Help with alpha female dog...

[TBRedHead]

Im just trying to get ideas, recracking open the training books tomorrow and starting in on Patricia McConnells new DVD.

I have an extremely alpha female border collie, if she got into the wrong hands it could be disastrous because she has the potential to run the house hold. I’m able to keep her in check, but my mom (who is retired and has the dogs during the day) has a hard time with her. She’s an incredibly pleasant dog, she loves humans, is perfect with children, guards and herds all day, no matter how exhausted she is, until I’m home and/or it’s sleep time. Tonight she was going down the slides at the playground with a 8 year old neighbor kid, she’s the ideal family dog in that sense.

But there is that joking truth that you don’t do anything without her permission, and everything is ran by her before you make a move. My Labrador has zero issues with her, he’s extremely submissive, and let’s her do whatever while he does his lab stuff. The problem is with my newest, a 1.5 year old Kelpie, before this we had an ACD who she was fine with most of the time, unless it was our cuddle time. Anyways, the new Kelpie is a fresh rescue + still extremely puppyish, she still has a lot of that nervous energy, she hasn’t settled down into her new life, but I’ve only had her 3 months. Katie manners her, which is fine, but then it gets taken too far. Teasa grabbing the chicken off someone’s lap so she can play with said human, grabbing chips out of a bag, over herding the chickens, that’s an understandable mannering. But if we’re trying to control her, Katie gets in the middle and over does it. For instance tonight the new pup was racing up and down the stairs at sleep time, I kept yelling at her to come lay down, and she made the huge mistake of jumping on Katie’s face, which should be a polite mannering, but turned into an all dog fight with Teasa loosing. This has happened before, and it’s starting to happen around food (Katie was found on the streets btw, and I think Teasa was too? Teasa was very obviously kicked around by someone before I got her), where they are both standing at the BBQ drooling, and Katie decides she has had enough of Teasa being there. I was told to time out, so I normally put her alone in the laundry room, but tonight she got put outside, which in my family is not something we do for a non LGD.

They get along GREAT for the most part, they are partners in crime and Teasa has learned everything (good and bad) from Katie, which is great for her confidence. But this whole attacking thing? Not ok. I have no idea what to do now.

[Houdini1220]

Both my girls will “get involved” if they feel the other is being “bad”. My one girl is the alpha of the two, but I have to say, even the submissive one will do this to the alpha sometimes. I have really been trying to solidify my voice commands. I want “leave it” to mean “leave it right now” and not just to an object. If my girls are starting to physically push eachother around in a way that I know could start a fight I tell one to “leave it”. They know this means walk away. I quickly try to assess who is doing the pushing and specifically tell that one leave it, using her name. I did the training with name integration. I find it has more of an effect when I use the dog’s name with the command. When the dog listens I praise, praise, praise. If she starts to go over to the other dog again I stop praising and repeat the leave it command. When she does I praise again.
It is very helpful to also have a good firm “sit” taught. What I found was I would be praising the one dog for listening to leave it and the other dog would come over to get praise…which obviously defeats the purpose of trying to get them to stop interacting in that moment. So sometimes I have to alternate saying “sit”…“good sit” to one and “leave it” and praising the other. Again I try to use their names. It is tough and I feel like a freak sometimes. Timing is so important and it is hard when you are trying to keep track of two dogs at once.
I also have them crate trained, so if I feel a lot of tension between the two of them I will (in a positive way) tell them to go in their crates. They tend to relax in them since I consistently use them every day. Obviously this only works if the dogs view the crate as a safe space. Sometimes I will even take one at a time outside and do some play or voice command work with each individually outside. I find my girls need time appart sometimes. I’m also lucky that my parents live downstairs from me, so sometimes I’ll drop one off for a play date to give them some time appart.
I don’t know if you can ever make the competition go away, maybe sometimes it does. For me I just do a lot to try and keep competition down. When we give treats my alpha ALWAYS get the treat first. When I’m letting them through the door my aplha ALWAYS goes through first. Nyla bones are only given when they are crated so they can’t fight over them. Toys are only used during supervised playtimes so they can’t fight over them.

[threedogpack]

Honestly the Border Collie would not get to make decisions about when the KelpieX gets disciplined or by who.

If the BC started, she’d get put in a time out on a tie away from the other dog and I’d be working .both. dogs on self control behaviors and deference work. I’d also work very hard on a quick “lie down” and distance behavior(s) like go to your mat or get in that crate from across the room

[TBRedHead]

Thanks guys! I had forgotten dogs 101, not allowed to do without your say. So she’s not allowed on furniture with asking, and if she sleeps with me she’s not allowed up by head. She’s not allowed to be pet/loved until we say so, not allowed to eat until we say so, etc. I made sure my mom and her roommates got this speech, and they agreed to reinforce it when they had her. Her roommates son (7) walks her nightly, and saw how awful she regressed when he didn’t walk her for two nights (not his problem, she’s my dog, but he’s practicing on her until he gets his cattle dog puppy), so he’s super determined to walk her nightly and work through some leash issues with her Which just reinforces everything were trying to do even more.