Older dog and puppy behaviour

I have a 10 week old colliexlab pup female. I also have older dogs, a 10 year old goldie and a 5 year old lab. Since we brought the pup home 3 weeks ago my lab who is dominant has shown much dislike to her - he actually goes for her every time they meet. I keep them in separate rooms because of this and they have limited supervised meetings which all result in me having to remove her from my lab. My goldie is fine with her (he is the submissive one) but she can actually pull him over (he suffers from arthritic hips) I am quite concerned she will hurt him.

She is very very playful and energetic and at every meeting she completely terrorises both dogs. As soon as she becomes too much I remove her.

The question is, am I going about this the right way or should I be doing this differently? BTW both older dogs are males and castrated.

Thanks for your time.

When you say one of your dogs goes for the puppy, is this a serious attack or is it a noisy telling off from an older dog to a boisterous puppy that needs to learn some manners on how to approach older dogs?

It is completly normal for older dogs to tell puppies off if they try to jump all over them, and, if your older dog is well balanced and dog friendly, it is usually just enough to stop the puppy in it's tracks.

agree absolutely with every thing said. When I bring a new pup home,have to admit I never separate them other than sleeping (crated puppy) and feeding and quite quickly the youngster is put in his/her place,theres oftena lot of noise but Ive never had an adult actually attack a puppy.

Good Luck with your pup.

Jeanette

I would suggest putting a low board at the door, or as a room divider so that the adult dogs can get in but the pup cannot get out, that way the adult dogs can leave when they have had enough.

If your dogs are well rounded (not dog aggressive) then this should work ok and if the dog you have worries about is only telling the pup off then I suspect that it will chose to stay the other side of the barrier and ignore the puppy.

Hi, thanks for your reply. No, it is not serious attacks. It is just very loud bark and growling. She responds by rolling over, then seconds later is at him again! He has always been a very well behaved dog although dominant to my older one but never to me. His manners are impeccable normally. I know he is telling her off but she doesn't seem to get the message for long.

Should I just continue to give them small meetings every day and persevere?

If it is just tellings off then yes let him tell her off and then once he has done this, and she has rolled over, distract the pup with a toy. I'm sure she will learn eventually. I think it would be a good idea to use a room divider so the older dogs can go in if they want to but the pups can't get out. That way they get used to seeing and smelling each other and the pup gets used to the idea that she can't always jump on the older dogs when she sees them.

Are you training the pups seperately to the older dogs too, doing this will teach her that you are as interesting as the older dogs and she can get great things by paying attention to you. APDT puppy classes would be great to, where the pup can also learn that being in a room full of puppies doesn't mean that she can leap all over them.

Yes training separately. She is doing very well with her training - has learned very quickly. Cannot start puppy classes until she has her second vac on Saturday. Thank you all for your replies. Have to rush off to work now. x

Oh thats a shame. Most good classes accept puppies as soon as they have had their first jabs. Good to hear you have started at home with the training.

I'm sure the issues with the older dogs will smooth out as the pup grows.

Hi Munmmysboy older dogs frequently have a natural tolerance of puppies and will let them get away with a lot up to a point, then they put them in their place.

However it is not fair to let a puppy do as it pleases with and old dog with health problems, and while the puppy is small it should never be left with the others unsupervised.
I am not for a moment saying that is the case in this instance but point this out because we have seen a couple of unfortunate incidents posted about on here recently .

With regard to your puppy, if possible I would have it in the kitchen and put up a baby gate seperating the dogs so they can see and sniff each other without actually being together.Before having supervised time together it may help to have a play with your puppy first so that it can use up some of its energy

Also if there is more than one person, short walks together with one person having the puppy on a lead are a good idea, there are lots of distractions on a walk so the dogs won't be concentrating on each other.
In time the older dogs should come to accept the puppy.

pics please