Loki And Asha

Boys On The Rock Together 

My disappointment in Loki's behaviour has increased tenfold today. He's bitten Ross .. again. This time little Ross has a puncture wound by his eye and a tear in his cheek.
The dogs where all full of energy and playing between the yard and the house. Loki was full of fun and chasing Ross who was running around with a toy. I had no reason to take any notice of the situation until I heard Loki growl aggressively and Ross screaming with fear or/and pain. I can't be a hundred percent sure of what went on but I can only surmise that it played out as it did last time. They boys playing and Loki suddenly decides it's the end of the game and gives no notices just bites. Ross is now obviously afraid of Loki again .. and following the incident Loki is scared of me!
As I was walking this morning I was trying to figure it out. Loki wasn't bought up that way, Mikey did not treat him like this, Mikey was a fare and honest adult male. So why does Loki react this way with Ross? Ross isn't doing anything wrong, he's submissive to Loki as he should be! Also why does he feel the need to lung out aggressively at some dogs at shows? And why does he do it when other people have him on the lead? A confident adult male dog would simply not react that way. Kai being the perfect example of that, he filled the room with his presence .. others respected him but he never showed aggression unless it was to defend himself.

I can only come up with one conclusion, Loki is not as confident in his own skin as he should be. Maybe that nervous puppy is still in there somewhere teetering behind the surface. What other explanation can there be? He surely wasn't ready to be the adult male in the pack when Mikey died. He did struggle then, but there was nothing anyone could do and Asha made sure he was promoted, possibly beyond his means at the time.
So what do I do now? Well I can't separate the boys, we don't have the facilities or means for another pack and I don't want either stuck in the kennels. Separating them now would also mean I would not be able to get them back together again in future and that's not what I want. I will certainly stop them from playing with each other now as Loki doesn't seem able to stop the game without resorting to aggression. Of course they can play with the girls, but not each other!
As regards to Loki lunging out at other dogs, well unless he does it with me on the end of the lead then I have to rely on other people to react instinctively at the time and show him it's really unacceptable behaviour. Allowing him to get away with it reinforces the behaviour and the last thing I need is for Loki to think it's acceptable and for him to get a reputation as an aggressive dog .. he may have some issues to work through but he's not an aggressive dog!

Whilst I was at the show yesterday Steve rang to tell me about Asha. She's had a lump on the top of her thigh for years. It's loose and soft and was considered to be nothing more than a sebaceous cyst, but yesterday Steve thought Asha had decided to bite it off. Well either that or more likely it's burst and she's then had a damn good go at it. It does look a mess today and we've cleaned it and used wound spray and powder on it to try and dry it out, but of course Asha keeps picking at it which won't help the situation. I'll just keep it clean and try to get it dried out, but I know getting them cleared can take a long time, for some reason as soon as they close they have another nibble at them. Hopefully no vet required but we will monitor the situation.