territorial dog

Question
Hi! I just recently brought home a 2 year old Alaskan Malamute/Siberian Huskey (she's mixed) and already had a Pommapug at home, she's about 5 years old. Our Pommapug has always been friendly to dogs outside the house, so I assumed she'd be okay with a new one around. However, she throws a huge fit when she sees the Huskey. The Huskey lived with a family that had a small dog and a couple cats, and she never showed any aggression. She hasn't shown any aggression to our Pommapug or anyone in the house. It seems that the Pommapug is just territorial, doesn't want a new lady running the house. Do you have any advice on how to get our Pommapug use to our Huskey? The couple times we've tried to let them sniff at eachother, our Pommapug just barks, growels and tries to bite her. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer
Hi, Danielle,

It sounds to me like your Pom/pug needs a little time adjusting to having a new pack member. I think you're right to call the behavior "territorial" in a way, because it sounds like she feels the new dog is a "rival," which is different from being a pack mate.

My main suggestion would be to take them on long walks together, on the leash, in as natural a setting as possible, so that they can get a sense of walking side-by-side as if they're out on a hunting expedition together.

I live and work in New York City, and we have this phenomenon here of "pack walkers," dog walkers who walk up to 20 dogs at a time. I've been observing these packs for years and noticed that the bigger the pack, the less aggression each dog will show toward other dogs on the street. I also occasionally board some of my clients' dogs, and if they have aggression issues, I'll always take the dog for a walk with my dog before I board them. Walking together seems to make the dogs feel emotionally connected, the way a real wolf pack does when they travel together. Remember, the key feature of the wolf pack is that they hunt together in a cooperative and harmonic manner. Traveling together, in a pack, reinforces feelings of solidarity and camaraderie that are vitally important when they find large prey animals to hunt. Walking two or more dogs together seems to imitate or simulate that same kind of feeling in them.

My only other suggestion would be to praise the Pom/pug whenever she starts to feel nervous. This isn't done to reward her behavior but to change her underlying feeling state from nervous aggression to happy, social feelings. Praise works as a reward because it makes a dog feel happy and emotionally connected to its owners. And it's hard to act aggressive when you feel happy and emotionally connected. (If you'd like a further explanation on how praise works to change a dog's feeling states, you can go to this link and read an article about it: http://www.tiny.cc/praise622 You should also praise both dogs continuously when you take them on long walks together.

Give them a few weeks and I think the Pommapug will start to like the husky.

Just a side note, does your Pom/pug have the pricked ears of a Pomeranian or the flat ears of a pug, or something in between?

LCK