Hi All , i am after some quite urgent advice. I have 3 beautiful , well socialised and trained German Shepherds - 2 males aged 5 and 3 and one bitch aged 14 months. On Friday we bought home another bitch aged 7 weeks , we introduced her to the other dogs and the boys were absolutely fab with her , not very interested but happy to have her around. Our bitch though is a completely different story , she was happy to sniff her while she was on my lap but when i attempted to put her on the floor she went for her :-( and it looked very much like she meant it so i left it a day , she was happy to lick her through the bars of the cage etc and was happy when she was on our laps but when i try to put her down the older bitch goes nuts. I am very worried so obviously not having pup around her at the mo but i just want some advice as to why she is behaving this way , she has been around pups before and not been a problem and she has a wonderful nature normally. Any advice would be gratefully received. I am also making sure that my older bitch gets lots of attention , i really don't understand why the boys are being so good with her but the girl acts like she wants to kill her? Please help.

Michelle W.

Personally I think the age gap is to small and your bitch is still really a puppy herself and not mature enough to know how to behave around a puppy.

This is either fear of this strange creature or totally inappropriate play/rough housing or OTT attempt to show she is boss of the pup.

The boys have already had to put up with a new puppy her ;)

Many dogs are not good with puppies and they make them nervous.  Not all bitches are naturally maternal, even with the help of the hormones during pregnancy and lactation, let alone out of the blue.

Thank you for your reply Brainless , it certainly isn't rough play , i would say from watching her that it is fear , so how should i handle it? Is it  likely to improve as puppy matures? Obviously in the meantime the bitch and pup will not be unsupervised. Also forgot to say (not sure how much importance this is) that my bitch is just coming to the end of her season, does this make a difference at all?

Many Thanks

Michelle W

the fact that she has just finished her season could be a factor into her behaviour ,I know my bitches can show some unusual behaviour weeks before and a couple of weeks after which is an indication to me when they are coming in.

Did you introduce them outside? how do they behave outside in the garden with new pup on lead?

I would have other dog on a lead and new pup on her lead with someone holding them in the same room give each a treat and try introducing them all over again but slowly then pop puppy back in crate.
If pup and 14m old are both bitches you may be asking for trouble as some bitches just dont hit it off.

there are behaviourist on this forum who may be able to shed some light on it for you.

Its going to be a slow process.

>Personally I think the age gap is to small and your bitch is still really a puppy herself and not mature enough to know how to behave >around a puppy.

>This is either fear of this strange creature or totally inappropriate play/rough housing or OTT attempt to show she is boss of the pup.

Totally agree. 

Personally I'd have waited until the older Bitch was fully mature and completely trained.  I have 4 years between my bitches for this reason, and personality was paramount so that they 'fit' with each other  ;)

If it is her season causing this behaviour, then I'd be worried that it could be repeated or even worsen with each subsequent season :(  

There's no way of telling whether it will improve or how long that would take as we don't know your bitch and haven't seen her behaviour ;) 

i had the same problem with my last bitch and had to take the puppy back as she was very aggressive towards it even though she is 4yrs but the breeder gave me a 6 month old pup instead and although it has taken a few months to settle down they get on now.
i let them meet in the park and had to either keep them on leads in the same room so they could see but not touch and go from there. i used stair gates all the time and didn't let them in the garden together for a while.
it's very little steps i'm afraid but doesn't mean it want work out over time.  

I would let her know that is not acceptable behaviour, mine have responded well to this.  Sounds like you are working towards them getting on, you have to stay boss and not give in to 'oh poor thing, don't feel left out'; I did that but lucky enough to have a good older bitch to correct it.  They all get on well now, introducing puppy two was even easier, not so inexperienced this time. 

i also found that if the older dog ignores the puppy, the puppy will put themselves onto it, mine all curled up by their bottom whether big dog wanted this or not.  interesting was that second dog wasn't too fussed with puppy for curling up together and puupy did exactly the same to her, curled up by her bottom.

My two small ones are the same breed and older dog is a different breed.

When i bought puppy one home i showed her to number one dog and then settled her in, number one was curious but i kept her distance from puppy at first so not to over whelm her, Puppy two i bought home a different time of day and let them all interact and be nosey.  This in my opinion worked and had none of the behaviour issues you're havi ng from it.

I agree that it is a good idea to get them used to each other outside, a good romp on the park together might work.  I've got lucky maybe and have no dominence issues between them and all are girls (forgot that bit lol)

Hope my ramblings help a little and good luck with new baby.

The thing is if it is fear then there is little point telling her off or letting her know it's not acceptable, you can't correct fear, it's an emotion that is very difficult to control, even for us and we can understand and reason.  You can change the way she feels over time though and probably a farily short space of time as she gets used to this strange new creature.

Lots of dogs are scared of puppies if they haven't been used to them.  I would just give her plenty of time to adjust giving her some space and making sure the pup is safe.  When you do bring the pup out to put down on the floor have her on a lead and have some high value food rewards at the ready and while the pup is mooching about the floor, feed your girl, if she looks over towards the pup and doesn't react then say good and reward her with a treat and keep repeating that.  I would do that several times a day - it would be easier if you had someone there to help you so that the pup doesn't encroach on her space while you are working with her.  Then you can gradually work on reducing the distance between them.  This way she can build up a good association between the pup being out on the floor, just with the safetynet of a lead until she gets the idea.

I would allow lots of interaction through baby gates and in the crate and be happy and encouraging and tell her how clever she is when she's being gentle and sweet to the pup, really encourage it, so that she knows that being near the pup is a good think and mum thinks so too.

Just try and do as many things as you can to get her to associate the pup with fun things.  try and watch her body language and if she seems uncomfotable with the pup distract her and pop the puppy away wioth something to distract her.  Just give some time and work on it daily and I'm sure they'll be fine in no time - like I say if she isn't used to pups it's a huge adjustment for her.