My corgi is attacking
Yep, my little 11 mo old corgi has attacked my 12 yo Sheltie again. The first time Stormie (Sheltie) ended up having major surgery to repair his neck. This time it wasn't as severe with just one bite mark on his neck. Here's a little history...we rescued Stormie about 8 1/2 yrs ago and he became a member of our family which included 2 other Shelties. One passed away due to old age and the other ran under our golf cart as it was moving. Our 11yo daughter was absolutely devastated and we ended up getting Sassy as 41/2 mo puppy. Yeah, I know we should have waited and dealt with the grieving process but we didn't. Sassy adapted to our family right from the start understanding that my husband was the alpha in the family. Last Nov, we discovered that Stormie had been attacked and thought at the time it was due to food agression. We kept them separated especially at meal times and everything seemed to be going great until today. We managed a self storage facility and the dogs are allowed access to our office from the residence. A couple was renting a unit and the wife and their young daughter were playing with Sassy. Stormie walked up and wanted affection as well. Within a heartbeat, Sassy had him pinned down by the throat and of course, Stormie was yelping. We broke it up and put Sassy in her crate. Then we took Stormie to the vet who prescribed antibiotics and a pain pill. When we described the situation, she said that Stormie may have missed some cues from Sassy to back off and that may be because he's blind in one eye and is deaf.
Ok, now that my tale has been told, any thoughts from any one???
Ok, now that my tale has been told, any thoughts from any one???
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by brooke on
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one of my family's corgis (toby) started to do that to another one of our dogs (bear, a bichon frise) when he got older. we thought that the bichon was missing the cues too b/c he was going blind and half deaf. think it's also a way that younger dogs start trying to take over dominance as other dogs get older. it was really scary at times though!
my mom took toby to the dr. too and found that he had hip dysplasia and was pretty constantly irritated b/c of the pain from that which contributed to the attacks. he was put on some pain medicine, which i think helped.
mom also has a profile on this site, if you want to know more just contact her...she'll be happy to share! here's the link to her page:
http://www.mycorgi.com/profile/ebmom
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Permalink Reply by ebmom on
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It was very scary when Toby attacked - I really felt that he was attacking to kill. There was no warning, Toby attacked the bichon as soon as they walked in the door. Toby was contained by an invisible fence. He was so friendly that everyone in the neighborhood would stop to visit or bring their dog to visit. I became afraid that Toby might attack another dog, or worse, a child. The vet actually put Toby on an antidressant for a few months which seemed to help, but we never left the two alone again. We made sure that they did not get close enough for an attack to happen again (twice was more than enough).
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Permalink Reply by Lauren on
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Abby corners Megan. bit her once btu megan bit her back...not hard but enough to say, "hey dont do that!" we use the command "leave her" when we see her going after megan, and she runs into her crate. i have read a little about it and like in the wild the younger dogs in the pack would eliminate the oldest, and weekest because they caused a risk to the rest of the family, such as slowing them down and atrackting predetors, so some dogs never got rid of this instict
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Permalink Reply by Sam on
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My first recommendation would be to take an obedience class with Sassy. Seems like she could stand to learn to be respectfully in the company of other dogs. I think it may do you well to learn about dogs body language and how to recognize "trigger" behaviors and how to correct them. I would also highly suggest you learn about the NILF or nothing in life is free program. Sounds like Sassy has issues with being possessive. It is almost a given that corgis will be possessive about food. By now showing you that she is starting to possess people this is a major red flag that she is taking over the environment. When a dog warns another dog a growl and nip may take place. A full out attack is beyond a warning and truly a sign of dominance aggression. When the attack is severe you can bet it will happen again if the circumstances warrant it. True that there may have been a warning and the senior dog did not pick up on it but this is pretty a pretty severe display of behavior from such a young dog. I would say you have some challenging times ahead and must not leave these dogs together unsupervised. Avoid situations that would involve food, special treats and toys. Start the NILF program immediately. Do also remember when a dog acts out in this fashion it should be corrected immediately. Dogs do need to learn what is acceptable and what is not. By only removing the dog and putting her in the crate only separates the dogs but does not convey the message that the behavior is unacceptable.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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That IS scary. There has to be an immediate conscequence to any kind of aggressiveness from her. If you hit her it'll just make her more aggressive but I wouldn't think twice about doing WHATEVER it took to get her off the other dog in that life or death situation. I think you got to look for the signs she's going to attack or just know her habits and how she'll react beforehand and let her know VERY firmly she is not the boss of the home and has no right disciplining the other dogs or possibly even trying to kill them from the sounds of it. I know people wont' agree with me when I say to do whatever it takes. I mean if you have to punt her across the room to keep her from ripping out your other dogs throat do what you gotta do sister. I think you have a serious dominance/agression problem here that is going to get out of hand you if don't put the rules down for her. Not that you haven't tried but I just hate to think of a dog getting killed over another ones out of control behavior. Just do whatever it takes before something terrible happens whether it's training by a professional, or keeping them seperated or whatever. You just got to let her know you're the boss not her-not physically because like I said, it'll make her meaner but in a way dogs understand. Watch the dog whisperer and get some tips from the pros. Good luck!!
