chicksbestfriend , I am glad that you figured out how to solve your problem.
Now, to address those who suggest that I misunderstood a legitimate "call for help." If my DD's had asked for advice to solve this problem, I would have told them the same as I did here.
My statements, taken out of context and flamed, were written from my 50 some years of experience with many different animals, and experiences keeping multiples. I have owned (in multiples) parakeets, turtles, dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens and horses. None of these animals ever understand sharing. All of them understood "pecking order." All of them--except the turtles--understood territorial rights. All of them have (has) the capacity to be jealous. All of them have (has) fought over food. It is very dangerous to be in the middle of a food fight with dogs or a food fight with horses.
I knew how to introduce my single hen to the established flock, by doing it one at a time. I have introduced new dogs as puppies to older dogs that were very sociable. I separate all new horses, and take several months to integrate them into an established herd. They "Talk" over the fence, and get schooled together, and pretty much tell me when they are ready to live together.
If I do not do these things, the weakest animal gets injured, and I have to pay a Vet bill.
My advice is worth to you what you have just paid for it. Do not be foolish. There are a LOT of people on this forum with a wealth of experiences that they are willing to share. You can benefit from their experience, or reject it.
UPDATE on status of our dogs and where we are all heading..........
JRT will be rehomed in the cottage on our property with my MIL where she will have her own yard, a covered lanai, and will be sleeping in the house, but this move will not occur until she is completely healed. I am responsible to heal this dog and I also take responsibility for the event happening. MIL is fully aware of JRT's behaviors as well as witnessing the event, so the dog is not being dumped on anyone, but rather going to a place where we can insure the same love and companionship that she has always received, and still maintain a relationship with me and hubby, and all of her financial support will continue to be met by my hubby and myself. I also do not believe that crating the dogs for long term is a solution, if thats the case, I shouldnt have the dogs to begin with, very unfair to all. The only time that I use the crates is primarily with feeding, for separately females in heat, and the two younger of the pack sleep in crates at night in one of the dog rooms designated in our house, as there is no more room for all of them in our room. (The three older bulls sleep in the room with us) However, as my focus is #1 healing the JRT, #2 neuturing and spaying the bulls (they are all scheduled for Wednesday night drop off) and #3 getting advice and/or help from a professional trainer for the entire pack, and hoping will not have to ever go here, but #4 would be to rehome or put down the pack offender if the other 3 solutions fail us. I am not against the shock collar method as a training tool, however, if it is something one must use to keep dogs in control at all times, then I believe that individual is not fit or knowledgable enough to raise dogs no matter how much they love them. Overall, I think we have done an excellent job managing our pack without any incidents up until the other night. My hubby and I have moved beyond the emotional chaos of blaming any one dog or each other, it was a very traumatizing experience for us and definitely my bad for letting my guard down, having learned 4 yrs ago of the aggression incident with food, this was the second event with a first in a terrible outcome!
We are more interested in correcting the behavior and discipline technique to insure nothing close to this ever happen again. With giving it a 150% effort on our part; if it ever happens again, forbid it not, then we would definitely look into either rehoming the aggressive dog and/or putting it down. If any of the dogs were to be rehomed, it goes without saying that the potential owner would be informed, and we definitely would make sure that the person is equiped to handle such a dog and that the environment the dog would be going to is a step up from what we can offer, not a step down for the dog and the most favorable for that dog. We knew when we agreed to take the responsibility on to add to our pack what we were getting involved in, alot of hard work, and consistency and we are committed to follow through on that committment. None of the decisions we have made have been made impulsively with adding any new members to any existing pack Over the past 15 yrs., I have successfully and continue to introduce new flock members to my ducks and chickens as well as introducing them to the dogs, everything has always been so good, it was almost like a dream until I turned my head for one second!
Again, I do want to thank each and everyone of you for your concerns and comments, I do not take offense or take any of the comments personally even if others feel some of the comments are a little harsh, I am open to all advice and guidance on this issue, if I felt I knew all the answers or were in denial of what and why it happened, I would not of posted to begin with. Life is one big classroom, there is always an opportunity to learn and grow with our mistakes as we are all human, the day the learning stops, my job on earth will be complete.
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The Pitbulls (all 5 of them) love and adore children, and when I watch my grandkids, which is nearly everyday, the bulls are so gentle around them, and even when the grandkids are eating food, walking around, the dogs do not dare try to take their food. I have never ever left the grandkids unattended with the bulls in the house.
