6 month old RR mix plays too rough with our Pit Bull!

[pg60]

Hi,

We have a recently adopted RR mix puppy (now 6 months old) who we are integrating into our pack of (now) 5 Shepard/Lab/Pit mixes.

I've got a lot to learn on this board but I thought I'd post about our only real problem so far to see what you guys think.

Overall everything has been going great, the new RR mix Eddie watches and learns from the other dogs and responds appropriately to their signals to start/stop play.  Eddie is OK with humans too, a little too much bitey-bitey but not bad for a teething pup.

The problem is Eddie's play with our 5 year old Pit Bull mix.  Eddie the RR mix harasses the Pit Bull mix with aggressive ankle & ear bites and won't stop.  He seems to be picking on the PB a bit, it's play for sure but in this game the PB is most definitely the prey.  The PB tries to get him to stop but also sends mixed signals like bobbing her head and running away (chase me! chase me!).    They are off the leash in a big field.

I'd love it if the PB just put the RR pup in his place like our other dogs have.  They tell Eddie when they've had enough and he listens.  But the PB is such a wuss I don't think that's going to happen.  If I try to guard her and block his attacks, it just makes the game more fun for him.

The only thing that works so far is for me to get Eddie the RR mix pup into calm submissive state (that part has gone great!), and then leash him.  Take the fun away if he can't behave.

But I worry that he will see the leash as punishment.  While he is great on the leash he is relentless once I let him go.  We are fortunate to have 500 acres of nature preserve behind our house where we can let our dogs run off leash, so Eddie needs to learn to behave off the leash.  It's definitely play and not real fighting.  But even at 6 months he is a strong, fast boy who easily overpowers the PB mix.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Here's Eddie at a local spring


Here's his target, sweetest PB ever...

[kitoyogi]

Some Ridgebacks can become obsessive about other dogs for whatever reason.  Try using a soaker squirt gun on him when he harasses her.  It's okay if he associates that as a negative because that is exactly what you want.  The ideal outcome will be when all you have to do is show him the squirt gun to prevent the behavior.  I've only met one RR that this did not work on, most have a huge respect for anything that sprays water.  The nice thing about the soaker is you can do it from a distance away to correct the behavior.  We just squirt them on the side or rear, not in the face.  Good luck!

[pg60]

Thanks to you and other kind folks who suggested the squirt gun :-)

We tried a bicycle water bottle last night with amazing results.  When the PBx got tired and wanted to stop, Eddie our RRx pup went after her as always, biting ankles and trying to submarine her.

We squirted Eddie, repeated this cycle a few times.  The water didn't really make him stop but it made him get distracted & hesitate and, for the first time, the PBx took him down and rolled him!  This seemed to give her confidence and the tide turned, soon she had Eddie on the run.

They played some more but it was much more under control and Eddie actually laid down and submitted in front of the PBx at one point.  It's almost like that's what he wanted all along, the PBx to roll him and assert dominance in play.

I'm hoping that the 2 of them finally got it worked out...

[melissap]

  That was a great suggestion & I am so glad you received some advice that had great results for Eddie and your PB mix, as well as your sanity while integrating him into the fold of his new pack!!

Melissa