There are some dog breeds that do better when they are the only dog in a home. Rocket is probably one of those dogs. Unfortunately, Rocket was not the first dog in our home-Frank was. Visits, introductions, and having the two dogs together posed no real concerns initially. It wasn’t until Rocket became older that his bullying became a problem. Rocket’s bullying was obvious from the beginning, but when he was still a pup, and for the first 4 years of his life, this bullying was mostly demonstrated by Rocket throwing his rump into Frank when attention was being given to both dogs at the same time. Other times, Rocket would jump on the couch and weasel his way between Frank and whomever Frank was lying near. Because Frank was such a mild-mannered dog, he would concede and allow Rocket to have his way. During the early years, we thought the bullying was more of an instinctive, and innocent behavior that was mainly harmless.
In the above picture, Rocket strikes a typical stance while intently trying to take whatever it may have been that had Frank’s interest. Frank’s response, without fail, was to turn or walk away. In Rocket’s fourth year, we began to notice that the bullying of Frank became more aggressive. This behavior was only directed toward Frank, and it became unacceptable-Frank did not deserve this kind of treatment and we needed to stop this behavior right away. To this day, it is our biggest challenge.
As the aggression grew, we had no choice but to try to protect Frank. We found ourselves scolding Rocket or purposely ignoring his moves when he tried to push Frank away. At the time, we thought we could train Rocket to stop bullying by not giving him the attention he sought. In theory, it was like training a dog to not jump on someone-you don’t give attention until the dog sits, thereby, the dog learns that the attention came when you sat rather than when jumping. This method of training really didn’t work with Rocket. In fact, it seemed to have the opposite effect. Rather than Rocket backing down and waiting to get attention, it seemed to stress him out more and he tried even harder. When we became firm with Rocket and physically prevented him from pushing Frank away, he would sometimes find a spot to lay down and then stare at us for a few moments before coming right back and trying again.
Rocket’s bull-headed nature, likely due to his breeding which included bulldog, would always propel him to victory. He was a good boy most of the time, and he continued to try to please us, that was obvious, as long as we didn’t expect him to “go lay down”. In the end, he would always get his way, and his reward was snuggling in as close to one of us as he could get. But we were not finished yet, we needed to continue to explore options and ways to train Rocket to mind his manners. Afterall, Frank needed our attention, too, and we wanted to give it to him. Little did we know at the time just how desperate Rocket would become during his quest for center stage.