Just joined the forum today because of having an issue that has just started happening. I have a 1.5yr old husky girl, Luna, who I have had since she was 8 weeks old. She was raised along side with a 3yr old Chihuahua, Nacho, ever since we brought her home. Unlike any husky I have had in the past this one shows traits of tension and stress with other dogs, even though she has been around other dogs growing up and goes to regular classes to help ease the tension. This is the first time I have ever had to go to a trainer for help at all. Recently the past couple of weeks she has been showing aggression issues with Nacho. I don't know why, or what has caused this reaction. They have always been around one another under supervision. This morning has been the worst encounter by far with the two of them. I literally had to get him out of her mouth from shaking him. Nacho is okay if yall are wondering, just scared and wont go anywhere near her now. Before the event began he was already hiding from her under the table and she went as far as to finding him and dragging him out. Just don't really know what to do at this point or why all of a sudden this is happening. Any information from yall would greatly be appreciated.

With the chihuahua - was this true aggression or was this more of typical husky play? My two (husky and husky mix) are constantly hauling each other by the neck and shaking each other. Horrifying to watch but both the shaker and the shakee seem to be very happy with the interactions. Ami does seem to moderate his play intensity with small dogs but I'm still not comfortable letting him play with small dogs without me watching like a hawk.

THis is also how both dogs deal with prey (possums, rabbits, etc)

That is the part I'm unsure about. Nacho will cry the whole entire time she does it. And she has never played like that with him before. We have another puppy here, bigger then Nacho named Moca, she is a rotty-golden retriever mix and she doesn't play with her like that at all.

RotaryWolf wrote:

That is the part I'm unsure about. Nacho will cry the whole entire time she does it.  And she has never played like that with him before.  We have another puppy here, bigger then Nacho named Moca, she is a rotty-golden retriever mix and she doesn't play with her like that at all.

I need to get the characters straight...it's Luna the husky that shakes Nacho the chihuahua who cries and is now afraid of Luna. Luna the husky plays fine with Moca the rottie/golden.

If this is the scenarios, then I'm fairly comfortable in concluding that Luna the husky's prey drive has been awakened with Nacho the chihuahua and therefore, Nacho the chichuahua is no longer safe unsupervised with Luna the husky...and I'm not sure you can train that out of her though many members on her have been successful cohabiting dogs and cats (not me...kitty has her place in an outbuilding, not to be mixed with dogs except under strict supervision AND where kitty has close-by escape routes.)

I am no expert in these matters and hopefully, others with more experience will chime in as the day gets going. Somewhere on here, wpskier has posted about using an ecollar to interrupt the prey stalk sequence, first step is recognizing that puppy has entered prey/stalk mode,.

That is correct. I have to now throw a curve-ball into the situation. At the trainers that we take Luna too they do have cats. The oldest one tolerates Luna while the young one allows Luna to hold her in her mouth, take her to Luna's kennel and clean her. So I don't know why she would only do this with Nacho, hopefully its nothing to serious, but I do thank you so much for your information and I will keep watch to see if anything new is posted and keep yall up to date with the situation.

RotaryWolf wrote:

That is correct. I have to now throw a curve-ball into the situation.  At the trainers that we take Luna too they do have cats.  The oldest one tolerates Luna while the young one allows Luna to hold her in her mouth, take her to Luna's kennel and clean her.  So I don't know why she would only do this with Nacho, hopefully its nothing to serious, but I do thank you so much for your information and I will keep watch to see if anything new is posted and keep yall up to date with the situation.

Totally just a guess, but I wonder if the chihuahua's whimpering/crying has the same effect as a squeeky toy?

Amy I think you are right Cora can not be trusted with chihuahuas they make this noise like squeak and I swear it just sets her off. To the orgingal poster I would keep them apart or watch their play very carefully!

Most likely the nerves of Nacho are what is triggering Luna. Nacho is nervous and possibly growls or runs from Luna which takes her from a level 3 prey drive to a level 8 very quickly. The cats at the trainers have probably been more desensitized to dogs and know that they can smack the crap out of a dog to teach that dog to respect them and thus aren't sending off the chicken vibe that gets her going. Nacho doesn't teach Luna to respect him so that becomes your job. You don't have to buy a fancy e collar to interrupt the situation. A squirt bottle full of water has sufficed for my dog who has an insane prey drive. Usually moments to look for to get ahead of prey drive is when the dog is staring intensely at Nacho and goes very still. I've also found that those cheap little rape squealers work well to redirect also. They are very loud and can drown out the sound of Nacho. But mostly you want to be ahead of Luna and not let her get to Nacho to make him make noises you need to drown out.

See? I knew there would be other people with better help than I... Jenn - those hints sound great!

I agree I definitely think it's Nacho's reaction that is fueling the prey behavior vs it being aggressive behavior. With our husky we were never able to do the yelping trick to teach him he's biting too hard. That noise actually gets him even more excited and he'll bite more. Ours chases the cat alllll the time. It's been a struggle situation with the prey drive as well. Best advice I can give is redirect her attention as soon as you see her focus on Nacho. If you can get her focus on you instead of him, praise her, treat her, play with her etc.

If she is anything like ours and goes after her several times in a day, a "time out" might work for you. If she gets to him I'm sure her energy level goes from 1 to 10 real quick, if you have a room you can put her in to cool down before letting her out again that might help. If our dog ignores our "leave it" command he goes in the bathroom for a minute or 2 to chill out. Sometimes we have to do several time outs but eventually he gets it. Don't think it will be an easy fix but just be patient and consistent you'll get it worked out!

I agree with everyone else. Except i do have one question. Is Luna spayed? My female actively chased our 14 year old kitty but never made any physical contact. She then became an only pet for 7 months and we brought home our new puppy. Miya grabs Sofie by the scruff and drags her around, I was fearful of this. It is a form of husky play and motherly instincts kicking in. Not saying this is your situation, but it could very well be. Sofie squeals and cries when Miya does this on the second squeal Miya lets go. I do watch them very carefully. and I do watch for signs of aggression, low grr or growl, teeth showing, hair standing up(by the way all those sign are also not forms of aggression when done individually, when done all together it could be). Huskies do have the appearance of aggression when playing. I also think Luna doesn't do that type of attention to the bigger dog, because bigger dog probably already told Luna she wont play that way, and your Taco doesn't know how to say back off. Lastly chi's are notorious in the shaking thing, so that may be a sign to Luna that she is prey. Any way you look at it, you need to supervise, if it gets a little out of control the water bottle like Jenn mentioned, and then a correction to Luna. At the beginning with Sofie and Miya, I continually told Miya to play nice be gentle. I am including a pic, it looks pretty scary, but she is only playing. I would think, for the most part having Luna from 8 weeks on with the other dogs that they are playing, again tho I may be wrong.

Thank yall for all the input. Never thought about Nacho shaking as a toy but that does give insight on the situation. This morning her fur wasnt standing up but did have a low throaty growl. And yes Nacho is scared of everything. I will start trying the other methods mentioned. Hopefully one of them will work. Thank yall again.