Ignore stuff like that. It's ignorant. My toddler used to pull and bite and hug our pitbull and she was so patient (the dog). She was obedience trained and on voice command of course and well excersized and socialized. I never left my daughter alone with the pit anyway.
I had a dachsund once that hated kids. He had a bad attitude, bit several people before I got him. I schooled him in having a better attitude and better manners. He tried to growl at the American Bull Terrier once. He didn't know about size difference. Maybe your JRT tried to defend her food and got schooled?
My father had GSD's and my worst dog bite scar came from a GSD. (German Shepherd)
I have had Amstaffs, Pitbulls and American Bull Terriers -- they need a consistent strong leader and Welsummerchicks has given you a lot of good advice, take it. We tailor our repsonse to dog needs. We've used sock collars and riding crops but it all depends on the dog. JRT's have a very high activity and nervous energy evel and it may just have done the wrong thing at the wrong time. I don't think those breeds are a good mix unless you and your husband are working together to take care of their basic needs.
I have a collie. She would rather lie on the couch and moan than fight. Seriously, they lie around on the couch with their feet in the air and moan. I even called the breeder, 'She's MOAN...' 'Moaning, right?' 'YES, What's WRONG with her, she seems to be in agon...' 'IT's A COLLIE. THEY DO THAT'. 'They...they do?' 'Yes, all the time. IT's their thing'. 'She sounds like a balloon someone is slowing letting the air out of. How does she do that for so LONG????' 'Like I told you, IT'S A COLLIE'. She views visiting dogs as 'cute' and likes to give them her toys and play tag. If they growl at her she looks at me like, 'momma, is there something WRONG with that boy?'
When we had our last dog, my friend used to bring her pup over. The dog would be staring at the pup chewing on a bone. He would go over to the fence, look down the road, and go 'Wuff! Wuff!' The pup would drop the bone, run over to the fence and go, 'Iff! Iff!'
The dog would slink over to where the bone was, pick it up and slink off with it.
The pup would turn around, see the adult slinking off with his bone, sit down and go 'ooowwwwooooooooohhhhhh!'
Our previous dog could run so fast she would just take off if a dog tried to fight her. We found this out one day at the dog park. She would actually SLOW DOWN and look back over her shoulder if the dog started to give up, and get this DEVILISH look in her eye and just downshift and lope along til the dog got interested and started tearing along again. Then she'd just shift up a gear and keep going until the other dog was standing there, sides heaving, covered with spit and its eyes about popping out of its head. Then she'd lope over and stand there and fake a few takeoffs, trying to get the dog going again. 'No? No? Wanna run? No? Aw...you're having heart failure...that's sooooo saaaaad'.
We had one dog that had the thickest back fur and ruff, and when we were at the park, a guy let his Pit dog loose, and it hit her like a ton of bricks and started trying to kill her.
I was young. I waded in kicking and screaming, stuffed my fist down the dog's throat and beat the tar out of the dog, and then I started 'discussing' it with the owner.
My DOG however, popped up, all wags. She DID have some bites on her that needed treatment, but mostly that dog got a mouthful of hair.
The owner had a number of reasons why it was ok to let his Pit bull dog chew on my dog.
People like that are serious !@#$heads. We had somebody loose a boxer on one our males at an art fair, of all places. I saw it. The young man pointed our dog out to his dog, spoke to it, and unleashed it. He was real happy about it until, after about 10 seconds, his dog started screaming. It was awful. Our dog had grabbed the boxer by the face and immobilized it.
Then the young man came in and tried to start a fist fight with DH while DH and I were trying to separate the dogs. It was insane. Here we were trying to save his dog, and actually choking our dog, and this guy is attacking my husband! DH kept both hands on our dog's collar and I had the boxer by the back legs. We finally managed to separate them and I had to pull the guy off DH and hand him his dog. All this happened in a thick crowd that was blaming us for the fight because they didn't see or understand what happened.
We all were ejected from the art fair by the police. In front of the police officer the young guy said we owed him vet bills until I told him that I saw what he had done and that he had purposely sicced his dog on ours and why the heck wasn't his dog on leash (of course it was back on leash by that time). Fortunately for the boxer, our dog hadn't chewed or shaken his head. Probably couldn't because DH was choking him. The boxer bit DH pretty badly on the hand and we had to go to the emergency room. The young guy gave false info to the police officer and we never heard from him.
I stopped doing public relations demos after that incident.
