Glad things have been ok now you've got him home, love the name and I'm sure Flynn will love him too when he realises its someone else for him to play with.
I did wonder if you'd have more problems than you've had with two entire males and one castrated but it sounds like things are going well.
Ok and he's gorgeous!

he's lovely! hope he's doing well in his new home and thanks for keeping us posted!

What a gorgeous boy, sounds as if things are going well.

He is a very beautiful boy. I hope everything works out well and all the dogs get along fine with each other. Sending all my good wishes.

reminds me of when i took willow home ,she and dylan were the same ,they adore one another now,best thing i ever did .give it time good luck

Well, Flynn is booked in for the snip on Friday as he's the worst behaved and the one causing any problems we have. If he turns out to be anything like Jed after the snip then i'll be happy.

Kai is settling in very well. He will semi-willingly go in his crate and has calmed down immensely in there now. He kicks up a fuss when you enter the kitchen and tries to claw his way out but totally ignoring him seems to be working. There isnt a peep from him when you put him in it though and leave him.

He walks quite nicely on a lead actually. He does pull sometimes if there is something he wants to sniff or scent mark. We've not tried him off a lead yet although I agree he needs a good off lead run. We have a long line which we've been using and he shows no desire to venture much away from you, he sticks fairly close so I dont think there would be a problem. The trouble is we dont really know how he truly is around other dogs. He does lunge at them when he's on a lead and obviously, we dont want to get into a situation. He doesnt seem aggressive but he doesnt know limits when it comes to greeting another dog and this can obviously spark another dog off into either aggression or defense mode. He just seems to want to play but he's way over the top with it.

Him and Flynn still arent friends. Flynn has obviously taken a dislike to him and will snipe at him at every opportunity. I think he's simply too big and boisterous for Flynn to cope with and he's also having to share his home with another dog which has put his nose out of joint. Flynn is a very demanding dog who wants all the attention, has to monopolise everything in general so he's not liking the fact that Kai has jeopardised this, he's simply jealous.

Obviously, when Flynn has a snipe at Kai, Kai then has a snipe back and it's just bickering. I'm not sure of Kai's relationship with Jed neither atm. They were playing today (no biting, lots of play bowing etc) but it all seemed to centre around genitalia! They were very interested in each others bits, got excited and then were trying to hump each other. Is this a dominance thing? I stopped it because they were both getting a bit too boisterous and I didnt want it to turn into a fight.

It's just Flynn who is causing me the biggest headache and I hope he'll get used to Kai and stop having a go at him because at the moment, it's like a military operation at home making sure they are kept apart when free.

Seeing as though Kai is a rescue dog, does that not mean he has to be neutered? It's usually part of the terms. Why don't you just have all the dogs neutered?

The mounting does sound like a dominance thing. It seems like you are managing the situation quite well for now and are aware of each dogs needs and wants.

Leanne one of the reasons you are having these minor problems between the dogs is because you are trying to keep them apart all the time, so in turn you are not allowing them to sort out their rank between themselves.

What I would suggest you do is just let them get on with it (under supervision) to enable them to get it out of their system. Because for as long as you keep separating them you are not allowing them to determine who is the alpha dog between them, and don’t forget that 99% of the time this doesn’t involve any fighting, but is more down to bravado and a lot of noise between them. If you look at any pack you will see that there is a leader and not withstanding that you and your other half are the boss, they really need to sort out their rank between each other.

In my household Ruby is the top dog and she maintains her rank with just a small bark or growl to the others. I genuinely can’t remember the last time I had a fight between any of them.

Often during play fights, dogs are seen to place paws on top of other dogs or even mount other dogs. This can be for the purposes of breeding, but in the majority of cases this is a dominance behaviour, that has no sexual intent. This behaviour is not gender specific and can be seen in both male-to-male, female-to-female, male to female and vice-versa.

Very good advice, Colin.

I thought it was a dominance thing between him and Jed but i'm just (maybe wrongly so) worried that if neither is willing to give in then a fight will break out. Jed can be very stubborn and is quite confident with other dogs although he's always backed off from fights when out on walks. The OH said that when Jed came in to find Kai on his bed, he snapped at him and Kai cowered somewhat. He then said that Kai started to get excited and boisterous so he made them stop.

The dogs arent kept apart totally. They go on walks together and sleep in the kitchen together and we generally dont have problems then. However, so far i've not allowed Kai off lead with either of the other 2. Jed is more of a match for Kai because of his size but Flynn, although tall, is very slender and he wouldnt stand a chance.

I'm simply very conscious that Kai is the biggest dog and that Dobes have a reputation for not getting on well with other dogs. However, I agree that they need to sort out their ranks because the sooner they do, the simpler life will be all round.

I'm going to have to try it when the OH is there though so he can give a masculine helping hand if things go pear shaped.

Oh yeah, keep forgetting to mention that we do actually give him a Kong!