Bullying, Herding, or what?

S

Spazzy Jazzy

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Jasmine has picked up a habit I don't really know how to handle. When my older dog goes down the stairs, Jazzy will go down with her. When the start down, Jazzy will push her hind end up against Belle, keeping her up against the wall. The whole way down, Jazzy barks at her. All different pitches like she's bossing Belle or giving her a pep talk, lol. Belle is gradually getting slower but she isn't having too many issues going down the stairs. She's just slower than Jasmine. Any ideas? It doesn't happen going upstairs where Belle is still comfortable going at a faster speed.

I have tried putting Jazzy into a "wait" command and told Belle to go downstairs, but she won't go down them alone know. Frustrated!
 
Must be something about stairs. Tully always greets Deska as he's coming up stairs and pounces him.
 
Ruutu does the same thing to Honey. Or well, did. We don't have stairs at our new place currently. Luckily for us though Honey would go down by herself, just not up. Most of the time, I'd go down with them and tell Ruutu to be nice and leave her alone. It seemed to work. I think it's more the idea of herding and nothing else. In Ruutu's mind, I think he just wanted to be first.. he always wants to be first :rolleyes2:
 
Shay does it to Melli, including nipping and growling, which makes her respond by barking. He even stops on the landing to poke at her.

Must be herding behavior (he is a GSD after all).
 
My guys ram each other all the time. Frisbee is a contact sport here. Usually it is Spitfire slamming Sca but last night Sca got the zoomies and banked Spitfire off a chair back pretty hard (Spitfire was stunned as normally that is him doing it :lol:)
 
I wonder if Jazzy senses that Belle is getting older and is trying to keep her safe on the stairs? Sounds like she is staying really close and her barks may be communicating to Belle where she is on the stairs. I know when I am having trouble walking or off balance, my dogs will stay really close to me and Liam does bark - it's a different bark than his normal bark. He did the same with my Dad the last few months Dad was alive. It's harder going down stairs than up. I find depth perception and distance can be deceiving. If you fall, you go hard and down a distance. If you fall go upstairs, it's not that far to go down.
 
My boys have a similar issue...

I let my older boy go up and down the stairs first and have the other two do a sit and stay until he is safe at the top or bottom.

To make sure... I go with my older boy as I want to keep him safe...

I do not want either of us falling!

The other 2 seem to respect the limits I have set.
 
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