Hi all,

As you may have picked up from other posts, we have a two year old bitch and recently brought home a dog pup, who is now 10 weeks. The older dog has been great with the puppy, really patient with him but letting him know when he goes too far, and enjoying chasing and tug of war games in the garden. She is really gentle with him and is doing pretty much exactly what I would have hoped.

My concern is that, ever since the puppy came home, the older dog has seemed "down". She is much quieter than normal, and if both dogs are laying by our feet on an evening she will often go off and lay by herself in the corner. She will also often let the puppy push her out of the way, for example if we are making a fuss of her and he wants to butt in, or nosing her out of her food bowl (we have to either hold him or put him in another room while she eats as he would push her away and she would let him, whereas she isn't interested in his food). Also, she will often now hold back and wait for us to call her when we enter a room and then approach us submissively, which she never did before, almost as if she isn't sure that we want to greet her (I may be over-analysing this!). She isn't like this all the time, but she was such a lively, happy dog before that I really notice the difference.

We always make a big effort to make her feel like she is the number one dog in our eyes, given she has had us to herself for two years. She always gets fed first, I take her out for walks on her own, and three or four times a week I spend about thirty minutes grooming her and fussing over her which she loves. I also try and make sure that she gets plenty of treats and fussing whenever he does (as he is learning housetraining and basic commands), so she doesn't think that he is something special.

However, there are clearly times when we must pay him some attention and I hate the fact that I feel guilty for leaving her out, and then feel angry that I feel bad for making a fuss of the puppy.

Is it normal that an older dog will seem quiet and unhappy for a while when a boisterous puppy arrives, even if we make efforts to give her lots of attention? Also, is this something that passes as the puppy grows up? I'm hoping things will improve once the puppy has his second jabs at the weekend, so we can start thinking about going for walks together and get into a proper routine.

> Is it normal that an older dog will seem quiet and unhappy for a while when a boisterous puppy arrives

Very normal.
It's called a huff :-)
Most likely the older one will come around to being pups best friend, it can take a little time but suddenly they will be doing 'the wacky races'

Years ago I had a GSD (first) and then got a Yorkie.  Everything was fine.   Next, I added another GSD.  The Yorkie figured out on Day 1 that she could boss the 8-week old GSD around (she took umbrage at the GSD pup wanting to help her dig a hole in the garden)  so everything was fine then too and there was no jealousy or hurt feelings.   

Well, a couple of years later I added a Cairn puppy.  That did it.   My Yorkie lived upstairs for nearly two weeks.  She would only appear for meals and to go outside to do her business.  After two weeks she gave up and decided to come back downstairs to live :-)   Huff over.  And she was really great with the Cairn as well, once she figured out her place in the pack was not at risk.

That's great to hear. OH has been grumbling that "my puppy" (which is what he becomes whenever there's a problem) has upset the older dog so much that we'll never get the sweet natured girl back.

Personally, sometimes I think she actually wants us to keep the pup's attention so she can sneak off for a nap without waking up to find her tail/ear/face being used as a teething toy!

This brings back the memorys lol. 

My first pug only weighed 1.5 kg when I bought her home and my two 34kg chows were well cheesed off, every time she went over to them they would stampeed to the kitchen at the horror of it all! 

After a week or so the first one came round and then turned into a right Nana, always washing her and playing with her in the most childish way possible.  The other one thought he was way too cool to hang round with a puppy and would tut and huff if she came near but a few weeks later he caved in too.

Your girl will come round and don't worry about her being submissive to the puppy, it is perfectly natural that puppies are allowed to take liberties up until a certain age.  Your girl will know when it is the right time to start teaching him some manners :)

My older girly was like this, got really sulky and huffy when we added more to our gang. We have 4 boxers now but for four years she was the only one so I suppose she really has had her nose pushed out of joint. We make sure she has plenty special on her own time with us which she seems to appreciate.

Your girl will know when it is the right time to start teaching him some manners 

lol hear hear to that!
Our boys 'puppy license' to get away with everything is expiring as he is nearly 7 months and Mitz is now letting him get away with less and less IE he cant just take her bone now he has to wait till shes done as she warns him off wih a growl and he will start pawing her face and body gently in frustration that he cant have it until she growls again and warns him off till shes finished, bless him he looks at her as if to say ''but you used to let me take it?!'' and she looks back ''yeah but your older now so tough!!'' lol :)

She was also a little submissive when he arrived but now she will not let him push her out of the way for water and stakes her claim on sleeping places and when she wants some loving Turbo cant mustle in as she wont let him like before, it does make you feel guilty if its your first time introducing a second dog to your first like it was for us, but she was soon back to her madam self lol :)

hi mark , i have the exact same problem right now my older weim is not at all happy and i have to separate them at feeding times because the older one will walk away and leave her food. the only time i see an improvement is out on the walk he is 14 weeks now  and yesterday my older one was running back to check on him which was quite sweet.
im sure she will come round  at least thats what im hoping for. good luck.

It was great to read the posts for advice, we are thinking of a puppy and Stewart is worried about Millers reaction, he is a much loved spoiled boy
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