My dog (4) paralyzed / killed my elderly Chihuahua. Any dog experts here?

LOL JK I just HATE DOGS... I googled Dashchund and I'm disgusted even more

I don't think the dachshund is as much a danger to a person as it is to other animals. Do not underestimate this breed...

In my opinion the Dachshund & the Puppy formed a pack which did not include the older dog. A pack protects each-other. I don't think your Dachshund was trying to kill your other dog.

Start hating your Dachshund is something you should not do, the dog acted like a dog, not like a human. It would not understand your turning against when in her eyes she did everything right.

Sorry to say OP, and I really feel for you but....if you have dogs of different age living under one roof it is up to you to let them know who comes first in line...if not, then they gonna take care of this by themselves....which can end up in a tragedy.

Hope this helps you a bid.

Killing the other dog, means more attention, love, and food for her.

For what it's worth, I don't think the Daschund was trying to kill the little dog. Especially if they had been together for three years with no problem.
I think that she considers herself Alpha of your little pack, normal dogs protect puppies, and I think she was just protecting the puppy and the old dog was just too fragil. Grabbing a dog by the neck and pinning it to the ground is how dog's discipline other dogs, your little Poochie was just too delicate.
I didn't see what breed the puppy is, the only thing I would be worried about is if the little fellow is much smaller than the daschund. We have three whire haired standard daschunds and they are tough little buggers.

Unfortunately, the dachshund probably just snapped. There had probably always been some jealously since the older dog more than likely got babied a bit more due to its disabilities. Just like humans, the dog probably just took it a little too far in the heat of the moment. The age and health of the dachshund didnt help either.

I'm sorry for your loss :(

My moms large Tom cat killed her yorkie in the same way after living together for several years. It upset my mom quite terribly as well. It's one family member killing another. Seriously upsetting.

I have taken in so many strays that have been victimized by humans. One of the issues with them is trying to socialize them. More often than not socialization is difficult and never a complete task. Poochi most likely had issues and was unable to socialize fully with more than one dog.

Blame the humans that did that to her, not her.

Looking toward the future, I strongly suggest you take Puppy and Dachshund to dog parks and get them used to meeting and being around 'strange' dogs. Socialization is key to dogs behaving more like humans, and being more accepting of other dogs.

Why did this happen? A number of factors come into play.

Dachshunds are the shape they are because they were breed to hunt badgers. Dachshunds are by their nature ferocious killers because badgers are bad-assed.

Hunting dogs come in two basic types. Flushers (like bird dogs) who were bred for tracking and flushing out prey for the human to kill, and killers - terriers, dachshunds, Rhodesian Ridgebacks - were all bred to hunt and kill their prey. Ridgebacks are really bad assed, they were bred to hunt lions!

Understand that any hunter who was bred to bring down prey is going to have a streak of mean to them, their temperament will be all nice to humans in general, but any emotionally intense situation is going to bring out the killer instinct.

A lion killer, will kill and will kill anything that is as fierce as a lion. A badger killer will kill, and will kill anything as fierce as a badger. Many generations of breeding specifically for that talent is hardwired into the dogs brain.

Understand you are dealing with an animals brain, not a human brain. Animals lack a large pre-frontal lobe, the seat of reasoning and rationality.

Consider this, when humans get emotional they rely on their emotions over their rational brain to make choices, human pre-frontal lobes are far larger and more advanced than a dogs.

Then there is evolution, the survival of species is not the survival of individuals, it is the survival of offspring, the babies, the puppies, the kittehs. The old are always sacrificed for the young. This is why so many young couples decide to move the parents off to a nursing home and then turn around and have a baby that ends up requiring a hella lot more personal care than mom or dad. It is instinctual to protect the young the babies.

In humans that is why we find abusers of children, killers of children to be far more offensive than abusers of adults. Its instinct to protect the young. Humans have it and temper it with reason, Dogs have it and don't have much reasoning ability (stacked against human reasoning ability).

All of these factors play a role here.

Dogs do not have the rationality of a human being, and you already know that humans when emotional make bad choices, dogs will make worse choices, acting on emotions. Instinctual protection of 'babies' is in nearly every mammalian species, nurturing and caring and protecting the young often trumps other things.

This was NOT a premeditated act of malevolence, this was a dog being a dog and acting like a dog in a confrontational situation, and the breed of dog was bred specifically to kill anything that it confronted, since badgers are fearless and mean and lethal little critters, a dog bred to hunt and kill them has to be a wee bit more fearless, a wee bit more mean and a wee bit more lethal in order to win.

Dachshund was protecting the 'baby' as most adult mammals will side on the infants side. Clearly this took place early on when the puppy arrived due to what you reported the Dachshund doing when Poochi acted like a grumpy old lady.

For all we know the bite was only supposed to be a nip, but centuries of breeding to do a job well kicked in and the dog did what it is designed to do.

You are anthropomorphizing* this dog, you are attempting to apply human culture and human standards/values on a creature that lives with humans, and may experience similar (but not wholly same) emotions and living habits as humans, but the dog is not a human being. She is first and foremost and evermore shall be a dog.

Yes it is shocking, yes in our human world such behavior is animalistic and beastly, and no doubt you are suffering very real loss here for the old one. Your feelings are valid to a large degree, however I remind you to use that large forebrain you have and temper your emotional 'angst' at the Dachshund.

Let this experience serve to remind you that a dog will forever be a dog. Yes I know, dogs are so friendly, so soft and cuddly and fulfill human needs for companionship and lots of other wonderful stuff.

But never forget in the back of your mind that dogs are predatory, carnivorous creatures which have the teeth and jaw power to do serious damage, and somewhere in the inbred (by humans) puppy brain of Dog (dogs are so friendly because we bred them to be eternal puppies compared to their more wild ancestors) lurks the wild adult beast.

For your kids sake, lets just simplify it and say that dachshund was protecting the puppy not knowing that Poochi was really incapable of harming the baby.

However I hope you will, eventually, use this incident to instil in your kids respect for animal species as animals sometime in the medium range future, after the shock and loss is over with.

Also, socialize your critters if you ever think you may get another. Also seriously consider dog breeds, check out what purpose they were bred for.

Herders are more docile, less likely to seriously bite. They will nip - as many often do nip at the livestock they herd to get the attention of the herd. Flushers/pointers while hunt dogs are bred to flush prey not to kill, thus they are not as prone to viciously biting based on instinct.



*(anthropomorphize) ascribe human features to something

Whatever you do, don't blame the dog. Analyzing a dog's psychological makeup to determine intent is ill-advised. Just forgive him, let it go, and move on.

in a pack the weaker dog should be submissive, the Chihuahua didn't acknowledge the dachshund's alpha role, paid for it