This dog is so freaking jealous!

[HangingOver]

Hola,

It's Hanging, from the never ending Pod thread. Just throwing this open to the whole Dog House to get a range of ideas.

So I have an 18 month old Podenco. About 2 months ago, we took in FILs two gundogs, Melty and Wiggle.

Melty is 11, Wiggle is 5. Melty is her Mum. Melty is the absolute perfect dog. She is sweet, gentle, no problem. Wiggle is insane. She's also insanely jealous. She takes Pods toys, bones and chews, then lays on them protectively. Most of all she's jealous about me. If I make a fuss of Melty, Pod or even DP, she has to scramble onto my lap, panting and give them the stink eye.

When they arrived it was only supposed to be for a few days so I haven't really put any ground rules in place, except keeping them largely to their own spaces and making sure they eat apart etc.

Pod is not a jealous dog. In fact, he ignores me most of the time. I've never have a jealous dog. What gives? What should I do?

She also prefers to sit with her head about four centimetres from mine panting seaweed plaqueoff breath all over me.

Bump/wuff

What training has she had to settle and respect boundaries? If she’s a young working dog, is she getting enough exercise and mental stimulation?

If she's panting a lot, I would be concerned that she is stressed with the changes and guarding toys and people is her coping mechanism.
When she first arrived, my foster dog would barge my own dogs out of the way if I fussed them. If I had a spare hand, I stroked both dogs. If I didn't, she was told no and had to wait her turn.
She's been here for six months now, is fully settled in and doesn't do it anymore.

Nothing really that's why I'm asking. At their own home they live outside in a kennel so being in the house is all very new. She's gradually getting the hang of not putting her paws on the kitchen table but the jealousy is very much in evidence. I tried to stroke her Mum just now and Wiggle dived under my arm and basically shoved Melty's head out the way. Pod and Melty don't seem to care though so not sure if it actually matters or not, other than being a symptom of general stress, which obviously we're trying to reduce. She doesn't bite or growl at them or anything. I've never had springers so I'm not sure how much is stress and how much is just her. I've met her plenty of times at her own home and she seemed just as bonkers there.

They're currently getting an hour each day of play and sniffing in a private field each day but it's a challenge to get them to do anything other than retrieve their balls and then sit there staring at me. She also occasional goes out alone with a dog walker. I feel guilty that she's not out three time a day like Pod but I absolutely cannot walk all three of them together it's horrendous.

Neither has actually been a working gundog for quite some time as FIL has been poorly on and off for a long time, it's only recently when things got worse we offered respite for the spanners.

An hour a day is nowhere near enough exercise and stimulation for a working-line springer spaniel.

She needs exercise, training, stimulation.

Any ideas very welcome. It's quite hard to get them to run around unless it's after a ball. We do play a lot of ball in the field but unless they're chasing it they just sit behind me awaiting instructions. I can't really take them out off lead because I'm not totally confident in their recall and they're crap at walking on leads as they both loop behind me every few paces and they aren't used to roads. She doesn't seem to understand tuggy. She adores ripping up newspaper and chewing those bones with the filling in them and she likes the snuffle ball. I showed her the treat dispenser thing but she's a bit frightened of it.

The older one I'm not so concerned about as her only goal in life seems to be to sleep on the sofa and carry a ball around proudly showing it people.

I really, really want to get her into scent-work. I've got red kong and gun oil but it's bloody difficult with three in the house. If we try to do it together they're all falling over each other and climbing all over me but if I shut any one of them behind a door they immediately start thinking they're missing out on something and getting all worked up.

Personally I would leave the ball at home, take her out on her own and work on her focus, her commands and her lead walking.

You have a young, intelligent working dog who needs a job to do. If you do scent work or something with her, it needs to be something that happens without the other two. Leave them at home and just focus on her.

Yeah I thought that would be the answer, it's so hard to teach them the scent pairing with more than one of them there. The Pod pisses off on his own to do hunting at the field but I can't separate the spanners if they're in the same space and there are treats involved.

Thanks for the input. I'll try to find the time somehow without upsetting Pod's routine any more.

Yeah, three dogs is hard work - especially when two probably aren’t settled yet and they’re not yours either. It’s really difficult.

Wow
Not
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Pic

Mn is going downhill fast.
Going to the dogs in fact...

That's springers for you, they aren't known as velcro dogs for nothing!

The key is to tire them out, mentally as much as physically so they'll be happy to snooze, as close to you as they can get of course

Scent work sounds like a brilliant idea.

