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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
my mastiff attacked my chiuhuahua last night :(
They were all eating. Pebbles (the chiuhuahua ) finished first and decided to steal some food from Aurora (the mastiff) Aurora growled at her and Pebbles decided to growl back and nip her lip. Aurora then bit into her. I heard her screaming and ran in the room. She stayed the night at the vets and had to have a wound debridement procedure. She is home now with two drains put in an a whole lot of stitched and staples. She is miserable and so am I 
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Re: my mastiff attacked my chiuhuahua last night :(
OMG! I'm so sorry. I hope she feels better real soon. That is so scary when it happens.
I used to have a English bulldog that would sometimes get aggressive towards other dogs and I would separate her from my other 2 (including a Chihuahua) during feeding. She had tried to attack my little dog before.
oh FFS.
I have always watched DS and all the dogs very closely and never left them alone without supervision. My dogs are all very well trained and I have never worried...but this incident has really opened my eyes. I am terrified now.
this is what DH says...but after looking at poor Pebbles I can only imagine this happening to DS's face.
your dog was provoked, physically, by the other dog. this wasn't some unprovoked random attack. my dogs have gotten into it before (over food), but it's their pack order shiz. it's not going to happen to DS (well, not that i let them hang out alone together either). i don't know, it's a tough situation i guess.
dogs, being descendants of wolves FYI, 99% of the time fight/protect themselves if provoked by another dog. this is kinda dog 101. does this mean they are going to attack humans? uhh no.
Hopefully she doesnt let her DS physically attack the mastiff. I'm almost 100% positive that she doesnt.
Exactly what the vet told me. He also said Aurora was merley "snapping" at her and that this was the outcome. It could have been so much worse. PLUS Pebbles is usually the instigator. I am just going to have to feed them seperately, NOT around DS, and just continue to keep a close eye on them.
i also agree it was probably a nip, done by a HUGE dog, to a little dog... can be much worse than what was intended. i hope your dog gets better quickly. =(
Just ignore Mod she is a nutter.
I'm so sorry about your dog. I hope Pebbles gets better fast. I try to keep DD away from my dog during feeding time now because my DD has been provoking my dog something awful. My dog has been good and just done warning growls but I know she has her limits.
I work my butt off to teach DD how to be nice to the dog but she thinks it is a game at this age.
I would feed them separately from now on. Either in separate rooms or gate one into the kitchen, let him eat, then switch the dogs. And never let your LO go near the dog bowl. Even though our dog doesn't care if you mess with his food while he's eating, we still don't let DS near the bowl when Murphy is eating.
And to teacher....if my dog bit another dog who went after his food, I wouldn't be worried that he would bite DS. I would just make sure DS was not in the room when it's time for the dog to eat.
ETA-to the OP...I forgot to say....hope your chiuhuahua gets better soon!
sorry to hear. several years ago my italian mastiff attacked my pit/mastiff. it was a very bad fight that cost $1000 to fix. now when i look back at it, it was our fault. we let the pit/mastiff do whatever he wanted and the older italian mastiff finally had enough (with all of the nipping and whatnot). sounds like you need a restructing of boundries in your household. often times we don't set the same rules for smaller dogs and the larger dogs finally react and cause damage. know what i mean?
start by feeding them separately or supervised. if the little dog finishes the food 1st, she should not be allowed to go over to the mastiff. this also goes for toy stealing, etc. after our dog bite we had a whole new set of rules in our house and things were soooo much better.
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there is NOTHING I hate more than being made to agree with Mod. except perhaps idiots that do not understand the difference b/w dog/dog and dog/human aggression.
OP-Don't let your chihuahua be a douche to your bigger dog. and vice versa. sounds like you have some possible food aggression issues, even with the instigation, that should be addressed for BOTH dogs. good luck!
yeah mod is definelty right here. It is just the extensive damage this "nip" did really makes me nervous. This incident is just going to make me extra cautious when it comes to DS and the dogs..which I really should be anyways. Thanks byrne for the advice.
JLS Im sorry to hear that story.
I'm sorry
hope little pebbles gets better.
I think your plan sounds good - keep them separated when feeding, and also perhaps read about how to ensure the chihuahua learns her place and that she can't act like that towards the mastiff/that the mastiff is the alpha dog.
To the OP I hope Pebbles feels better soon. You have already gotten some good advice about how to handle feeding time.
And to the other poster, as others have said there is a HUGE difference between dog/dog aggression and dog/human aggression. A dog that shows aggressive tendencies towards another dog is no more likely to be aggressive towards humans.
ITA with Mod.
my mom had to feed her dogs separately because the min pin kept trying to steal food from the older pom and they would nip at each other. She started feeding the pom in her bedroom away from the others.
Hope Pebbles feels better.
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I am so sorry this happened for your family. I know it can be very scary and it happens so quick. I am sure that separate feeding areas are going to be the norm. Its also important to ensure that your LO does not engage with the dogs during meal times since Aurora definitely is food aggressive. I'm sure that you already have a plan in place to avoid this.
If you feel that Pebbles is in pain please be sure to call the vet back and ask for pain meds. There are lots of options and sometimes the first med may not do it. Also to help keep the drainage from getting all over your carpet and clothes, you can dress pebbles in a loose fitting tshirt, just have a couple on hand to be able to wash one while shes wearing the other.
I'm so sorry that this happened. Your family is very lucky, it really could have turned out much worse.
Okay, first, I'm sorry about what happened with your dogs. I hate chihuahuas the way I hate poison, capri pants and Rush Limbaugh, but if you love her it must be awful to see her in pain.
Second, I'm usually on the "screw the dog, protect the kid" side, but this time, I'm with Mod. (That felt weird. I may have to lie down.)
I doubt the OPs son is going to bite her mastiff on the lip while she's eating. And if the chihuahua had done that to me, I'd probably have bitten it, too. This was not an animal issue, like a mother cat biting one of her kittens to keep it in line. It's not really the mastiff's fault that the aggressor dog is so tiny and fragile in comparison.