Posesivo Basenji attacking Rott pup she grew up with
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Help.I need help. My basenji has gone crazy. She is 7 years old and I have a rott pup about a year old who grew up together. When the rott had her first heat the basenji went insane and started attacking her. She has gone full posesive with me and she will break out of where she is to attack no other dog but my rott. I fear for her life since the rott will not attack back except to defend herself and the basenji will not stop. Even if she ended up unconscious she will wake up and keep going. I live in Costa Rica and basenjis are non existent... I have them separated but it has become impossible to contain the basenji. If I put her in a kennel she will destroy her paws and drive the neighbors insane trying to rip the cement to get out (I built them huge cages to try and contain the situation). All I can do is rotate them when I can. The vets here say I have to put her down since she has gotten aggressive with me when I touch the rott. Please if anybody knows anything help! She's my baby I refuse to put her down or get rid of either of them. FYI no one will adopt her do to her basenji character.
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This is very common in households with two intact bitches unfortunately. It's why a lot of the time people in the basenji breed recommend opposite sex parings for pet homes. I know of several people who have to constantly rotate dogs that don't get along. I know that's not something I could do because of the size of my house and the stress it would put both me and the dogs though. Spaying them might help since the issues started with the rottie's heat cycle. You didn't mention if the basenji was still intact or not.
Hiring an in home trainer could help. They would be able to see the dogs in their own environment and figure out a way to keep them both safe.
I know you don't want to do this but it might be in the best interest of your girls to re-home one of them. Like you said, your rottie is trying to defend herself and could easily hurt your basenji due to her size. I had a friend who had to make this decision and it was hard on her and her family but it was the right one for both dogs. Her small terrier was so aggressive towards her massive Irish wolfhound he was afraid to go outside. Re-homing the terrier made both of them happy.. he has a family where he can be top dog and the wolfhound feels safe again. It's not an easy decision.
Do you have family that could take your rottie girl? Try a trial sepperation and see how it goes? -
Agree with CrazySenji.... two bitches is not a good choice. Sometimes it works, but once bitches start fighting, rarely if ever can you get them to live in peace. I had that happen with my oldest girl and a girl I kept from one of my litters. After her first season she decided that she hated my oldest...... She was rehomed and lived a wonderful life with her daughter as she was the top bitch over her daughter
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@nikikob hi thanks, the basenji was spayed 2 months ago the vet say to try it and see if it would help. Unfortunately I can't re home my Rottie since they are highly feared here and she is a full working dog with complete training and we imprinted when she was very young. The basenji is not easy to put up for adoption either cause when I rescued her as a pup she seems to have been abused by men and hates any man who comes to the house...other than the fact that she will hunt anything she sees and climb anything and everything to get out. My country is really complicated because they expect dogs to be like labs and I fear she will be tied up to a tree somewhere in a farm and forgotten. I have gotten in contact with people here who help adopt dogs and they have refused both of them. They are both my babies and I want to try everything possible to keep them together...
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I understand the issues of finding a good home there. You said the basenji is spayed, but have you spayed the Rottie since it may help as she seems to have been the precipitating event. I have a friend in Costa Rica that might short term foster for you, but that's not going to help. If you are up to working on desensitizing, you may be able to turn it around. It will mean keeping her on a leash at all times so you can control her. But mostly it means you have got to stop her guarding you cold turkey. Nothing in life is free is a program to retrain your dog (and yourself) in who is in charge.
Although this is about dogs chasing cats, the training is pretty much the same. Control the dog, treat for ignoring the rottie. Over and over and over until seeing the rottie equals food/praise not fight
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I want to thank you all for the tips. I haven't spayed my Rottie and I was hoping to avoid that. Today we tried some of the websites tips and we took them out to neutral ground and had treats. I did basic training with the rottie while my friend had the basenji. Unfortunately I think the idea with treats didn't work because the basenji completely ignored us and only focused on the food bag. Plus she knew she had the leash and is very good with the leash cause she hates it tugging on her. I got them about 4/5 feet close as it was the first time... I'm not sure if I should get them closer I'm afraid. There is a behavior instructor here someone recommended and hope he will meet me soon he's full right now. I'm noticing the rottie gets more excited when she sees the basenji on the leash than vice versa. I'm not sure if that's because she wants to play or she's seeing the basenji as an enemy now since the basenji has attacked her about 5 times.
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@nikikob - Wish you luck, but I fear to say that things are going to go badly. When bitches fight, 99.9% of the time you will never get them back together and while it might work for a while, when the "mood" hits... the fights become worse and worse.