Dyou know, inspired by this thread I got the tins out just now and had another go and it weirdly sort of worked. The Pod just gets bored and wanders off and the ol' lady is happily getting in the way holding her ball, but Wiggle is LASER focused on finding that tin.

I think I'll take the tins to the field later and have another go with her while Pod is off hunting and Metly is having a nice sit down in the sun.

Hahaha sorry. Forgot to pay the tax. Wiggle looking primed for action and a pic of Melty from the dog show at the weekend. I've been taking the pod to them as it's good for him to be around other doggies and I thought you know what Melty is so chill I'll take her too. She won fourth best over 7 years old and slept through the rest of the show.

Extra pic of Pod so he doesn't feel left out.

Please ignore the absolute state of their sofa. It used to be cream and I intend to deep clean it when they eventually leave

My working cocker is exactly like this. I think it's just their breed. Has to be touching me at all times.

My friend Cockerpoo is the same (she's bred with working line not show). She spent a lot of time here before I got Pod and if she ever comes over now she systematically takes all his bones and then lays on top of me glaring at him. Poor Pod.

I think they need a job. They need to know they've pleased you. Mine likes me to hide something in the garden then it's his "job" to find it. He gets a quarter of a treat for his efforts. We do that a few times then he zonks out on the sofa.

Ah gorgeous!

You can par the odour when the dogs are eating. I would do this with dogs in different locations so they are relaxed and chilled.

Put some gunoil on a bit of cotton wool or cloth pop into a glass jar so the can not get at it. Put it next to their food when they eat. Do remove it as soon as they have finished.

Good old classical conditioning to odour .

Use the tennis ball for searching not chasing. Put the ball in an easy to see location give the spaniel the cue to find the ball. Fine if the dog retrieves the ball this will not mess up the indication on odour. Or use a kong which ever is easier. You can work on indication on the kong as well as the search so may be better.

Resouce quarding dogs are always anxious stressed dogs without exception. So bringing down the stress levels will help generally and there will be less need to resource guard. Personally I would remove items that can be guarded if other dogs are around.

Encourage and reward behaviour that away from you when resting

Hi @HangingOver - nice to see you! Bill, my nobhead, is a working line nobhead WCS cross Lab. Honestly, Wiggle sounds worse. I do think this is pretty standard for a young working spaniel though. As others have said, she needs a job to do. If you have a look through the latest nobhead adolescent thread, one of the brilliant posters there has added a whole load on training young gundogs - you may find she already knows a lot of the cues and just wants you to tell her what to do.

If you think she has been trained, use the tennis balls for hunting, not straight retrieving. Her job is to find the balls in long grass. Do you have a whistle? Get a spaniel whistle if you can, they're about £12 off Amazon, as that's probably what FIL has been using if anything. Two pips of the whistle normally means turn. What you could try is to hide one ball in long grass while she's tearing off after another one and then send her to find the others.

Of course all this needs you to have a secure place with long grass - I find most secure dog fields are a bit barren. Have you tried their recall? Again, if they're trained, and have a tendency to trip you up, they might have very good recall, but I'd take Wiggle on a long line and practice calling her back to check first. A recall whistle is usually three to five pips if you have one.

If you can't manage all three dogs, could you occasionally leave Melty at home and manage two?

All of this is basically avoiding the question you actually asked which is about jealousy. Spaniels generally want to unzip you and climb inside. Bill would wear me like a suit if he could. There are only a few select dogs I'm allowed to fuss. Feeding him while patting another dog seems to marginally help, and making sure he's included in any attention-giving. But he's essentially a secure, confident and resilient young nobhead dog, whereas poor Wiggle doesn't know what's going on, bless her. I think just give her what she needs for the moment, if you can; all of you every second of the day 😄[JOKE]

Hmm, the OP should know better. A picture of all 3 dogs is a must especially the one parading her ball around…

This is GOLDEN advice!

So the field I rent has really long grass, and the past two days I've taken Pod and the spanners there with various toys. While Metly is proudly trotting around with her ballie, I make Wiggle wait beside me, lob the kong in some random long grass and the tell release her. So it's not retrieving fetch so much and sniffy fetch, she LOVES it :)

The reason I thought their recall was shakey is because years ago I took them for a walk with FIL and one of them pissed off for an hour and came back with a dead duck.

However, at the dog park near us (sort of connected big fields with fences round them) both spanners stay very close and always come back to me. I'd never let them off on a public footpath or anything though, just in case.

Melty with her bol