Just alittle concerned as my parents have a German Shephard Bitch who is around 14 months old, when it comes into contact with our 8 month old English Springer, she will play then after 10mins gets my pups head in her mouth.  I know this is her way of showing her seniority over my dog (who is also a bitch).  I am just concerned that she may hurt my pup if she wishes to & should I be concerned (which I am)...I have started to avoid taking my springer round there.  My parents just say 'oh, she won't hurt her' but how can I know that ....has anyone any advice please !!

Your right it is absolutely an Alpha female behaviour although it looks scary, in the dog world it is just part of pack behaviour, the GSD is just showing your Springer who is boss, I'm sure your Springer would never challange that so she should be perfectly safe as long as she licks the GSD's mouth and shows submittance. This behaviour probably will continue every so often.  Obviously keep an eye on things, but it really is normal bitch behaviour from the Alpha female.

One nose grab is enough though so just distract the GSD from your Springer and get them to play and do other things rather than heirarchy games.

Thats strange...I have 2 GSD`s an 8 yr old female and a 17 month old male, without doubt the female is boss and the younger one definitely knows, wont drink from the water bowl until after she has, if Kody is indoors and wants to go in the garden and Kizzy is laying by the back door (her fav place) no way will he jump over her he barks and we have to tell her to move.  Everything about his body language acknowledges that she is the boss...however since we have had him he always has her head in his mouth, she will tolerate it for a short while then puts him in his place, in fact poor things coat around her neck is constanlty wet and a bit matted, but I have NEVER seen her do it to him.

Hi Kizzy68, this is because adolescent testosterone charged GSD's are extremely dominant with bitches, infact in my experience of them I don't think there are many breeds to outdo the ferociousness of their wooing.  This changes with age and by 2-3 he will be just like most of the other breeds towards bitches and accept them as being the top dogs.

This is slightly off topic but my bitch (3 yr od staff) hates dogs licking her face.  She will occasionally tolerate it from a dog but never a bitch and she stretches her head up and out of the way to stop dogs licking her but doesn't usually move out the way.  Pups in particular always make a bee line for her and try to lick inside her mouth too but she hates it.  Does this mean she doesn't like getting her face licked (obvious answer) or is it a reflection on her status as fairly submissive?  Any thoughts are appreciated.

Hi cheekchow, pups generally lick dogs and bitches mouths it goes way back to food related behaviour a pup would lick an adults mouth to encourage regurgitation, of course we feed our pups now and don't leave it to the bitches but the instinct is still born in a pup to do this, so this is why a pup would lick her mouth.

For adults to do this to her, she is obviously recognised by other breeds as an Alpha, or the more dominant breed, just because she moves her head does not mean she isn't, other bitches tend to recognise an Alpha and will do so for appeasment or to make sure she knows they are not challanging her. A bitch does not always need to mouth another bitch to show status sometimes it is just there, like an invisible sign.

Thanks for that Carrington, always knew she was queen bi**h in disguise! 

Sounds quite normal to me, my late GSD bitch did this with every puppy that came here & with the cavaliers it carried on until they learnt respect for her, she would tolerate everything that puppies did to her, but when she had had enough she would do the head in the mouth bit, in fact she often tried to pick up the smal;l puppies this way-she never had a litter(she was a rescue at 8 months old)& was very much the Alpha in the dog pack & taught all my dogs good manners with other dogs !

She was a very big girl in every way, I always knew when she had been doing it because the Cavaliers ears would be soaking wet !

When I went to pick up my gsp pup one of the adult dogs at the breeder's did this to him. Didn't do him any harm - as long as no-one is challenging anyone, no-one will get hurt, as dogs are very good at being gentle with their bite (apparently you can train gundogs to carry a raw egg without breaking it - I know what would happen to the egg if I tried that one with mine :D)