She is now settle in, comfortable, and feeling like a member of the family.

That is very great to hear.

Many thanks for the update and big hugs to your two furry ones. They sound like a happy and contented pair.

More than anything, I think time has been the key. She is now settle in, comfortable, and feeling like a member of the family.

I appreciate your help.

After some time though, we all settled into a comfortable routine, and each dog likes spending time with each other, as well as with their people.

he seems to have gone from our happy, silly playful pup who has a real personality to a really quiet cuddly dog who doesn’t like playing with us as much anymore.

Is he still as energetic as before, but just spending a bunch of his energy on his new friend? Has anything else changed, for example with his appetite? When did you rescue the Lab? Has she gone for her vet checkup?

A new dog will usually create changes in routine and behavior for everyone in the family. Here are some things that help with my dogs -
1. I make sure that everyone is healthy and that the changes are not a result of any physical issue.
2. I set up a new routine as soon as possible, and set up consistent interaction rules. Changes in routine can cause uncertainty and stress in dogs. Setting up a consistent schedule and rules will help to reduce uncertainty, and show everyone what to expect.
3. Both Shania and Lara are very food focused, so we do a lot of fun activities together involving food. I follow the Nothing in Life is Free program with all of my dogs.

Big hugs to your two pups!

I supervise all of their play sessions, even now. During play, they are in a highly excited state, and that is when they are most likely to lose their self-control. With my dogs, it really helps to always manage their excitement level and frequently refocus their attention into working for me.

Based on what you describe, it is difficult to tell what is triggering the aggression. Probably best to get help from a professional trainer who can observe the dogs, read their body language, as well as observe their environment and routine.

I took Bradley and Bella to my brother’s house (he has a docile female yellow lab, who both my dogs have been around, before). All three dogs were running and playing in the yard for quite a while, then we brought them into the house. Bradley and Bella began staring each other down, and began fighting… I mean REALLY fighting. Blood was drawn; and I had to physically separate them. They calmed down, relaxed for a few minutes; then went at it again. I brought them home in separate vehicles and observed them throughout the night. There was no repeat of the aggressive behavior… until this afternoon. The same behavior occurred. I separated them until they settled down, then let them meet each other again. They’re laying down together on the couch with me, right now, like nothing happened. It’s like Dr. Jeckyl and Mrs. Hyde. I’m sickened by their extremely violent interactions and very concerned about how to stop this behavior. Please help.

Congratulations on your new Husky puppy.

Here are some things that helped when I first got Husky Lara -
1. I made sure to set clear dog-to-dog interaction rules. Absolutely no stealing and absolutely no bullying.

2. I am always there to supervise puppy closely, especially during meal-times and play-time. I make sure that each dog has enough space to work on their own interactive toy. If Sephy or Shania gets close to puppy’s comfort space, I body-block them away so that nothing gets started and the dogs know that I am there to protect them and enforce meal-time rules. I do the same thing if puppy gets too close to my other dogs’ comfort space.

3. I put a drag-lead on puppy when she is roaming about (only with a flat collar and only under supervision). This allows me to easily control her movements and teach her how to interact politely with my other dogs. I also put a drag-lead on Sephy when I first got Lara.

The key with introducing Lara, is to set everyone up for success. I want to maximize positive interactions among my dogs (e.g. through group obedience training) and minimize negative interactions (by using play-breaks, and being proactive about interaction rules, as well as meal-time and play-time manners).

Prevention is much better than cure. I manage and prevent, so that my dogs learn that I handle conflicts, and they need not do it themselves.

I talk more about what I did in the article above.

We have a 6 month old male Siberian Husky Zeus, his been an absolute champ with training and everything else and had him since he was a puppy:) We just recently got a 7 week female puppy as we felt he was just ‘too alone’. Unfortunately Zeus seems very protective over everything and we had an incident where he went for Maya because she got to close to his unfinished food, and basically ended in tears for her as he seemed to have really hurt her. We keep the under constant supervision, yet all he can seem interested in is Maya and being a big brut with her. We feed them separate unfortunately Maya is slower to eat and Zeus wants to be stingy and eat hers and then lands up not eating his food. We try give equal amount of attention but our male feels overpowered by this little munchkin. What is the best solution for this?

Thanks
Dani

One thing that helped Sephy with his Greenie is that we let him work on it at night, in his crate, with the door closed. In the beginning, we also showed him that we have another Greenie in reserve that we are keeping for him, so if he loses this one, he will get another. Once he learned that we have more of the stuff that we are keeping safe for him, he was able to relax and work on it.

With bully sticks, what has helped is to give him much smaller pieces. Then he can finish it in one sitting and he does not feel like he has to hide it for later.

Sephy gets stressed over items that-
1. He cannot finish in one sitting.
2. Is rare – he does not get it every day.
3. Is highly desirable – e.g. chewy, smelly edibles, like bully sticks.

We also try to give him things that do not fall into this space, so that he can better enjoy his rewards without worrying about getting a safety deposit box . I think it is the same with people and things like expensive jewelry; it often creates more worry than anything else.

What kind of toys and bones does Merlin protect? Is it everything, or just very specific things?

He is not aggressive when it comes to guarding his food, but is very anxious/eager to get food. We are working on making sure that he is calm when he is fed. The problem we are having is with his “things”. Merlin has always been VERY protective with his toys and bones. At times, he will pack as many things in his mouth as he can and run around whining. He has never guarded his things from people, just Rex. We make sure that Rex doesn’t steal and gives Merlin the time to play with toys and chew on his bones. Merlin, however, will growl and “scream” at Rex even though he is unprovoked.

How do we handle this? I feel like if I take the item because he’s responding this way, I’ll teach him that it’s me that he needs to guard against, but I can’t continue to let him behave this way.