Quote Originally Posted by mtbdarby View Post
TS - da Murph looks like a very happy dog! Did a rescue hurt him? Zeus is very happy to not have all that stress in his life.
Not a rescue exactly. I "adopted" a retired show dog. I could call it a rescue, but really it was a breeder decreasing her large number of dogs. Rehomed show dogs don't really count as rescues, IMHO, but I really love terriers and always wanted a Border Terrier and jumped at the chance to get this 2 year old boy, whom I was told was submissive and would fit in with my two rescues with issues.
After 1 week of acclimation (I rushed it, should have been 2). I got the three out together for the first time and got out leashes to take them on a walk. Murphy was his usual excitable self, jumpy and happy at the prospect of a walk and Chip attacked him, picked him up by the throat and shook Murphy.
I tried several things for 3 weeks, basically keeping them apart. But, Chip kept managing to attack Murphy. Poor Chip was spending 22 hr/day in a crate because I could never let them near each other.
Three times Chip got to Murphy - always with blood ensuing. One time Murphy was in a crate and Chip viciously attacked the crate, leaving his own blood everywhere, I can only assume he bit his tongue. Murphy was unhurt, but the incident made things worse, after that, even when Chip was crated, Murphy would either hide, or try and attack Chip when he was in his crate. So, everytime Murphy got excitable, Chip attacked him. Didn't matter if Murphy's excitement was positive (going for a walk) or negative (two strange men in my yard), the result was the same. Everytime Murphy was forced to walk by a crated Chip, Murphy would attack the crate.
Now, Chip was a sweet terrific dog, everything I want in a dog, in every other aspect. The breeder wanted me to keep Chip as my "working dog", and Murphy and Finn as my "bed" dogs - but I just couldn't justify crating Chip when I wasn't working with him - 22-23 hr/day in a crate. Chip was brilliant at everythign I did with him, though - he was going to be an agility star, I had no doubt.
Murphy, meanwhile refused to come out of the bedroom, even with Chip in a crate, and didn't want to go on walks anymore.
The photo above is what Murphy is like on walks, my old man loves to run. He's back that way now that Chip is back with his breeder.