[dabs303]

Hi, We have a 7yr old Male Rottie who was a rescue 2 yrs ago...he's the perfect dog. 4 weeks ago we rescued a 5 yr old female. She's not so perfect yet we're working with her. She now can take food gently, comes when we call, will sit with hand motions to name a few.

The male has already established the alpha male between the two and my husband has established alpha male of them all.

The female was kept in a small 'sun room' all the time, NEver had much human or other dog interaction. She gets up on counters, in the trash, jumps up on people...just isn't domesticated yet

She gets agressive when their food bag is out, when we fill thier bowls of food and let it soak, she'll growl at the male and attack if he gets between her and the food. He quickly puts her in her place yet she'll take it just so she can get between him and the food.
She's never been aggressive to us, will let us put his food down and wait for hers, I can take her food away while she's eating it and she won't growl or bite.'

The other day we had friends over...she's been fine with people before. We were all outside, one teenage girl jumped up from her chair to leave. She ran to the gated fence. The female dog took her down and bit her on the back of the thigh.

WOW...what to do. God forbid if that was a small child - yet there were 2 small 8-10 yr olds running around the pool area all day and she was not the least bit over excited.

Was she territorial, was she just chasing her to play, why did she single this girl out, and worst of all...when will she do this again.

I dont want her to be locked up in a bedroom everytime we have company. Should we rehome her, should we get her obedience/aggression training?

[lange]

Hi. Wow, that's a lot huh. I'm not an expert but I personally would not let a newly, older, already questionable, adopted dog be free roaming with visitors around. You know nothing of how the dog reacts to specific situations. Quite honestly, I don't let my current 1 year old baby free roam with visitors either because 1.) She is too young & big 2.) She can't always control her excitability (in positive & negative ways). 3.) She is still learning what is acceptable behavior. 4.) She doesn't know our visitors well enough for my taste. I could probably go on. My older dog has proven himself to be very trustworthy, so he'll be free roaming when people are over but I always supervise with kids involved.

If your dog is already showing signs that she can be triggered into over reacting, then take that as a warning. You can definitely work with her but you need professional help if you've never worked a dog like this before.

No one online will be able to tell you what caused the dog to go after this particular girl. We would have needed to be there, and even then we might not catch what the exact trigger was.

Besides professional help, I would also recommend a very NILIF, every day life style for your dog. Some dogs need it more than others, yours might do better with it. When you have a new dog coming into your home you need to place very structured rules to start you off on the best footing. (I'm not sure if you're already incorporating this.) You can google nilif if you don't know what it is.

As for food aggression, I find it hard to work with because "I" believe it can be learned or genetic. I've been working with dog on dog food aggression w/my own girl since she was a little puppy. I got her at 2 months so I highly doubt it was learned in her case. Here's a post where I mention what I do with her-dog agressive with certain foods
My girl continues doing better but she also has set backs. I only test her when I am around and fortunately, she listens to me when things start going south and I take control of the situation again. It's a slow progress but I will not leave my dogs unsupervised with food involved.

P.S. I wouldn't lock her up when company is around but instead leash her to you while she works through her issues.