Question: I purchased an eight-week-old English Setter puppy that had been living outdoors. I brought the pup home and put him in the enclosure with my two eight-year-old English Setters. The next morning when I went out to check on the dogs, I discovered that the puppy had been killed by one or both of the other dogs. I thought the dogs would accept the puppy, being pack animals like wolves. Should I have expected this and is this unusual for English Setters?
Name withheld by request.
Answer: In the wolf world, youngsters, or cubs as wolf offspring are called, can do no wrong. If one of the lower members of the pack were to reprimand or hurt one of the cubs, he would be expelled from the pack and possibly killed by the others. This isn't true for dogs. Let's look at some of the reasons why.
First, if the wolf cubs are bothering an adult, the adult can escape the cubs and leave the area. Dogs in an enclosure or house can't. Secondly, wolves feed at the kill site, far from the den site. Your dogs had food present with no supervision. ‘Food aggression' with strange dogs isn't unusual. This pup was probably used to eating out of the same bowl as his littermates. Thirdly, wolves know the parents of the cubs, namely the alpha male and female of the pack. They're also with the cubs from birth. I think the outcome may be similar if a strange cub were placed in the pack's den site.
New pups must be supervises with older dogs and even much older pups. This puppy was placed in with an already-established pack, your two dogs. My guess would be that after dark, the puppy, which is used to sleeping with his mother and littermates, got cold and tried to get in with one of the other dogs. This could've triggered a ‘territorial aggression' response. Older dogs may not have the same desire to play or snuggle up with the new mini-version of themselves. English Setters aren't known for aggression and if you're seeing no changes in your two older dogs, I'd assume that this is an isolated incident.
I'd also be even more careful about introducing a new pup now because of this incident. Build a separate pen for the newcomer until he has time to grow some and to interact with the other two. Run the three together and you may see who the aggressor is in your group. I know of another fellow with English Setters who placed a new pup in an airline crate in the back of his SUV for the ride to his cabin up north. The older dog got tired of being pester by the pup and bit him several times, causing some expensive vet bills.
Charlie Linblade
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