Growling

sian sparrow

Our two bull terriers are both girls and the older one who is 3 years old has started acting agressivelly toward the other one who has just turned one it seemed to coincide with the younger one being spayed the young one is also deaf. We have had the 3 year old for two years and the one year old for 9 months both are good natured and have got on upto now. What is going on?

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07 Nov 2010 17:24

sian sparrow

Thanks that has really helped she has stopped

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28 Oct 2010 17:28

Cat the Vet

Hi Sian,

This could be a difficult problem to solve and not one I can do over the internet. However, I may be able to help you.

Up until they are about a year old or so, young dogs will be viewed by older ones as juvenile and treated accordingly. This means that they are effectively treated as children and adult dogs are much more tolerant of their behaviour, just as we are with kids. However, once they reach maturity this attitude is no longer maintained and the older dogs will start to treat them as adults and expect them to behave as such. This means that there can be some growling or snapping at the younger dog to put them in their place but it rarely escalates into serious violence. It may also be that as the younger one is deaf she isn´t picking up on the more subtle signals and the older one is having to make her message more clear than normal.

If things don´t improve then the best thing to do is to chat to your vet and seek the advice of a professional pet behaviourist. The best can be found via the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors website (www.apbc.co.uk).

Cat