Hi,

Does anyone have any advice please?

We have two dogs - Border Terrier Male aged 4 - and a Mini-schnauzer aged 7. We have recently brought an 8 week old Doberman bitch puppy who is adorable! The schnauzer is lovely and chilled with her but the Border is a problem.

He basically won't stop following the puppy around and slobbers over her, licks her and every now and again does this weird teeth chattering thing and nips at her. He doesn't seem to have hurt her but it is clearly stressing the pup out and she keeps trying to get out of his way. He, however, constantly follows her and keeps up this horrible routine.

We have tried to keep calm and command him to come away, which he does do for about ten seconds and then is right back over her. We have also been giving him time out in another room.

Are we doing the right thing or should we just let him do this until he gets bored?

Why is he doing it? It is a really odd mixture of submission and agression!

Confused we are and would be grateful of any advice?

Best,

Lee

Basically he is behaving like she is a bitch in season -the teeth chattering etc is very typical of a male dog having smelt an in season bitch. Could she be having a minor infection (vaginitis is fairly common in bitch pups) that may confuse him and make him think she is in season?

Hi,

He has been castrated, shouldn't that make a difference? The other male dog who isn't castrated isn't reacting to her like that at all!

Not sure about the minor infection? Maybe I should ask the vet to check that out when she goes for her next lot of jabs.

Thanks for the post. All very peculiar!

:)

they  can still be interested and can still mate entire or not! think an 8wk old will be safe though! have you tried giving the pup a bath ..she may still have the mum smell on her.

Hi,

Okay. We have wiped her with puppy wipes though the bath may be a good idea!

He (the slobbering, teeth chattering Border) is just driving us mad as he won't leave her alone - for a minute! We will just have to keep giving them time out and hope he chills out.

Thanks for taking the time to post a response.

Lee

if you have a crate you could put pup in the crate and leave it in the same room as yourselves and your other dogs... giving them time to become accusomed to each other without BT bothering the pup to much.
Make sure you are not paying the pup too much attention and making the BT nervous, give him loads of fuss ... I would give the pup a bath as teeth chattering is common to dogs in heat and smells.
Also make sure you are not blaming the pup for his behaviour ..check him out that he is fit and well .  :)

I find our male dog do this when we bring any new puppy home, I believe it is because they have the smell of the bitch on them.  Give her a wipe over but it should stop soon.

Hi,

Thanks for all your advice. We have given her a good clean all over so hopefully that will help.

We are also giving our BT lad some time out in another room when he gets really over excited and rough as I think it is starting to stress the Doberman pup out and she has only just left her Mum and litter!

I am sure it will all settle down. Fingers crossed!

As an aside, I have always been a small dog lover but Eve, the Doberman pup, is stunning and bright as a button!

Thanks!

Lee

what a lovely name!good luck with them all!

> We have given her a good clean all over so hopefully that will help.

If scent remains an issue then it's worth swapping bedding.  One of my dogs thought our puppy was a ghastly mistake - until the pup was 12 weeks.  Just to help things along a bit I'd swap their bedding around each night so they could gradually familiarise themselves with each other without too much contact.  The adult isn't usually allowed a fleece as it makes him a bit hot and itchy so he was thrilled to receive his used bedding!  Nowadays he's just fine with the youngster but has developed a fondness for his fleecy bed too :)