Please help me!! :( (behaviour with other dogs in the house)

Hiya guys!

I'm new to this and well this is my first post, so I apologise for not saying hello and getting straight to the point but in need of some pretty urgent advise about my Rottie, Skye.

Me and my partner recently have moved back to his parents house while we look for a house to buy and his parents have 3 other dogs!
My rottie is 1 year and 4 months old (and still very much behaves like a puppy!)
The other dogs that are in the house is another HUGE Rottie - Bear, Barney - A Jack Russel and Mollie - A collie cross.

My little Skye follows around and adore's Bear the other Rottie, but she is very in his face. She is always trying to lick him and even puts her head right in his mouth to lick his teeth?! (I have no idea what that is about!!)

But she has got into the habit of biting all of the other dogs.
She tends to go for ears and back legs and I'm really worried that one of them is going to bite back very hard and cause some damage.
Bear will definatly cause damage as he is so big. Mollie (who is the old timer of the pack) is not shy to growl and snap at her. And Barney is the only one that I have yet to see a reaction from.

I try telling her off but I can't be there all the time when she does it. Sometimes we hear Barney yelp, but I can't really tell her off when I'm not in the room as she will have no idea what I am telling her off for!!

Please help me! I'm getting really worried she will get seriously hurt!

hi and welcome the forum is for advice so dont worry about getting straight in.

i cant really help but to me the licking sounds like a submissive of appeasment gesture if it around the mouth, i couldnt say for sure though

Welcome to Dogsey!!

Can you keep Skye separated from the other dogs when they're not being supervised, perhaps with a stair gate or similar? When you are there, work on "leave" and distract her with toys when she gets OTT with the other guys.

Good luck anyway!

The thing with sticking the entire head in the other dogs mouth is quite common, both my bitches do it with my male. Bitches do have a tendency to be in the face of males too.
Also usually grabbing the back legs is done in play, my smallest dog does it all the time to one of my Dobermann bitches.
I would start training the leave it command, and not leave them unsupervised until she understands what is expected of her.
She sounds as if she's trying to instigate play to me but hasn't learnt what is and isn't acceptable yet. Bear will put her in her place if she gives him too much grief but I 'd be very surprised if he hurt her as dogs are usually extremely tolerant of bitches and let them get away with murder before reacting.
A few house rules need to be put in place and they should be fine.

It all sounds like normal behaviour to me. Rotts are very slow to mature and at just over a year old Skye is still very much a puppy (Marius is 3 in Dec and even he still reverts to puppy behaviour sometimes, in fact Lola is 14weeks old and can be less of a handful at times! )

Lots of dogs do that thing with the mouth - in fact I am going to post pics soon of Lola doing just that with Marius. He looks like he's about to swallow her!! She also does that nipping of the back legs (and goes underneath his tummy to do the same). We tell her off when she gets too full-on doing it.

I think bitches know they can rule the roost with most males. A steady, adult male should be able to put a young bitch in her place when she gets out of hand, without being aggressive. But it is advisable to learn to recognize the signs when play is getting too boisterous. Rotts play hard and like most dogs, when they get over-tired they can get a bit too full-on and fractious. This way you are being fair on Bear and also teaching Skye when enough is enough.

I think supervised play only with the other dogs should be done, until she has learned her place. I would also try and channel this energy into some training sessions and one to one play so that she isn't relying totally on interacting with the other dogs to keep her occupied. Rotts are very intelligent and needs their brains as well as their bodies exercised. In fact, I think this tires them out more than any play sessions.

Have you had Rotts before or is this your first?

Hi Rebecca Skye's behaviour sounds like the over exuberant play of a young dog (which can be annoying for older dogs ).

I agree with the others about keeping the dogs separate and would like to add if you can regularly take them all out together somewhere with lots of space where there are other smells and things to take their attention it will give them chance to get used to each other.

I would also make sure Skye gets plenty of play on her own and mental stimulation to use up some of her youthful energy.

Wow! So many answers! Thank you very much everyone!

Anne-Marie - She is my first rottie. I happened to get a very bouncy one!! When me and my partner just started seeing each other I was round here all the time around Bear. I loved him from the word go! I loved his temperment and just how he loved fuss and play so I decided from that point with alot of research that a Rottie was the dog of choice for me.

I will try the seperating as much as I can. I'm planning to take Skye and Barney round a large field area (Ferry Meadows) soon so maybe that will tire her out!
She knows the "leave" command and she is very good with it! I even managed to put a treat on her paw the other night and she leaved!!

Anymore advise is much appreciated!

great advice already given,

the grabbing of back legs and ears is common in this house, its a rottie play thing, my lot do it all the time,

if there has not been a serious fight, im guessing they all know shes just a pup and playing,

good luck with her.

Most of them are!!

The boisterous play will settle down eventually, they do tend to be giddy-kippers especially when young. Marius used to get hyper with excitement when playing as a youngster in particular off-lead with other dogs. He has settled down enormously now, but even at nearly 3, if he sees his best buddies in the field he still squeals with excitement and does zoomies.

Sounds like you are doing well with her training. Leaving a tempting treat is being a very good girl

As I said earlier, I would try and fit in a bit of training time every day. Even if it is only for 10-15mins. I make it fun, bit of heel-work at different paces, fetch, sit, down etc whatever I feel like doing to ring the changes - I mix it up and make it fun, usually the reward being a toy. This serves a double purpose - it will help her gain respect for you and learn good behaviour, but also it helps tire her out.

She sounds lovely. Please post some pics!!

I will get some photo's of her up soon and some photo's of her with Bear.
They are all on the laptop thing is though she is such a poser when there is a camera about it shouldn't be difficult for me to get more photo's of her!!

Aw it's nice to talk to other dog owners! I sit at work and I talk about my dog alot but some dog owners at work don't share the same passion for dogs as I do!