Overcrowded Nest Syndrome by Matthew Margolis on Creators.com

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Overcrowded Nest Syndrome

A lot of parents worry about empty nest syndrome: the depression, the boredom, the creeping quiet, the lonely nights and empty weekends. But the following "parents" know something far worse: overcrowded nest syndrome.

Our three dogs are our babies; no human kids. Boomer is one of our three dogs (all with some pit bull heritage), and we adopted him from a no-kill shelter when he was 6 months old. He is 6 years old now. He is the second dog of our three-dog household. Lexi, his 7-year-old sister and our first dog, was a stray when we took her in. Boomer followed a couple of months later. Santos, his 8-year-old brother and the third dog that joined the household, was a fully trained Protection Sports Association (PSA) national champion who was retired by his trainer.

Boomer is a mellow dog. He is closest to me, always following me wherever I go. My dad dubbed him my "guardian angel" as a testament to what he does on a daily basis. We lived peacefully together for more than a year. We were responsible owners, putting them through obedience classes, socializing them at dog parks and taking them for walks around the neighborhood.

Despite that, during Boomer's terrible 2s, he developed aggression issues toward other dogs. Boomer started barking at animals he saw outside the window or on TV. We tried to resolve his aggression by sending him to a month-long live-in boot camp. He got along with his brother and sister for a few more years, and we thought the aggression issue was under control.

Then one day, he went after Santos, trying to gain position at the door and leaving puncture wounds in the process. In the past four years, there have been three more "incidents" between Boomer and Santos. (Lexi stays out of it.) Boomer bit me during one of them, and my husband was injured on a separate occasion. We sent him to another live-in boot camp with a local dog trainer.

We have been keeping Santos and Boomer physically separated using dog gates for the past three years, and there were no more incidents — until recently. Santos was sleeping in our bathroom with a dog gate separating him from Boomer and Lexi, who were sleeping in our bedroom. My husband woke up in the early morning and tripped over the dog gate. He started screaming. It was dark. Boomer bit him. I tried getting him off my husband, and he bit me on my leg.

My husband takes responsibility for startling Boomer in the night and has no hatred toward him. None of us is fearful of Boomer. We are taking a few more precautions to make sure another incident doesn't happen. But is there hope for his rehabilitation? Did boot camp make it worse?

I will preface my response with a note stressing that this situation, in a home with human children, would be unacceptable. That said...

Sounds like boot camp made it better both times — but temporarily. The problem with live-in boot camp is that it's not for all problems. With doggie boot camp, you take the dog out of the home for training, and he, hopefully, returns home a better version of his former self.

This is a home-based problem, and your best hope is a trainer who specializes in aggression and works with the dog in the home. Additionally, this is a dog whose aggressive tendencies are most likely genetic. So your goal is to control the behavior, not cure it.

The aggression described in this letter can't be cured, but it can be controlled. The presence of two other dogs makes consistent control more difficult to achieve, but with professional guidance and due diligence on the part of the owners, this overcrowded nest has hope.

Woof!

Dog trainer Matthew "Uncle Matty" Margolis is the co-author of 18 books about dogs, a behaviorist, a popular radio and television guest, and the host of the PBS series "WOOF! It's a Dog's Life!" Read all of Uncle Matty's columns at www.creators.com, and visit him at www.unclematty.com. Send your questions to dearuncle.gazette@unclematty.com or by mail to Uncle Matty at P.O. Box 3300, Diamond Springs, CA 95619.