Ive been looking after the neighbours 16 week old cocker spaniel dog a couple of afternoons a week and although its going well i have one problem that i'm sure those of you that have been in this situation before will be able to help me with. i have a male neutered nearly 4 year old GSD who is very big, the cocker is obviously very small.we go next door with my dog on lead and pick up the cocker and go for an on lead walk, this is fine except that when my dog realises we are meeting the pup he gets VERY excited and starts barking and pulling hard towards it,no thing can distract him, i think hes just really pleased to see him. After a minute when he calms down we go on the walk and all is well and they sniff the ground, each other etc, all calm and good.Then we go back to my house let them both of and while keeping an eye on them try to leave them to it, the pup is on the go all the time and mine follows him round smelling him, and will have a bit of a grumble if the pup oversteps the mark but otherwise im rather pleased with the whole thing. my worry is about when they meet, i think there might be too much human intervention but i am frightened of letting my dog steam in and crush the poor little bugger to death?????

I had to control Zak with my voice when I first had Tilly (small terrier X). Zak was exactly the same, but luckily terriers are quite robust, Zak did learn the command 'gently' though! Even now when we are out & they are loose, he will sometimes go galloping up to her & looks like he will jump on her & injure her. He doesn't though he veers to the side as he gets close. I must admit he used to give me heart failure watching him. As long as the spaniel does accept these warning growls that your GSD gives him I think they will be fine. I think it's great to see 2 dogs playing, sometimes it's absolute chaos in our house when they are having a mad 5 mins. Mine are brilliant together though, I can leave them together all of the time with no worries whatsover. Good Luck.

I agree the voice command gently is a great command to teach, but in the mean time, is it possible for you to pop next door, get the pup and bring him to your home first let them both say hello to each other in your home where you can supervise safer and move quicker and better and get that hello isn't this exciting energy out of the way, then put them both on lead for a nice walk, your GSD will not be dragging you to the pups home then as he will have already said hello. :-)

funny you should say that carrington, as thats what happened today and the pup was in my kitchen before my dog knew anything about it and it was much better, thanks for the advice.