hiya just a bit of advice really, ita not a huge issue but i feel i need to start putting my foot down with it. i will give you some background iformation on the pack first.

angel= 7yr old bitch. entire. had 3 litters and the most amazing mum ever. very maternal to all puppies. she is a very calm relaxed girl but is top of the pack.
she does this with ease and very very rarely has to put someone in their place.

tilly=4 yr old bitch, entire. angels daughter. quite hyper still for her age but very respectful of other dogs. she is second in he pack i have never once ever seen a cross word
between her and angel ever.

yoko= 2 and half yr old bitch. entire. still very hyper gets what she wants all the time as she is till very puppyish. extremely bright but attention span of a nit.
third in the pack. occasionally has a try to overthrow tilly but not too hard.

oliver= 3 yr old dog. castrated. calm laid back very much hen pecked by yoko. if he has something she wants it, she gets it. if she wants to play he will, warily. then regret it as she will soon get bad tempered with him and then tell him off.

now here is the problem, or what i percieve will become a problem. yoko is treated like a puppy by everyone apart from oliver. she climbs into bed with angel 99 per cent of the time and then maybe tilly. and they allow her to lay on top of them. angel is 7 and altho she is a good healthy 7 i feel she deserves to have a sleep without a 65kilo overgrown puppy crawling on top of her.
when angel or tilly get a bit sick of her not wanting  her to sit on them they will get up and move before she gets on them so she gets their bed. if she wants to sleep where they are she will stand and stare at them about an inch from their face and they will move. its only oliver that doesnt move but she does try with him. it really is not dominance its just them still seeing her as
a puppy still as she acts like one. i would like her to start to grow up so angel can have her retirement years in peace and eventually tilly also.

any questions please ask if i havent covered them, any suggestions welcome.

Hi Mahonc,
I only keep bitches, the numbers have varied from two to four over the years. At the moment we have three.
What you describe is typical ;-)  The youngest gets her way every time, bullying the older girls something terrible. And you worry, thinking how will she ever grow up, and become a good mother?
But like a miracle, when she has her own litter, and you keep a bitch pup, the roles are turned over. The bitch that used to behave like she "owned the world" now has become the doting mother. Letting the youngest bully her around, and seeming to love being trod on too ;-)

I think dogs give far more slack to the younger ones, than we do. The youngest in a pack gets treated like a pup, until a younger dog enters the scene. At the moment my eldest is fourteen (birthday on Saturday :-) ) and the others have for a long time understood that Tella has to be treated more gentle than before. I think this comes naturally when it's time. Maybe your Angel would feel left out if she didn't have 65 kilo bullying youngster on top of her at bed-time ;-)

Good luck with your girls,
Karen

HI, thanks for your reply. i did think about the tables turning when she has a litter, but that plan was laid to rest when yoko failed her heart tests.
so im unable to breed from her and shes just so puppyish i dont think she will ever grow out of it.

Oh, I wouldn't bet on that. The day you include a new puppy in the pack, her days of getting away with things are over ;-)
She'll not be the youngest anymore, and the others will start treating her like the grown up dog she really is ;-)

I agree with that. Although I've so far only bred one litter I have introduced new puppies.

Each time a new pup arrives the dynamics change. Charlie, my eldest dog, played regularly with Hamish. When Lottie arrived, Hamish paired up with her. When Winnie arrived, her and Lottie became best playmates and so on...... Although this is rather simplistic and they do all play with others at various times, there is a definite "youngest play together" and "take advantage of the oldies" thing going on.

I had this when my 10 yr old EBT Snoop was not well and in pain, my younger girl of 5- Tinkerbell (a staff/ patterdale/lab) would lie right on top of him, I would tell her off and not allow her to lie on top of him. When I got Starsky, Tinkerbells brother in September he started to growl at Snoop and started to take over luckily now Snoop has recovered from his neck/back injury and has made a brilliant recovery he is back to being top dog in the house and will climb into the bed with any of the youngsters tinkerbell will not move or mind but Starsky will move out of his way.

I would make sure the young one knows she is not allowed to push your older girl out of the way on her say so.