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Permalink Reply by Billy on
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Unfortunately I think some Corgi's just have a tendancy to be very dominate. I have a 5yo male and as an only dog he is beyond well behaved, he is lovely with children, he is obident and calm however as I recently learned when I moved in with my boyfriend and his much larger German Pointer, he has a button that can be pushed.... Billy starting attacking the much larger dog with greater frequancy as time went on. At first I could see the 'cue's' and step in but eventually it became at any moment. I worked with a dog behaviorist to determine why Billy would do this and it basically came down to my authority over him. Billy had to learn that I was in charge, not my boyfriend, me. We have made progress but it's not a perfect situation. Good luck.
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Permalink Reply by Lorna L. Chain on
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I wondered if you had had any luck with Sassy and her aggressiveness. We are having similar problems with our 2 1/2 yr old female corgi, Radar. We also have a 3 1/2 yr old male corgi named Rolo and they have gotten into some nasty fights. Radar is the aggressive one and starts all this stuff. Rolo is much bigger and really has hurt her in the last couple of fights. They lock onto each others necks and if it wasn't for their heavy coat, I think the injuries could be fatal. We try to break them up which can be risky since we might get hurt but we don't want them to kill each other. If our efforts fail to break them up they don't quit until they are totally exhausted. After that they both go in their kennels for an extended time.
Most of the fights are over a chew toy or something of that nature. We feed them with a gate in between and have taken away all the treats thinking that would keep them from fighting. We also put Radar on a mood stablizer but that did not work either. They got into a fight last week over what appeared to be nothing and we are at our wits end over this. It really stresses the whole family and the kids are so afraid we are gonna have to give her away if we can't solve this.
Any help you can lend would be great! Hope you have solved your problems!
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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Obedience classes are a HUGE help! It never hurts to take more than one series of them. My corgi Sparty tends to be dominant and we have taken many refresher classes over the years. When we recently moved my son's dog into our house we knew it would be difficult because Sparty never liked her. Keeping a leash on in the house allows almost immediate control over a situation. I watched for the Stare that meant Sparty was about to strike and grabbed the leash and said NO to end it. I also insisted that Misty( son's dog) did not run around the house because it was obvious that Sparty really disliked that. She can run outside(did I mention that she is a big doberman). At first it seemed like I had Sparty leashed all the time but now he responds well with just a no. It did help that Misty is totally not aggressive. These dogs are 10 Sparty and 7 Misty so it proves you can correct the situation. Good luck! (Cesaer has some good shows on how to recognize impending aggression. His DVD can be rented. But classes and a leash work best.
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Thanks for your advice. We have some good places here that keep them for an extended period of time which may be a solution. Do you think a week long class is a good way to go or should they be immersed in it for a long period of time? The school I have in mind is kinda pricey but we will do anything to get us all trained.
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I would look for a class you can attend with her. Usually the instructor will evaluate your dog prior to classes. Either your vet or local Humane Society will have good suggestions. Remember there is nothing wrong with leashing your dog for a while so that they walk around with you in the house. It helps remind them who is supposed to be in charge.
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Permalink Reply by Maxine Stone on
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I had the same problem with one of my corgis, also went after my small sheltie. She didn't need surgery on her neck. She bit back at the corgis back, but didn't break her skin. I finally had to rehome one of my corgis back in February. I hope you had better luck with your pack.
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thanks! We are going to look into some training options
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