up with the same people (and their dogs), every weekend morning, and as part of the initial excitement, doggy how are you's etc... she'd pick on my other girl. It was almost like she wanted to show all the other dogs she was boss. Nothing really nasty, but she would pin Daisy down and then mouth her head or anything else she could grab hold of. I think it worried us more than Daisy, as she'd be up and tearing around as soon as we'd separated them. They love each other to bits, and this behaviour is never repeated in the house, just when out and about and excitement levels are high.