[ Post a Response | Rhodesian Ridgebacks And Friends ]
Posted by Elizabeth
on September 1, 2009, 9:45 am
209.81.106.28
We have been seeing some interesting behaviors emerge from our 19 month old, intact male pup and would be interested in hearing what others think and how they would interpret what we are seeing.
Background- we also have an 8yo spayed female Lab; an 8yo nuetered male RR; and 7yo nuetered male RR. Pup is absolutely the baby of the family. When visitors come to our house, the three older dogs start their usual barking frenzy to announce the event, but I am pretty sure that Pup has never barked at any of these times- he leaves that to the elders. He is not aggressive at all, and has a very sweet, kind, happy disposition all the time. Loves all people and thinks that wherever we go, everyone else there has come just to see him, pet him, play with him, and love on him- and he eats it up, lol.
On the other hand- he isn't a complete wimp, and has never shown any outward fear (except the first couple of times that he saw our Amish neighbors- they bathe weekly, so they smell "different" to the dogs, and they wear straw hats which Pup had to get used to).
Pup is very bonded with me. I train him, show him, hunt with him, feed him more often than hubby does, he goes on trips with me if I am away from home, and every morning after hubby gets up and feeds the dogs, they all come back to bed with me for an hour or so of cuddling and "bonding" time.
So, a few weeks ago one of our ducks hatched a clutch of eggs. I took the ducklings away from her and put them in a brooder. We raise a couple of batches of chickens every year for meat, and we always start them ut in the same brooder. Because Pup is my bird hunting dog I am always a little nervous that he will try to "hunt" my birds, so I show them to him, let him sniff them, and tell him several times "leave it"; "not for puppies"; "Mommy's chickies", "MINE"; etc. as I load them into the brooder. He is always interested, maybe a little excited, but he calms down pretty quickly and has never bothered any of them. I did the same thing with the ducklings, and once he got over his excitement, he seemed okay with them.
The next day when I went out to feed and water them, the dogs were trailing along. Pup had to stand next to the brooder checking things out while I turned around to get the feed. The next thing I knew, I heard Pup growling at Tsavo, our 7yo male RR. I thought it was weird, because he has never done that before, but then, as I watched, Pup ran Tsavo away from the brooder. While I stood there trying to figure out what had just happened, he did it again. And then, a third time, after which Tsavo got mad and jumped on the Pup. It wasn't a full-on fight, more of a "get out of my face you impudent little whelp" kind of thing, on Tsavo's part. My husband heard the noise and ran out and seperated them while I was still standing, dumbfounded, watching them.
The second incident took place a few days ago. hubby and I were out in the yard with the dogs, and we lay down on the grass. Pup came over and lay next to me. When Tsavo also came over, we heard Pup whine- a sort of high-pitched whine which we have never heard before- he almost sounded distressed- definitely not a growl. Then, as Tsavo got closer, Pup jumped up and barked at him. I don't think he growled at all- can't remember exactly, but he barked for sure and ran Tsavo away from us. This happened a few more times until we put a stop to it.
Any thoughts on what is going on with these types of incidents?
Thanks,
Elizabeth Williams
Tchaka
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