Cairn Terrier Question

Question
QUESTION: I own 2 Cairn terriers. I got one as a rescue dog about a year and a half ago. He is about 5 years old and very submissive and wouldn't hurt a fly. We found out 3 months ago that he is nearly blind now due to a genetic disease, PRA. Our groomer (she's also a breeder) then gave us a retired showdog of hers as a "seeing eye dog" for him as a gift. She said that this dog needed a new home because she didn't like the big Bouvier de Flanders in their house (but loved the male Cairns), and she'd be perfect since she was an 8 year old female. She really likes the female she gave to us, and gave her to us with very good intentions. She wasn't trying to "pawn her off" on us as it would be easy to read it that way.

We've had her for about 2 months now and just last week my neighbor brought her 2 collies over to our house. I wasn't very comfortable with it, but let them in anyhow. She said she wasn't staying long. But in that time they were there, when I wasn't looking, my 2 Cairns started fighting. From what I can piece together, the female had attacked the blind male and I could not her her to let go of him. It was horrifying and he was bleeding. He now has bite marks on his head and neck, but they're healing fine. He doesn't seem upset.

I don't know what to do or what to make of it. My friend said that all 4 dogs had been looking at a bone together before it started. I finally got her off of him and she was trying to bite me so I crated her for a few hours and she kept whining. He seemed happy immediately.

Then I tried to let her out of her crate hours later and he hid behind me while she charged at him again twice chomping her teeth very hard, so I crated her again until the next morning. I had to go to work, so I kept them separated all day because I was afraid he'd get hurt. She didn't seem to want to let up.

If you have advice for me, please let me know. I don't want to return her to my groomer because I feel like I'm giving up and she really is a sweet dog. But I don't want my blind dog to have a harder time than he already is. And I'm not sure what happened. She kept lungeing at him for a few days (we always stopped her) but has stopped now.

I've been thinking about it and the one idea I had was that maybe she's trying to assert her place in the pack. She needs to be on top and we maybe were confusing her by sometimes letting her be the alpha and sometimes him. So my husband and I have been always making it a point to make her the alpha by feeding her first, letting her out the door first, etc. She's been fine since then it seems. But I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do. Any other thoughts?

Oh -- I should mention that the female is a retired champion show dog and also had some litters of showdogs too. That is part of her history. She lived in 2 houses before ours.

ANSWER: Sarah -

I'm sorry I'm a little late getting back to you, but I am vacationing in Colorado and am just now going through my emails.

It is VERY common for female cairns to need to be in charge, and when faced with the collies, she turned on the weakest dog around.... BUT

I would not place my blind dog at any risk.... I have fostered blind cairns before, and have a partially blind puppymill survivor I am fostering now (from dry eye),  I also recently had one of my fosters adopted as a "seeing eye dog" for another cairn who has PRA.

I hate to say this, but I would return the female right away.  You can explain that she is just not consistently gentle with him, and that you would need a downright super easy going, consistently gentle dog to live with him (I personally believe it is a wonderful idea to get him a buddy).  I mean he could tolerate if the other dog accidentally bumped him once in a while, but being turned on by your "buddy" under any circumstances is pretty rough for a poor blind guy to put up with....

I feel very strongly about my impaired fosters and take great care to make sure they are matched into unusually gentle households (as terrier households go).  The girl I just had adopted as a buddy spent a lot of time cuddling with my current blind foster and would wait for him when they were taking the ramp back into the house.  I knew she would be perfect.... (and in the collie situation might have even been protective of the blind dog)

There seems to be a sensible explanation for her behavior, so I don;t think she deserves any "blame" but rather that it's just not a great match.  Sometimes that's just the way it is....

If you really feel strongly about keeping her, let me know and I will give you some advice about handling her.  Remember, show quality cairns are bred for their attitude not just for their looks and are very very often very alpha.

Please give your special man an extra cuddle for me ~

-Beth

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: We do want to give her, Millie, another chance (although if it were to happen more we would have to reconsider). Schwartz, the male, came to us as incredibly submissive. He has gotten much better after agility classes (when we didn't know about his eyesight), but he still rolls on his back some and also submissively urinates some but not NEARLY as much as when we got him. She is, of course, the opposite but still very sweet.

We'd like to work on keeping her in the family. Could you offer some advice on handling her? I don't want to give up on her as she has found a place in my heart and I don't think she's a "bad" dog. I think she may have had a confusing 8 years and I'd like to give her a nice home for the rest of her life, but not at the cost of Schwartz's health and safety. The point was to help him and not hurt him. And he's seemed a TON more happy and lively since she's been around (the week of her anger excluded). Thanks!

ANSWER: Sarah

The trick with Millie will be to have her recognize that people are in charge all the time and that she needs to mind her Ps and Qs. while still remaining a beloved member of the family and the leader of her "pack"

This link takes you to a description of a system of handling a dog called nothing in life is free.  Many many dogs, and especially terriers, do better as family members once they come to recognize the humans as the true pack leaders.... and I am NOT talking about anything even remotely mean or punitive.

http://www.cairnrescue.com/docs/NILIF.pdf

I suspect that with some consistency in both her living situation and your expectations of her, she may relax and be happier.

I also believe all cairn owners should read this, and it will be a lot more applicable to Millie....

http://www.cairnrescue.com/general/index.htm#toto

As for your little man, I bet he loved agility - I have been doing it with my jack russell and he loves it.  PRA is a progressive disease... Has he gone completely blind yet?  Poor little man

-Beth

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: That first website is great! It made me think a lot about how Millie insists on jumping on the bed and won't get off. She also is always the first out the door too. We had to teach her how to "sit" when we got her 2 months ago, so that will take some work, but she knows how to do that now. We've been working on getting her to take her treats nice because she would bite our hands hard when we gave them to her. She's getting MUCH better, but we have to work on it still.

I had read the 2nd website before we got Schwartz. The funny thing is that he seems to act about the opposite of everything I expected from a Cairn and everything I had heard. She is much more "Cairn-ish" than him. I'm not sure why. But regarding his PRA, the doctor said he had about 10% of his retina left when we took him to the opthimologist 4 months ago, so I imagine it's a little worse now. He is blind in dim light and at night, and has limited tunnel vision in very bright light. That's why he had lots of trouble in agility class (I didn't know why at the time). But it did give him much more confidence to take those classes, which helped with the submissiveness. He's terrified of stairs and bumps into things and can't find treats or food on the floor, but he seems happy.

I have appreciated your help. You've been more helpful than anybody I've talked to so far and anything I've read. Thank you.

Answer
Sarah -

Actually, both those links are from the same web page )and the cairn rescue that I am a foster parent for and for whom I mentor other foster homes).

Maybe some obedience for Mr. Schwartz ??  It's not about the obedience itself, it's all about the confidence... I had an english setter foster who was super dupr shy and even fear aggressive if men pushed themselves on him.  After only a few classes he was approaching men of his own volition and he now lives very very happily in New York City and greets everyone with confidence and happiness.... And I didn;t do anything special to help him - just go to some classes !

How about earthdog ??  Schwartz does not need to see anything to follow a scent trail into a tunnel ! Sight is actually a hindrance to my JRT

Mill Millie is going to be all about consistence (within reason of course)... Terriers (especially my own jack russell) often watch for a weak spot to work on to get their way ... as a friend said, you need to out-terrier the terrier.

In fact, the friend who is dog sitting while I am away first tried to sell Connor to a neighbor, and then the next day offered the neighbor money to take him !! (He's a real rascal)

-Beth