hi i have a 10 week old english bull terrier puppy bitch, and i also have a two dalmatians (fully grown bitch and dog) the puppy seems to get on fine with the bitch but the dog is totally different! he really growls at her and then she starts to bark at him, on nearly every occasion he snaps at her, so we have to constantly watch them, which is very stressfull!! how can i stop them!! this is only one problem! secondly: obviously we cant leave the puppy with the other two at night so we take her to bed with us, she doesnt like this one jot as she wants to be with the other two, she cries, barks and scratches the door to go out to the other two but we are worried that he might turn nasty without us knowing. thirdly: she is ever so bad tempered!! if you try and tell her off she snaps at you, if shes laid on her back and she cant right herself she growls, gets really angry and bites anything nearest to her! i dont want her to grow up to be a violent dog! she was the only pup in the litter do you think this might have anything to do with it? oh and how long do you think it will be before she stops biting and chewing?

Personally I would crate the pup at night in with the other dogs, making sure that your boy is okay with this. Then you know neither can come to any physical harm. Dogs (as opposed to bitches) are often very nervous of puppies, and need careful handling to accept them.

It also won't help that the pup was a singleton, because she won't have learned from her littermates how to behave - this could be why she gets on with your bitch. The rest of the litter would normally rteach her more about how hard nipping can be before it stops being tolerable. Even pups who know how to behave with other dogs need to learn that people are wimps and softies and need to be handled very gently - you will have to be very determined and very consistent. With proper training (have you got The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Baioley?) by the time she's about 6 months old and her adult teeth are through she should be fine.

hi thanks for the help, i'm just worried that she wont like the crate, she is very needy of me and always checks that i'm close by, would this affect her in any way?

We have had a few problems getting our matur dog to accept the new pup, he is not keen on puppies at the best of time as all he wants is an easy life. He has never really snapped at him though he has chased him across the room a couple of times when pup has overstepped the mark!  Now they are pretty good together, Obi knows Dylan is in charge, at least for now, and he will now let him clean his ears and lay next to him on occasion.  Obi is crated whenever we are not around. Just keep rewarding your older boy when the pup is around and he is gentle and remember it is your responsibility to not let your pup annoy your older dog

All the very best, puppies can be a nuisance but they do grow out of it - eventually! :)

Hayley

If she is very needy of you, then definitely get her sleeping away from you. You don't want to have her too dependent on you or you will be crating problems in the future. Also having her with you, apart from the others, is raising her status even further - from what you say she's quite uppity enough without needing further encouragement!

Your male dalmatian is probably frightened of her and doesn't yet know how to react.

I had quite a surprise when I brought my pup home to a fully grown male dalmatian, for such a bold dog normally, he was obviously very scared of her.  She took advantage of this and it took a few weeks for it to sort itself out.

I am sure he will come round to her as soon as she stops being so balshy.

Sandra

Edited to say  -  Go with the crate idea as JG suggested.  At the moment, by taking her into your bedroom you are promoting her status above the other dogs which won't help your problems.

thankyou very much everybody, you have all been very helpfull! i will keep you informed on our progress.

Have found that my boys take about 14 days to decide a new pup is not from outer space and can be approached and played with. Agree with crating the pup at night it protects the pup, your adults and your home, nothing worse laying in bed and wonder what the chewing noise is.

I personally wouldn't advise laying her on her back - did you mean you are doing this yourself

It used to be thought this was a good way to show pups who is boss, but it seems to create more problems. I agree with JGs book suggestion, loads of helpful advice in there. Also maybe consider getting the mag "your Dog" (from Smiths) as it has lots of helpful stuff in.

Lindsay

what i meant about her being on her back was that when she rolls over when we're playing with her she sometimes gets stuck and cant roll back, if u know what i mean and she gets angry with herself and gets quite nasty. when we took her for her first jab the vet said to hold her in our arms on her back but that didnt work at all, she just struggled and bit me!! so now if shes doing anything wrong i clap my hands quite loud and she stops to some extent. is this the right thing to do?  

As the others have said a crate would enable her to be with the other dogs, and in the mean time you can use it in your bedroom for a short period which will help to get her used to not sleeping with you all the time, as the crate will be 'her' space.....  The big lad is probably scared of her, and in return she hasn't had the opportunity (being a singleton) to learn correct responses to doggy situations :(  Both of them are socially handicapped :( The growling is her defence system (which again hasn't been modified by interactions with litter mates and other adult dogs during the crucial development stage), telling a puppy off rarely acheives anything other than damaging the relationship until they trust you implicitly :( Try and concentrate on the things she's doing right, and praise her for them, and ignore or distract (depending on the danger of the situation) most of the other stuff she does - most of which could be avoided with a little management.