[Dailydrool] Help with fighting bassets?

[Alicia Trimble]

  Hi Everyone,
  I am hoping that you may be able to give me some advice on a conflict that has been brewing in our household.  About two months ago my two bassets, Darwin and Wallace, and I adopted another basset, Lily, from a local city shelter.  Her prior family had lost their home due to foreclosure and had to surrender Lily to the shelter.  My boys, although not from the same litter, will both be five this July and have been together since they were thirteen and ten weeks old.  Needless to say they are very close.  Lily, we were told, is between four and five years old, but my vet thinks she may be slightly older.
   
  When we first looking into adopting Lily everything went really well.  We did meetings before hand and all three looked like they had known each other for years and got along really well.  When we first brought her home everything also went really well for a short period of time.  However, things began to change.  Lily is very possessive of food and of me, both of which can lead to fights.  The food issue seemed to work itself out.  The boys just avoid her when she is eating.  Then she and Darwin had a few fights not related to food, but they also seem to work out their issues and now will play together and generally get along.  This, however, has not been the case between Lily and Wallace.  
   
  There are two different issues that spark fights between Lily and Wallace.  As mentioned, Lily is very possessive of me.  My vet believes she has separation anxiety, which is understandable considering what she has been through.  My vet also told me to do the typical ignore behavior, etc., around her when coming and going and so on.  Lily often growls if one of the other dogs comes near me.  Darwin would generally ignore Lily and eventually this behavior towards Darwin stopped.  However, Wallace is a different type of creature.  He is a lover to the nth degree.  He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body and is a bit of a scaredy cat.  When Lily growls at him at Wallace he runs away and often times Lily will chase him into a corner where Wallace will stand with him tail tucked between his legs frozen or a fight will start.  
   
  The other issue that will start a fight is Wallace’s barking.  Wallace has a health bay and when he gets excited he stomps his front feet like R2D2 and barks.  He does this when he wants to play or there is something he thinks is really neat going on from the mailman to a squirrel in the yard.  I think this scares Lily and she will attack him and I think it is getting worse. 
   
  This weekend I was doing some work on my house and walked into my back patio between Wallace and Lily not thinking too much of it at the time.  Wallace started barking, presumably to tell me he wanted to play.  Lily lunged at him violently.  Darwin came running from across the yard to join the fight. (I should tell you when Lily fights with either of the boys the other one will come join in to protect his brother.)  The fight was really bad and I grabbed the nearest dog which happened to be Wallace to try and break it up, but Lily continued to attack and Wallace’s collar slipped off.  I then grabbed Lily and for the first time ever Wallace continued to attack her.  By this time my boyfriend, who had been up on a ladder on the side of my house, had gotten down and crossed the yard and was able to restrain Wallace.  I also realized about this time that there was blood everywhere.  The fight took place in a matter of seconds, but Wallace ended up with a pierced ear and a
 gash on his neck.
   
    I am really kind of at a loss at what do.  Lily behavior is so good when there are not other dogs around.  She is really a sweet basset and never tries to challenge my authority or the authority of any other person.  I know that when a new dog comes into the house disagreements will happen over the peaking order, etc., but these fights are far too dangerous and cannot continue.  Needless, to say I am becoming terrified of leaving the dogs unsupervised and someone needs to work to bring home the dog food.

 
  Any advice you can give me would be very helpful.
We all have our paws crossed for Brudder Elwood.


Thanks,
Alicia, Darwin, Wallace, and Lily Trimble 




       
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