I had an older female who was growling at our new male puppy when we first brought him home.

We went to a trainer who worked with her to let her know her place in the pecking order, and it wasn't #1. So, it wasn't her place to accept or not accept. We are the alphas and that was conveyed to her by using corrections.

That one training session set her straight and she seemed relieved to not have to take charge-she was much more relaxed and laid back.

A professional will most likely be able to sort out this social maladjustment.

Good luck!

Thank you both for the wonderful feedback. I am really glad I reached out for help with this issue.

We do give Sadie a lot of affection because of her past, so we will curb the extra affection because what you're saying makes so much sense.

Also, walking Sadie and Keely together is a great idea, I am going to start their walks together tomorrow morning.

99% of the growling takes place upstairs in our bedroom. Sadie will already be upstairs for example, and then Keely comes up awhile later, and Sadie will run under the bed if she's already on the floor and growl. If she is curled up in my husbands chair, she'll start her low growls from the chair.

Sadie and Maddey play together and seem to do okay with each other.

Lori

Keely's health is fair to above fair, she does have some arthritis as well as hip problems when getting up.

To pinpoint it further I would say it's in our bedroom and this evening I figured out that I think it is happening more when my husband is at hom and we are upstairs together with the dogs.

Sadie will growl to protect a toy but that is a separate issue. If she growls over a toy I take the toy or toys and put them away.

When I brought Sadie home from the shelter I was not sure of Sadies temperament or our dogs (Maddie and Keely)'s reaction to Sadie, so we put Sadie on a lead in the yard for a day to acclimate the dogs.

It was the day after we brought Sadie home that we unleashed her and the 3 dogs were together in the yard, and then in the house.

We were going to kennel Sadie, but our very huge and spacious doggie condo was on loan to a family friend.

i'm happy to see you are open to suggestions and plan to take action. this really does sound like a resource guarding issue to me and sadie is considering you and your husband as the resource. this is something i have seen more than once. it's only human nature to give a new dog a lot of attention and oftentimes, it is to the detriment of the other dogs in the home.

i think you have caught this early enough that taking action now will correct the issue. while you are working on this, keep a very close eye on the dogs' interactions with each other. i think it's a common occurrence that when you put multiple females together, problems can arise more so than if you mix the genders. so many times, shelter dogs are not well balanced and that works against you.

i just brought in my 3rd great dane 4 weeks ago, all females. the first two are rescues and have been with me for just over one year. the new girl is a retired show dog from an excellent breeder so she came to me as a well balanced dog which made her integration into the pack so much easier!

keep updating, i will be anxious to see how things progress. wishing you lots of luck!

Thank you for your response back. After reading your posts I am 100% certain that it is a guarding issue.

I have started walking Keely and Sadie and already things have improved. Also my anxious energy when Sadie starts her low growling wasn't helping things at all.

Now, when Sadie growls, I try a distraction by going to our bedroom closet and rattling a dog toy. It snaps Sadie "out of it" temporarily.

I don't actually give Sadie the toy, because it very well may cause her to guard her toy.

I just use it to make noise and then put it back in the closet. It works fairly well so far because Sadie forgets what she was growling about.

Is this okay or might Sadie figure out I am tricking her?

Thanks much for your very valuable advice, we Love all three dogs equally and I know Sadie loves her loving home.

When I got my second dog, Fred, I was told to always make my first dog, Murray, the "top dog". He got fed first. He got the attention first, to the point of ignoring Fred altogether for awhile. They got along very well.

When Murray passed and I ended up getting another dog for dog Fred's companion, I did the same thing. Even to the point of moving Fred's place to the left when walking on leash. That was the place Murray enjoyed. I always walk them the same way. Now it's Fred on the left and Carmelita on the right. I always put the leash on Fred first, then Carmelita. They expect this and wait for it to happen.

Just today at the groomer, she was telling me that Carmelita ran back into the kennel with Fred instead of getting her collar and leash on. I told her it was because Fred always has his put on first and she knows that!

Dogs love a routine.

so glad to know the walking is helping!

Is this okay or might Sadie figure out I am tricking her?

a better way to go about this is this...teach sadie the "watch me" game. get some really super duper high value treats, something you know she won't be able to resist. have her sit in front of you. say to her "watch me!" and use a happy voice. the very instant she looks you in the eye, give her the treat and lots of praise. this is one of the best training tools EVER! do it multiple times a day. at first, wait until she looks away and then say "watch me!" and eye contact...treat! soon, you will be able to use this when you hear the growl. the second you hear it, have a treat in your hand (wear a treat pocket if you have to), give her the "watch me" command and she will zoom across the room for her treat. lots and lots of praise! i have never had this fail and even with my well balanced dogs, i use it often because they LOVE it. :)

Thank you murraysmom and Ninapearl.

To,

Ninapear, I will start training Sadie with the "watch me" game first thing tomorrow. Great, great advice and I can clearly see how this works so well.

Thank you.

To,

murraysmom,

what a great idea, it makes so much sense to honor the "pecking order" with dogs.

Thank you :)

might as well teach "watch me" to maddey and keely just because it's FUN! lol

good luck with your training and please let us know how it's going!

