Brother and Sister Chugs

Posted by long12u
Jan 17, 2010
Tailchasing and aggressive behavior

:confused:

We have got a brother and sister Chugs (Chihuahua and Pug mix) and the female is constantly chasing her tail and her brother starts barking at her then the fight is on. We often get bit when breaking them up. They also go nuts when anyone comesover. We have to put them in another room and the tail chasing and fighting sometimes starts. When the grandchildren come they go nuts for a little while then settle down. How do I get them to stop this? The female seems to be hard headed and still wants to run out the front door and around yard and sometimes into highway before we can corner her. She also really wants to get upset when we wake and move her. They were both victims of disfunctional familys, they were passed around a couple of familys. Their mother died when they were two days old and we got the female at 5 weeks and the male at 7 weeks and she is hardon him and sometimes wont let him eat or finishes hers and nudges him away from his bowl. She is way smaller and has more chihuahua in her and her brother seems to have more pug. You can't not love 'em cause they are otherwise so sweet and cute!!They seem to do well with sit and working on stay, love to play ball and do drop fair. But she is the queen and he never get's to bring it back unless she's not around. We are always home with them and rarely leave them alone. They get mad then and try to chew up the wooden objects and baseboards, any paper is everywhere in bits. We also have a wild cat (not a wildcat!)that they play with and all 3 of them lay real close and sun! And they are 8 months old now. Any ideas?
Posted by kjd
Jan 17, 2010
long12u,

It was very good of you to take in the two orphans. You have a nice pack there. However, who do you think is the pack leader? Who do you think should be the pack leader?

First, stop feeling sorry for them. They may have been orphaned at an early age; they may have been passed from home to home; now they have a forever home and are lucky dogs. Had these been two mastiffs or even two labs, I doubt you would have put up with such antics for so long!

Read the "Secrets of Dog Training" on how to become the alpha (leader) of your pack. You can find some short descriptions of it in many of the answers on this forum. Once they realize the pack structure has changed, they will feel more secure and will calm down.

Let us know how things are going,
kjd
Posted by crazycrayonmom
Jan 17, 2010
I would definitely agree with KJD. Especially the parts about going through doors first and feeding the dogs in their pack order. Dogs are really resilient and once they are in a good home they will forget all about the early bad stuff. They truly know how to live in the moment.

I would also like to suggest you do some obedience training right away. I don't know if you've ever done it before, if you haven't it may be a good idea to go to a class. You and your husband could each take a dog. I love group classes for the extra socialization the dogs get too.

The things I would work on first are the sit, stay and a really good recall. Since your little girl likes to scoot out the door on you, a good recall would be very important. Best of luck with your pack!
Posted by kjd
Jan 18, 2010
crazycrayonmom,

I totally agree with you about group classes. They are great for socialization and the dogs learn from watching the other dogs. The people learn from watching the other people. And the dogs get 50 minutes or so when their people are concentrating on them. Builds a great bond. To me,it is a win-win situation.
kjd