tl;dr - I inherited a 10-year-old, neutered, male Akita and my previously-abused Corgi mix hates him. What the crap do I do with them? If push comes to shove I would rather keep the corgi. Long version: Corgi: We picked her up from an animal shelter about 4 years ago. For the first couple of months she would only approach the wife and kids, going so far as "protecting" the kids from me when we were "wrestling." Now she will climb in my lap happily. But, she will still not eat if any of us is in the same room as her food bowl, I suspect because it makes her feel trapped. She is also terrified of brooms (not Broomes) and will not willingly approach other adult male humans. Akita: Ten years ago, my brother's ex-roommate's ex-boyfriend wanted a freaking purebred Akita. Because reasons. The ex-roommate is allergic to dogs, but agreed. Because reasons. They broke up 9 1/2 years ago, but since boyfriend didn't have a house with a yard, allergic roommate kept the dog. A couple of years ago my brother moved into one of the bedrooms at the house. A few months ago, ex-roommate moved to Seattle, leaving the gigantic dog with my brother, who does not like dogs at all. Because reasons. The Akita is a gentle giant. He is quiet, happy, and generally well-mannered. He is old, slow, and my brother suspects he may have arthritis in his back legs. The first day he was here he was licking everybody and acting like he had known us for far longer than a few hours, though he may have just been taste testing us for later. We just bought a house with a fenced-in back yard specifically for the corgi and the kids to play or whatever dogs and kids to these days. We are moving into the house this week. We agreed to take the Akita, so my parents brought him up to us on Wednesday because of scheduling, even though that means keeping both dogs in our rather small apartment for a few days. When they initially met (at a doggie day care for neutrality), the dogs seemed to do okay with each other. The Corgi has been baring teeth at the Akita at least a few times per day (that we know of) and she has snapped at him causing him to snap back at her at least once per day, but always while everyone else was awake to separate them. Then at 3:15 this morning she likely snapped at him again. With nobody to pull them apart, he bit her. I assume it was in self defense because he didn't chomp down on her and eat her face off. He did break the skin, but she didn't bleed much if she bled at all. I'm nervous about leaving them alone in the backyard at the new house while we try and do the whole moving thing this week. At least he won't be in her territory over there, but I don't know if we can really trust them to not fight. We can keep them separated for now, but I'm more concerned with long term. If it comes right down to it, I like the Corgi more, and she is likely to live another 10 years whereas the Akita may only live another 2 years. So, what do the dog experts of the all-knowing Beeb recommend? Anybody want a 10-year-old Akita?
I’d reach out to the nearest breed-specific rescue to you and see if they’ll take the Akita. You may also want to get in touch with Susie’s Senior Dogs and see if they’ll do a spotlight for the Akita as well. There’s a chance the two of them will eventually cohabitate fine, but your Corgi is used to running the place for many years and all of a sudden a bigger, threatening dog is in HIS house. They don’t usually appreciate that.
They will be fine if someone has the time and attention span to work on them. If that's not feesible at this time best to find a place for the Akita. The Corgi sounds just a bit insecure via the won't eat if someone is in the room thing. Insecure dogs are harder to predict when placed with other dogs. If the Akita is in a good mental state he can sort out the Corgi faster than you can. If he is just biting back to shut her down that's fine as she'll get the message fairly quickly. If he is actively pursuing her without provocation to put teeth into her that is a different situation. WIthout seeing the two of them interacting it's hard to say which is which.
How long have you had the Akita? With some patience, you can probably get the dogs on the same page. If he wanted to hurt the Corgi, you would already be digging a hole. He was just setting boundaries. I hate to see an old dog lose his home.
Akita would bury a corgi without even trying. Give them a few weeks. Alpha will do some alpha shit and they will figure it out. Make sure they have plenty of food and toys.
Akita is probably limping because he has hip dysplasia since his family tree looks like a pine... breeders do asinine shit to get the "look" that people want. Inbreeding is rampant. Breeders are the scum of the earth. *ANYWAY*... grrrrrr can you tell I hate people that breed dogs when millions are euthanized each year for want of a home? Anyway, no-one's likely to want a 10 year old big dog that they'll only have for about long enough to fall in complete love with and then have to pout down. Good on you for even trying to step in & be that for this dog. A good trainer can almost certainly help your Corgi (the actual problem dog) with her issues.
I had a trainer come work with me and a new Shepherd/Chow mix. She was all sorts of wacko. One hour session and trainer attempts to pet her as he's leaving...she bit him
Update time: The akita and the corgi are at least tolerating each other these days, though I don't know that they'll ever be friends. Just to keep things spicy my wife brought home her mom's dachshund so she can get her house ready to sell without tripping over him, and now the akita is bullying the weiner. It's not every day, and the barking and yipping ends as fast as it starts, but damnit, we finally got the first two to not attack each other anymore...