My husband and I were just talking about that very thing. We are going to teach the "watch me" game to all three of them.

It would be difficult to teach the three of them at the same time, so I'll have to figure out how to teach Sadie the "watch me" game first.

Unless you have a suggestion for the three of them and the "watch me" game?

I just want you to know that your advice has been so valuable to us. Sadie is so intelligent and we Love her dearly as we do all of our rescues, (three dogs, two cats, we had three but our 15 year old passed away recently, and one bearded dragon).

Lori

until you are confident that all 3 dogs can take treats from you while being in close proximity to each other, it's best to train them separately. when i get to to the point where i know for sure they will each wait their turn (it doesn't take all that long once they learn the game), i line them all up with treats ready. i will say a name...eden, watch me! and as soon as she makes eye contact, TREAT! same thing with destiny and olivia. they are smart and not only do they know their own names, they know who i am talking about or to when i say another name. this is going on while they are all standing in front of me and practically nose-to-nose with each other. and, since eden is new here and she has yet to be trained to the underground fence, she might wander a little too far. if she gets out of my sight, i can ask the other dogs "where did eden go?" and they will look in the exact direction, without fail. i jump on the golf cart and sure enough, she's right where they *said* she would be. LOL

another way you can do it is to use a different phrase, one for each dog. "watch me!", "look here!", "see this!". try to make them as different sounding as you can so they will learn which one applies to them.

lori, i think it's wonderful that you are so open to suggestions. so many times, i give people this sort of advice and they ignore it to the detriment of their pets. i am no dog trainer, by any stretch of the imagination. i just try to use as much common sense as i can and lots of positive reinforcement and i have found that it goes a long way in training dogs. and some dehydrated liver treats ain't too shabby for training either!

i'm sorry for the loss of your kitty. i've suffered the loss of 3 rescued danes over the last 2 years so i know the hurt all too well. awesome for you that you open your home to rescues! it is so rewarding!

Thank you for your condolence. I miss him everyday, and I know you know that feeling all to well.

I have been off of my iPad and this site for a bit.

We have a twelve year old son that needs to straighten up in school. Apparently his friends and his popularity have taken precedence over his grades.

We have him at 3 meals and a cot until the next report card comes home.

No tv, no music, no friends, no phone calls, no iPad, iPod, XBox, no sleep-overs and anything else I could think of, oh and no soda pop either lol.

....Yes, I have been taking in strays for a very long time. I love the underdog.

Sadie is doing better, still not there yet though, just takes time and patience.

My problem is trying to separate the dogs to give Sadie and I a few minutes to train?

I really enjoyed reading about your dogs telling you where Eden went, to funny :)

Take care and I'll talk to you soon.

Lori

oh my! i would think he will want those privileges back soon! hopefully, your actions will result in some good results. ;)

do you have a room where you can just shut yourself and sadie in for some short 10 minute training sessions? or maybe you could take her outside and leave the others in for some training time with sadie.

eden has been obsessed with squirrels for the last couple of days. there are SO many of them around here and i have several black walnut trees so there are walnuts all over the ground out by the edge of the timber. the squirrels pick them up and bury them all over the back yard. every time eden sees one, she goes tearing after it and runs it up a tree. she will never catch one but that doesn't stop her from trying! she spent the entire day today outside, laying on the deck, just waiting for her opportunity. LOL

Eden is a very beautiful Great Dane, Love the pictures, thank you for sharing her.

Sadie is the same way. She will tear out of the house and jump over anything and anyone in her way, she'll catapult right over the back of Maddie our Golden Retriever.

Its actually hilarious to watch, she can't catch them either, which I'm grateful for.

...Yes, I am taking Sadie off by herself for training. It's interesting though not knowing Sadies background, when I call all three dogs downstairs for a treat (it can even be a piece of chicken breast, or a rib bone for each of them), Keely and Maddey come running and Sadie runs under the bed, I can't hardly coax her downstairs but she'll come just fine on her own.

The walking is going great but Sadie is still growling, and yesterday she started a low bark along with the growl, I feel bad for Keely because I don't want Keely (at her elderly age) to be afraid in her own home.

We are keeping Sadie, she is our family now, so we will keep up the training.

Take care ninapearl and I will talk to you soon.

Lori

Sadie trims her own nails lol. I never ever have to trim any of Sadie's toenails because she is constantly trimming them herself, all of them front, back and both dew claws all perfectly manicured :)

Its pretty funny to watch, sometimes she'll get one of her back legs wrapped around her neck while she's trimming and it gets stuck.

haha!! my first dane used to give herself manicures. or would those be considered pedicures?

keep working with sadie. some dogs take longer than others to catch on. ;)

I will continue working with her. Sadie is a very affectionate and very intelligent young dog that I think maybe just didn't get the proper corrections and socialization?

Thank you for ALL of your invaluable advice.

Lori

you're so very welcome, glad i could help! sadie sounds like a real sweetie and i'm sure you are right, it's just a lack of socialization and proper training.

i will check back for progress reports. if you have other questions, do ask! :)

I will update as we move forward with Sadie.

Take care,

Lori