Alicia Mertz

My grandmother is getting ready to move in with us and her 11(ish) year old Australian Shepherd mix, Girl, will be moving in with her. She's a REALLY good, well-trained dog and a wonderful companion for my grandmother, but...she's starting to lose it, I think. She's always been a little on edge - very protective (she was a stray and we think she was abused) - but as she's aged it's gotten increasingly intense. Her first instinct is to come flying at you, teeth bared, even if it's just me walking into the room (and she used to be my dog!)...

But that's not the problem. She gets along with all of our dogs EXCEPT our Welsh Corgi mix, Bruno. Granted, he's a bit of a dick, too, but from the very first time she saw him (almost a year ago) she has HATED him. She's about 45, maybe 50lbs, and she pulled a 10' x 6' chain link kennel about 6 feet (it finally snagged on a tree stump) last year, ripped the door open, and almost killed him. She had him by the neck and was shaking him so hard that if he even turned his head for the next two weeks he'd start screaming. The only thing that got her off of Bruno that time was Jaeger. My mother was trying to pull her off and almost got bitten, so Jaeger rushed in and took half of Girl's face off (literally...his one bite went from the right side of her muzzle to behind her left jaw).

She's gotten ahold of Bruno twice more since then with similar results. Of course, it doesn't help that now HE hates HER (for good reason) and starts growling right away.... Yes, he will fight back. Hard. I can't even pull them apart without my arms getting torn up.

What can I do? I've tried everything I can think of. It's going to be really hard to have them cohabitate on a permanent basis if they can't be in the same house without trying to kill each other.

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Alicia Mertz

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