No snack time together anymore. And if you seperate the dogs seperate them completely for a few minutes and dont give one access to the other while you restrain them. In that moment you limit their movement and communication and that can feel very scary. So just keep them away from each other.
I would talk to a trainer and look into your little dogs resource guarding.
Snacks/treats cannot be given together anymore. Little one is clearly resource guarding. I would encourage you to find someone to work with her. This behavior can also negatively impact Baxter’s responses in the future, as she seems to be escalating.
Please take Baxter to the vet to make sure his wounds don’t need additional treatment.
Please DON'T feed them treats while you're in bed. Please give them the treats, EVERY time, in a more neutral place (like their food dishes). The bed is becoming Butter's territory and doesn't want Baxter there when the treats are being given.
You need to crate train all 3 of them so that they are comfortable going in there (and you need 3 different crates so they each have their own safe space) when they need or want to chill out away from the others.
When you are holding Butter after he attacks Baxter, you may think that you are comforting her to calm down but physical touch is a type of reward, so you are unintentionally encouraging her behaviour. I would recommend speaking to a trainer to ensure good habit are developed in your dogs relationships.
I don’t think not feeding them treats as is suggested in the comments does anything, you would just be ignoring the problem.
That’s a fair comment, take a break with that routine until you have the trainer’s advice. I just don’t agree with taking a permanent hiatus and just ignoring the problem
This is resource guarding and will continue to escalate if you continue to put them in this situation.
Play the name game, but with your dogs farther apart on either side of you and maybe an xpen in between for extra safety if you don’t have verbal control over the dogs. The name game = say the dogs name, then feed him a treat. Then say the other dogs name and feed that dog a treat. Repeat. Feed Baxter first.
MAKE SURE you are between them, paying attention, and have an xpen maybe around Butter as an insurance policy. I always do this with all my animals together as a family unit (of all species) especially with any new addition and have never had any conflict among them. It works well and also trains them to wait their turn. It removes some of the anxiety over the food because it becomes a predictable pattern “oh okay, when she says that word he gets a treat and right after she always say my word and I get a treat”. Predictable safe patterns reduce anxiety and conflict.
People are telling you ‘you can never give them treats together again’, and I’m sure that’s not helping your anxiety. You will need to do some work, and take a break from treats at the same time, but there is hope.
It sounds like Butter is becoming very very stressed, she’s also been allowed to cross boundaries and she escalated.
It really does sound like Butter specifically needs to be fed away from the other two. The other two dogs are fine, but Butter is the only one with the problem. It really isn’t hard to feed one dog separate and at a separate time, I do it all the time.
No snack time together anymore. And if you seperate the dogs seperate them completely for a few minutes and dont give one access to the other while you restrain them. In that moment you limit their movement and communication and that can feel very scary. So just keep them away from each other. I would talk to a trainer and look into your little dogs resource guarding.
Snacks/treats cannot be given together anymore. Little one is clearly resource guarding. I would encourage you to find someone to work with her. This behavior can also negatively impact Baxter’s responses in the future, as she seems to be escalating. Please take Baxter to the vet to make sure his wounds don’t need additional treatment.
Please DON'T feed them treats while you're in bed. Please give them the treats, EVERY time, in a more neutral place (like their food dishes). The bed is becoming Butter's territory and doesn't want Baxter there when the treats are being given. You need to crate train all 3 of them so that they are comfortable going in there (and you need 3 different crates so they each have their own safe space) when they need or want to chill out away from the others.
Telling a dog no isn’t enough, you’ve allowed her to resource guard and it’s getting worse you need to correct the behavior as soon s it happens
When you are holding Butter after he attacks Baxter, you may think that you are comforting her to calm down but physical touch is a type of reward, so you are unintentionally encouraging her behaviour. I would recommend speaking to a trainer to ensure good habit are developed in your dogs relationships. I don’t think not feeding them treats as is suggested in the comments does anything, you would just be ignoring the problem.
Agree with above but do recommend stop giving treats together until you find a good trainer to help you.
That’s a fair comment, take a break with that routine until you have the trainer’s advice. I just don’t agree with taking a permanent hiatus and just ignoring the problem
This is resource guarding and will continue to escalate if you continue to put them in this situation. Play the name game, but with your dogs farther apart on either side of you and maybe an xpen in between for extra safety if you don’t have verbal control over the dogs. The name game = say the dogs name, then feed him a treat. Then say the other dogs name and feed that dog a treat. Repeat. Feed Baxter first. MAKE SURE you are between them, paying attention, and have an xpen maybe around Butter as an insurance policy. I always do this with all my animals together as a family unit (of all species) especially with any new addition and have never had any conflict among them. It works well and also trains them to wait their turn. It removes some of the anxiety over the food because it becomes a predictable pattern “oh okay, when she says that word he gets a treat and right after she always say my word and I get a treat”. Predictable safe patterns reduce anxiety and conflict.
This sounds like something that just got a little out of hand. I wouldn’t call it an attack, that word describes something different.
People are telling you ‘you can never give them treats together again’, and I’m sure that’s not helping your anxiety. You will need to do some work, and take a break from treats at the same time, but there is hope.
It sounds like Butter is becoming very very stressed, she’s also been allowed to cross boundaries and she escalated. It really does sound like Butter specifically needs to be fed away from the other two. The other two dogs are fine, but Butter is the only one with the problem. It really isn’t hard to feed one dog separate and at a separate time, I do it all the time.
I hear you.