Hi everyone,
I really need some advice. My 2-year-old Husky has killed my partner’s dog, a 3-year-old Jack Russell.
We have four dogs: three Jack Russells (one male and two females) and my Husky.
They usually live separately—the two female Jacks live outside in a pen, while the Husky and the male Jack (who is 7 months old) live in the house or outside depending on the weather and what they fancy.
They do have contact, though, as they can see and sniff each other through the wire of the pen.
My Husky is a bit of a tricky character; she’s fine with submissive dogs but she is definitely a dominant type, so as long as another dog doesn’t growl at her, she doesn’t bother them—at least when we're away from the house anyway.
With people, she’s very wary and will only let me and a few people she knows get near her, but even then, that's only at home. When we're out, it’s only me. I’ve had her since she was about 10 or 11 months old.
She’s never attacked other dogs before, except to defend one of mine that was being went for, and one other time when she pinned an off-lead dog that came charging at her growling.
On walks, we let them all out together off-lead and there’s never been a problem; they play together and so on...
My Husky has never had any issues with my male Jack or the other female Jack, except around mealtimes when she absolutely has to be left alone. However, she’s never really liked the female dog she killed; there were never any real fights though, except once when the Jack Russell actually snapped at her over a toy. I told her "no" and grabbed her, and she didn't retaliate.
But today, we let them all out into the yard to play together like we usually do, and my Husky stood over the other dog like she usually does to show she’s the boss. Normally she just does that, has a sniff, and then wanders off, but this time she grabbed her by the neck and shook her violently. I had a lot of trouble getting her to let go—she’s a big girl, over 4 and a half stone (66lbs)—but it was too late, she’d killed her... I could see she’d gone in for the kill; it was so violent and she even tried to go back at her.
What do you think? I’m terrified of letting her near the others now... and when we’re out, I usually have her off-lead (I go hunting and she comes tracking with me, so she’s never on a lead). Could this change her behaviour with other dogs?
I don’t understand why she did it; there was no food around, and the other dogs weren't even close by...
Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to give as much detail as possible.
Thanks in advance.
