Help!!!....

....our newest addition, Angel (19# about 12weeksold), is really showing aggression towards our 10# 3yr.old pekengese Lily......when we brought her home they played well, more & more frequently Angel keeps pinning her down and holding her down with a bite grip & appears to be hurting Lily because she makes little squeaky cry noises....so, of course I break it up w/ a very loud clap & say no w/ a firm tone.....I am getting concerned because I don't want Angel to be a full grown dog w/ this behavior because she could really hurt Lily. I think Angel will be a good sized dog when she's full grown. Angel "kisses" up to Tek (14yr. old Shep/Chow) all the time & shows signs of being passive w/ her, but w/ Lily she towers her & walks on her/nudges....Lily does initiate playing, running around & has always jumped on Tek playfully, but no aggression has been seen by either of them....please someone help me as I want to make Angel a good addition to our family......thank you so much......

I think Angel is just trying to play... A 12 week old puppy rarely shows aggression, but playing can certainly sound like it...

I think this is just play I'd be surprised if anyone had a 12 week puppy who was showing aggression.
The reason she slides up and kisses your older dog is because he is older and she is showing respect.

If you could of seen Bruce (when he was 12 weeks) playing with Skye you'd of thought they were going in for the kill. But they didn't draw blood, they just played rough, which is what your Angel is doing. Yet when Bruce went anywhere near Reah...he would roll over and kiss her face, slide up to her, lie next to her etc., because she is the older dog.

Just do as your doing monitor the play fighting and if you really think it's getting out of hand then firmly say No and give them some timeout.

Good luck.

If its any consolation to you I am going through a similar thing with Ben (12months) and Poppy (4 months) Ben can get a bit heavy handed and so can Poppy . You just have to do what Steph says and monitor them. Thing is that if your dogs were at all scared then they would not play at all imo. My OH tends to want to jump in and stop play fights but I say to him, that if Poppy was in the least bit scared of Ben then she would not instigate playing with him. I think with Ben and Pops is it is just because he is a lot bigger than Pops so we tend to try and protect her. He is still a baby himself. In the case of your dogs I would just monitor as Steph says. It can often sound worse than it is.
Good luck
Elaine xx

Hi,

The oldest of my dogs, Murphy (14 month old GSD/Rough Collie x breed) is just as heavy handed and boisterous as my youngest dog, Ellie (8 month old GSD/Akita). My Middle dog, Zane (12 month old GSD) is bigger thasn the other 2 put together and is very gently.
having said that, when 2 of them are playing, regardless of which 2 dogs it is, it sometimes sounds like WW III and as though they're trying to kill reach other.

i think you need to watch carefully and you'll learn alot about your own dogs personally, their body language when they're playing, play-fighting, squabbling over food/toys etc and out & out aggression. My dogs sound really bad when they;'re over excited but it's all teeth and noice. not once have there been any accidnets/injuries caused by playing, play-fighting or even as a result of arguments because I've known when I need to step in.

Bear in mind also that you have older dogs also with a little bit of an age gap between them. This will be used by your older dogs to their advantge to show your youngest pup who's the boss, and to teach her doggy manners and discipline. There aren't many out there who are as loopy as I am and would have 3 young dogs of similar ages but so long as you put in the hard work to begin with, you'll definitely reap the benefits.

Additionally, even though you've had dogs before, they're all different and just like kids, you're learning all over again how to cope with issues you've probably dealt with before, albeit a while ago.

I don't think your pup is aggressive and I don't honestly think you have anythign to worry about. Learn as much about your dogs personally, including their behaviour in certain situations and you'll know instictively when you need to put a stop to things.

Laura xx

as you are in charge you decide what is acceptable with your dogs behaviour.if the smaller dog is making a destress ing sound because the bigger dog is causing it ,playing or not then i think you step step in and halt it (calmly but assertivly). it just means you do not approve as the pack leader