Can anyone help me with a little problem before it becomes a big one.
I have two 11 month boy springers who up until now have always been excellent, but over the last couple of weeks one has started to get a bit bossy with the other. I know this is quite normal in dogs but how do I stop it. I dont really want to get one neutered if I dont have to.

The standard answer to this is to reinforce the position of the dominant dog. Put his food bowl down first, greet him before the other one, give him his treat first (saying their names as you do it - this helps them learn each other's name, which can be very useful in the future). Maybe even let the top dog on the sofa but keep the other one on the floor.

In theory this should lessen their need for competition to determine status. They are in the early phase of their adolescence, when there are more hormones surging around than there will be when they are mature, so if you can get their pack order sorted out now there may be no need for castration. If after several months there is no improvement it is usually recommended to castrate the subordinate dog to reinforce the position of the dominant dog.

Generally once they have a settled place in the "pecking order" they are quite happy to stick with it.

Hope this helps. :)

I hope it doesn't come to casteration because one of them has retinal dysplasia and his sight is very poor, this is the more dominant one but out of the two the one we would have casterated for other reasons.The subordinate one is going to make an excellent gun dog he is very easy to train and showing excellent signs of being a FTCH and we would like to keep him intact if possible.
Hopefully they will sort themselves out so we wont need to take drastic action on either of them

Whilst I agrere with Jeangenie in the main - the height of the sleeping position isn't always 'top dog' highest - normally it's the look out who has the highest position, the 'top dog' will be at the bottom of the sleeping pile being kept warm by his subordinates......

You're right digger, I didn't explain that very well! When I said the "top dog" should (maybe) allowed on the sofa and the other on the floor, I meant it only in that the sofa is a warm, comfy place, not that it is physically higher!

Hi
I agree Digger
This is how dog behaviour often gets confusing, we think dog on sofa,comfy place...they see it higher and the look outs place......
Tracey