I had an incident this evening and was amazed.
My deaf pup Levi was basically pestering the life out of my oldie. My Aussie boy Rush was on his rug giving the pup dirty looks and eventually got up. Rush growled showed the teeth and pup still ignored him. Rush then upped the stakes and pushed his body into Levi. Still got ignored...Rush then put the whole display on. Growling (which pup felt because Rush has his throat over pups neck)...showing of teeth and more body pressure. Pup moved away and Rush went to lay down again...Levi headed straight back for the old girl...Rush body blocked the pup. Pup didn't listen again and started tugging the old girls legs..then the cheeky monkey got into her basket and on top of her...Rush decided Levi had enough warnings...did another big show of growling and teeth...which of course pup ignored...Well...Rush gave the pup a bashing...never once used his teeth...but gave him an almighty jab to the neck with his nose...hard enough to make the pup squeak.... Well pup decided he had better listen...and left the old girl alone the rest of the evening.
I would have normally intervened on the old girls behalf...but Rush seemed keen so I let him sort it...as I didn't think Levi would take me seriously.
I was totally surprised at the way Rush handled the situation...very pleased with the results and glad to know Rush can see when he needs to step in and that he wasn't trying to be a bully...also once Levi relented Rush left him alone. One sharp correction and that is all it took.
He did a much better job than I think I could have done..:-)

Go Rush the Wise Man...

Cheers
J

Apart from having more dogs to love, I often think this is the real bonus of having more than one dog--I watch my major domo tell the others politely (and then more roughly if he needs to) how things are done around here :) bless those wise dogs, they do their job so well. We have a very cheeky young man and my oldest boy will come up to tell me when he's got something he shouldn't (e.g. counter surfing trophies) or will even take it off him first. I've had to warn my sons never to assume that Diesel is the culprit, it's much more likely to be the resident bad lad Bean :)

Yep, other dogs are always the best teachers for pups, people so often interfere when there is no need.

Apart from puppy teaching, I'm always amazed when my girl has been in whelp the other family dogs are extremely protective of her, if we are out walking they form a barrier around her and when normally they would happily allow other dogs to meet and greet, they refuse to let them anywhere near my girl, I don't think I have ever had to intervene once if a bouncy lab comes over to say hi. :-D

They are great to watch when they interact like this aren't they. I had an incident many years ago when a friend brought her Golden around to my house. The bitch started playing IMO a bit too rough with my Shola, they were near to each others ages but Shola was really starting to not enjoy this much attention,  then the bitch must have thought that she was 'easy meat' and started to play even more rough. At that moment, my older girl, Tasha,  put herself between them and backed the other bitch into a corner. Not a growl or any sign of nastiness but just let her know the ground rules. She obviously thought that Shola couldn't cope with the situation and made sure the other bitch knew to back off. Tasha was most grounded, balanced and confident dog and the other bitch immediately started playing a lot nicer. Brilliant, and they call them 'dumb animals' never!

10yr old JR girl is teaching 18wk old pupster some manners these last few days, nothing aggressive but enough for her to know when old lady says enough then enough it is...pupster is learning...slowly.
JR also taught the younger dogs to go out the cat flap to go to the toilet and she helped housetrain them...she in turn was taught by our old ginger tom cat when she was a pup..(sadly Ben is no longer with us). Our present cat takes no prisoners, if the pup is getting out of hand she walks up to her, rubs her face on the pup whilst purring and then turns round and grabs her round the neck by her front legs...no claws or teeth tho...makes pup behave instantly.

Gosh yes, train your first dog well and then you can relax, have not had to house train a pup since the first, or teach how to ask to go out, where the water is or any of those domestic matters, equally they teach the youngsters when there may be a walk or Bonio in the offering.

Aww, well done Rush, would he like to come over here as my puppy constantly pesters her mother and is now big enough to drag her around by ears or tail. Ellie would not stand for this from any other dog or puppy but she doesn't seem to know how to tell her own puppy that that is enough. Luckily puppy doesn't try to do this with any other dogs!!

A friend brought her new puppy to visit,and as we were chatting, I picked a couple of our dogs toys out of the box for the puppy to play with whilst we had a cup of tea,but one of my adults collected the toys up and put them back in the box,spoilt madam was not willing to share her toys,or was she just demonstrating her dominance,it was so funny to see at the time.