Time to put Bear to the test and get her together with her nemesis – her sister Mini.
If you’ve been following Little Bears story, she had some pretty serious behavioural issues. Bear and Mini couldn’t be together at all since the July long weekend when Bear suffered a traumatic event in a local boarding facility. Bear has attacked Mini several times, ripped her ear open, caused scarring around her neck and legs – she’s done a few numbers on her sister. Bear was the aggressor. They had to be kept separate for their own safety and owners with dogs that fight know how painful it can be to rotate dogs for the safety of all.
Throw litter mate syndrome in the garbage.
Since working with Bear, her confidence level has gone through the roof, and that’s what needed to happen to overcome all of these behavioural issues. She was a scared dog, and she had no issues showing it. She could be dangerous to people and other dogs.
Tonite was testing the waters to see if they could actually co-exist together – and they showed they are capable. It was rough starting out, the pulling, the wanting to get to each other. After rewatching all the video, it seems Mini was moreso interested in getting to her owner. Bear really didn’t seem to care that Mini was nearby. When we got them together on the walk, they showed no aggression toward each other, weren’t trying to fight. Mini was a bit standoffish with Bear but kept powering through. We would stop periodically, let them relax and just be around each other. They did great. At some point, we gave Mini what she wanted – her owner. We switched up dogs, I took Bear and the owner took Mini.
I’m not concerned about the pulling on leash at the moment, this isn’t about fixing the leash walking, both dogs already showed they can be relaxed and loose leash on previous walks. This is purely about assessing if they can be together without Bear attacking.
Back in the yard, both dogs were kept on loose leash starting out, but as they showed no aggression, the owner dropped Mini’s leash and let her roam. I kept Bear on a leash – not quite ready to trust her with Mini just yet. There was one trigger where Bear heard something and she stirred up Mini but quickly calmed. Again, Bear showed no aggression at all, both dogs were panting but relaxed. They both went to their owner for affection and neither showed any jealousy. When one daughter came out, she was blown away, nobody believed these dogs could be together.
There is a reason for all aggression, find it, fix it and the aggression disappears. Aggression is only a symptom, the outcome of a problem. That cannot be stressed enough. We didn’t fix Bear’s aggression, we fixed the insecurity that was causing her aggression.
Bear was showing aggression because of fear – lack of trust – and she really had no confidence. All she knew to do was to drive people away. She couldn’t drive me away and once she figured that out, everything changed. Is she perfect? No, but she’s getting there.
I’m always amazed at how many behavioural issues can be walked out of a dog.
Update. Took Bear for a walk last night and reintroduced both dogs together in the back yard. Once everything calmed, we took the leashes off both dogs. They were a little weird together, but no fighting at all. Again, there was a moment when Bear got triggered by a noise, but both dog ran to the fence in tandem, then both calmed with no issues. The owner needs to learn to trust them together.