Hi There

I hope soemone can help with some advice.....

my Hubby and I have 2 3 year old Lab bitches who have been spayed.  Due to the nature of our jobs, we sometimes leave our girls with my parents who are avid dog lovers.  They did have a male unneutered Lab who passed away recently and my 2 girls were brilliant with him.

My parents have recently brought home a beautiful GSP dog unneuterd puppy who is very confident and not backwards at coming forwards. I introduced my 2 to him on Sunday and we are incountering a few problems.... My black bitch is now acting very strangely and completely avoids the puppy to the point that if he starts barking at her to play with him, she freezes and snarls at him before running to sanctury upstairs.  The puppy is not being boistereous or anything like that but she will snarl at him and starts foaming from the mouth. She won't take treats off my mum and dad nor will she accept any fuss off them, as if she is ignoring us!! I think its a dominance issue but I'm not sure how best to resolve it.

The Yellow is a bit more tolerant but she will growl at the puppy when he comes too close but she will share a mat with him providing he isn't too close.

Does anyone know why my black dog is behaving the way she is and what can we do to help all the dogs in the house?? I have the oppourtunity to split my 2 up next week....would that help?!!!

Any advice/guidence/experience is greatly recieved.

Hi,  I have no useful advice for you but my dog does the same ignoring trick.  My dog walker has a new pup that she has been slowly introducing to missy in a very controlled manner.  Missy completely blanks the pup  and looks past it like it isn't even there and won't even take biscuits from my dog walker if she is holding the 'offending article' (AKA an adorable bull terrier pup who could melt a heart of stone!).  i sympathise with you but have no solutions. sorry.

I have known bitches in the past that just don't like puppies so, try not to take your girls behaviour too personally ;-)  At the end of the day they are bouncing hooligans with pins for teeth and love nothing more then getting hold of any part of an older dogs anatomy and I'm not really suprised some are just not up for it :-)
From what you have said she is just warning him to stay away from her and perhaps she is a little over the top with it as he didn't listen before when she just gave a small growl maybe ?? She has probably worked out over the years that sulking has got her what she wanted, and the not taking treats, etc seems to be really upsetting for owners. I would just try to ignore her behaviour as much as possible and give her plenty of attention rather then the puppy so, she knows its fine it she doesn't want to play with him for the time being and she is still great ;-)

Dogs are very much like us, as in they don't all act the same, some dogs love puppies, some tolerate but do not play with them and some like your black lab want to get as far away from them as possible, and will snarl at a pup to give the message that they will not be play mate in anyway.

My girl loves pups will mother and play with anything, the majority of my mothers bitches will play with and teach a pup but my mothers Alpha has nothing to do with pups she will watch and funnily enough she will protect, but she gets the message across pretty fast with a snarl if they come near that she is not for fun with them, she completely ignores any youngster, a pup learns within a day that Alpha bitch is not the childminder. :-D

In your case it takes time, your labs will get used to the new pup, don't be worried about the odd snarl they are bitches who will soon have the GSP under control and perhaps by the sound of it your yellow lab will take the pup under her wing eventually, your black may just become indifferent to him, it is not often that both bitches will become bossum buddies with him, the more Alpha may well take a back seat as my mother's does.

As he is entire and quite a full on breed with lots of energy he will most probably be put in his place very often he needs canine boundaries installed and one or both of your bitches will do that too.

To be honest at present I would leave all 3 alone to sort out the new living arrangements, tell your parents to keep a watchful eye but not to interfere, if your black lab wishes to remove herself allow her to do so, the pup will soon learn she is not for playing with, your parents should act completely normal, not overfuss the black lab as that may install that there is something wrong, just be upbeat and as they normally would be, see how things progress but don't expect them all to get along, that time may well come when the GSP is a mature adult, but for now your black lab just isn't into pups so you need to respect that and leave her be, your yellow I feel will be a good role model and take him under her wing. :-)

Thanks all for your advice/guidence, I think the black one is in a full sulk and hopefully will come around but in her own time.  She is the Alpha out of both of them so I suppose she will be a bit more guarded over her personal space...she does foam at the mouth  though when she sees him...is this a sign that she is scared/nervous or full on aggression?? She also will show her teeth at him (not that he is remotely bothered by any of this!!)

Hi,
I am no expert but it might help if you can introduce them whilst there are all on leads with the dogs walking side by side. (if the GSP is lead trained) This would mean the are meeting in a non-confrontational way and help them gain each others trust a little before the pup gets into playing. It may also help to get off any excess energy that he has. Even if this is in the back garden there are also other distractions around so they are not just focusing on one another and you are in control of the dogs. After this let them have a little sniff of each and then move on with the walking again.

