HELP! 3 year old bully becoming aggressive / possessive after new addition

nikibuds

Hi guys! 

So, we've added a new bull terrier to our family. She is a rescue miniature bull terrier-mix (we think) and is only about 10 months old. At first, we thought our 3 year old male bully and her were getting along just fine. They play in the backyard well, and can be left alone together without aggression towards each other which is great! 

It's been about 2 months now and our older male bully is suddenly showing signs of aggression. At the dog park about a week ago, he had his very first dog fight ever. Our younger girl was there with him and was playing with a male pit bull that was not neutered and things got aggressive. We pushed her away, and when we turned our back, our older bully was full fledged fighting with this dog. It was terrifying. He did listen to us and let go and we took him out of the park. After that, he has been showing more signs. Sometimes in the middle of play he will take our younger girl by the neck and drag her around. When she yelps he usually listens and lets go, but last night he did not let go. I had to yell at the top of my lungs and give him the command to "go home" which means get to your crate asap to get him to react. She was whining but ultimately was okay, there was no blood. What's funny is that he is always letting her steal bones from him and he lets her lay around with him on the couch, and even in his crate with him sometimes. He shows ZERO signs that he is annoyed with her or doesn't like her in my opinion and has always been an angel around other dogs. She even got past our barrier and started eating food from his bowl once and he did nothing. I'm worried that these tiny incidents could turn into something more if we don't do something soon. I'm looking for some advice, do you guys think she is trying to be top dog and winning? Is this okay? 

Any advice you have would be awesome as we love both of them very much, and really want this rescue to work out. 

philsergeant

Excuse me if I am not reading your story with perfect accuracy {been working 17 hours straight}.... but it would seem to me that your older, established, Bullie is reacting to the new introduction... 1) to control her and 2) to protect her.....probably initiated by the exposure to other dogs.... in hindsight it may have been better to leave them longer to grow accustomed to one another before exposing them to other dogs.... or at least to "a multitude" of other dogs. Probably step back and start the whole process again... much slower.
What do you think..??. please reflect and give input.

nikibuds

Thanks so much for your response. That does seem like it could be the problem. He wants her to play or be in a certain spot so he drags her there? That being said, we do drop them both off at a really great day care once a week and have heard zero complaints from them. The owner of the place did see him drag her once and stopped him. He felt like he wasn't doing it maliciously, but was getting too heated in play. Anyway, they have been exposed to other dogs from the beginning. We have not been back to the dog park since the fight though. 

We have also noticed some other small things that could be clues as to what's going on. Our friends bring their dogs over whenever they swing by and recently we realized that when our younger rescue was outside, she would always only play with our older established boy. She wanted nothing to do with the other dogs. So it's almost like our older dog is being taken on by two dogs at a time, because everyone gangs up on him. That's not the case in dog runs or at the day care place. I don't know what it means, just more info! 

I think you're advice is great. How would I go about starting over? Just keeping them away from other dogs and each other for awhile? She does stay in a crate when we leave the house, but when we are home they both roam free together and play in the backyard together. Maybe more walks on a leash together? We really have been slacking on that lately. 

Thanks so much for your comments !