Any suggestions to stop my four year old male (casterated) from growling at our new 2 year old male (about to be casterated tomorrow) from growling at him, even for walking into the room.  The younger one does'nt take a blind bit of notice of him but it does get on your nerves abit.  Do you think this will stop when he has had his op? Thanks. Caz.

To be honest it is far better that he growls, as if you manage to stop him growling he will have no way of giving a warning and may instead just go straight into an attack on the other dog. How long have you had the new dog? Sounds to me like the older one is perhaps simply pointing out he is in charge.

I agree with this point entirely, I think the word new is more the problem here than the other male being entire.

I have no castrated dogs come to visit my home all are entire, mothers dog, brothers dogs, stud dog comes to stay, and also my pups come to visit, all bump into each other regualrly, treat my home as their second home and all get along.

These two dogs are both mature now, castrated or uncastrated makes no difference, it is purely your older dog telling the younger that he is the Alpha, castration I doubt will make the difference it will sort out on it's own, just be vigilant as long as the younger is happy to stand down there will be no problems, if he doesn't, you may have two dogs who will not get along.

I agree with Goldmali, let the body language and vocal cordes do the talking and hopefully they will sort out their differences quickly and your 4 year old will soon feel at ease with his new friend.

We have had the two year old for two weeks. The older one has known him and mixed with him since the younger one was 4 months old as he belonged to our neighbour who has emigrated. My little bitch thinks its great to have the younger one here as he plays with her, maybe the older dog thinks hes getting pushed out.

Are you giving the new dog a lot of fuss? I would tend to make sure the older dog knows he is still the apple of your eye and not bother quite so much about the new one for a while - he hasn't had the attention so much and won't miss it from you, whereas the older one has and will. I'm not suggesting in any way ignore the new one - just be lower key in fussing him etc and be obvious you "prefer" the older one until things settle.

Lindsay
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Yes, we have been giving the older one more fuss than the younger one. I'm sure they will sort it out.