It  may help to introduce both you dogs separately as you can spend the one on one time with each of them and your dogs are not together as a "pack". It's also a good idea to remove any high value items such as food and toys. Also paying little attention to the dogs at first until the are settled around one another.

Your dogs may also we our mums house as their's if they spend a lot of time there. It is a big thing introducing a new dog in to somewhere they see as their territory. We have just intoduced a second dog to our house and it does take time for them to settle

Hope this has helped and good luck with it

...she does foam at the mouth  though when she sees him...is this a sign that she is scared/nervous or full on aggression?? She also will show her teeth at him (not that he is remotely bothered by any of this!!)

Showing teeth is normal dog talk, which is why the pup is not bothered,  he will listen to the signal or push his luck and maybe get a snarl and in the face growl, if he is silly enough not to listen to that, he may well get a nip and then next time he will understand that a show of teeth means back down and go away, you will probably notice that he will lick the mouth of one or both females to show he understands and submits if he is licking the bitches mouths they will not hurt him even though a lot of noise may be going on.

Excess saliva can mean many things, your black lab most probably is salivating due to stress, it can be excitment, fear, not aggression or she would be at a full on charge, adult dogs very rarely want to hurt a pup, with him being a male too there will be no heirarchy issues, just the odd slap down for him being a boisterous youngster, she is most probably stressed by the fact that a pup and newcomer is in what she perceives to be part of her territory, give things time to settle, it will. :-)

Hi your girls are setting the ground rules with the young lad so are not going to give him an inch while he is a young. My 3 yr old bitch was/ is the same with my friends male boxer pup and would severely tell him off if he went near her she has made him yelp a few times. The only way I got her to be be friends with him is by taking them out walking together her off lead and him trying to catch her she knows she is faster so would enjoying running loops around him. She still is not keen on him in our house he is 2 years old now and neutered but she will still show her teeth and have a go. The more good experiences your girls have with the pup around the more they will associate pleasant things with him included. I would keep him on the lead when walking at first let your girls have their freedom to get out of his way. Then allow them to run about together at the end of a walk. Inside the house if the pup starts hassling your girls pull him away- not the girls as they might build up more hate for him if they keep getting told off. I would not leave them alone together as the pup might over step his forwardness with your black girl and she will tell him off harshly and your other girl may join in, the pup would be just get freaked out by them and become nervous. Your girl snarling like a demented wolf is just a warning to the pup to stay back and don't even think of coming near me to lick me! The pup coming to your house for visits will be good for your girls too as they will be more confident in there own home rather than at nan's house.

The wee man is still too young to be taken out but when he is I'm sure this will be a good way for them to get on a bit better.  It is quite heartbreaking watching my Black dog so stressed but based on your suggestions, letting her cope with it my staying away should help to resolve some of the issues.  The Chap will be coming to my house soon so we will see how it works out then.  Many Thanks for all your comments, by the looks of it this behaviour is quite normal and we just got to stick with it. x

I think the behaviour is quite normal, puppies are seen as quite low in the dog world. Having recently raised a pup myself, I have noted that other dogs are very quick to ignore a young pup and even tell it off if it annoys them. My dogs who live with the pup act in exactly the same way. It just establishes the pups position in the pack.

It is very important as stated above that you do not make a big detail about the older dog's behaviour, as eventually they will start to tolerate the pup more once he understand his place in the pack. Just watch what happens carefully to ensure nobody gets hurt.

hi im having the same problem with my weimar girl who is 8 ,she gets on well with our 2 year old mini schnauzer who constantly annoys her but isnt taking to our new weimar boy puppy at all , we have had him for two weeks now and i thought she would have came round by now. she is the alpha dog and likes to keep everything in check but i really wish they would get on. i am worried about when he gets older and much bigger in the event he challenges her. she growls whenever the puppy and the schnauzer play together.
they are just the best breed and i do want them to be best of friends even though there is a bit of an age difference.

good luck and let me know how you get on you could maybe pass  on some tips to me
amanda

Well do Amanda, I know its tough esp when you want them all to get on!!

hi bit of  a breakthrough today i took all three dogs out today to  a large bit of grass with no other dogs around  all of them off lead my oldest weimar was actually wanting to play with the puppy which was nice to see .she was getting a bit boisterous and didnt want the little man to get hurt  but by early next year i think there will be a bit of play fighting going on. she has also been quite nice to him indoors aswell today maybe she finally realises hes not going anywhere and hes here to stay.

amandaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

i cant help as to why but when i bought a dog puppy at 8 weeks my partners russell bitch attacked him