Copying older dogs.

Skye has just started a very odd habbit of copying what Star and Jake do, i dont mean commands but small things like Star knocked twice on the back door to go out, Skye did, Jake stop dead on his walk, Skye did. Star run and brought me his fave cushion this morning, Skye picked up Stars other and did the same thing and there has been a few other bits.
So has anyone else expeirienced this or is she just more of a nutter than i first thought

Biff still does things that he picked up from Duke (EBT), my mother in law's dog (sadly no longer with us). He cries like Duke did, he likes the woman next door like Duke did, but dislikes her husband and their dog, just because Duke did. He barks at them whenever they come near the fence, but he never does that to anybody else. He doted on him, here is a few pics of the two of them.

One other thing is, when i have them sit down for a treat, if i give star his first he can snatch so if he does skye will, but if jakes there first he takes really gentle so then she will. Its only started the last 2 days.

You do find this with older and younger dogs. When I got my little boy a couple of years ago. He copies what my bitch does with good and bad things. That's why it's always good to get rid of any bad traits in a dog before you get another one. If one barks, the other will learn to. If one snatches, then the younger one will too. It's learning behaviour for the young dog. They will copy other dogs that they live with, good or bad habits.

She's not a nutter, sounds very clever young lass to me

Plus lovely pictures Biff

Roxy it constantly copying my sisters eldest dog, Ben, she chews stones like him, will lay under the car like him. its so bizarre to watch

Nudge trills (do you know what I mean? kinda cross between a pur and a meow) like the cat when she wants something
Molly uses her front paws the same as the cat, will give a poke if she wants something and your not paying attention
Nudge also copies Mol but that's not so weird

My crew have learned lots of things from eachother, by observing cause and reaction and figuring things out. Ie, when I first got Fluke he would go to the door and just wait when he wanted out. He saw that when my older lads go to the door they thwack it with a paw then come to me to get my attention then go and thwack the door again. The reaction element was me getting up and opening the door. When Silk came along she also learned it so now four of my five all do the same thing for garden time.


I have utilised they way dogs learn from each other for most aspects of their training - dogs are far better teachers than humans, we just have to be observant enough ourselves to be able to recognise when our dogs are learning from each other, [ including norty things ].

I also utilise it for Agility, having a confident dog `demo` for a less confident dog on whichever piece of equipment one needs a bit of boosting with and it works a treat, much better than a human persuading / coddling / pushing when a confident dog can show another that there is nothing to worry about and tempts a less confident dog to give something a try

We bred Lola, our golden pup, but when it was just her left, Jaz was about 8 months. Jaz does things she never did before Lola came along. Lola crosses her front paws and splays out her back legs. Jaz never did that, but now she does it all the time. Lola has also copied some stuff of Jaz. Like Jaz used to push open the door to outside, and now Lola is doing it too.

So it can work both ways.

mille hasnt picked up on any bad habits yet

i dont walk millie with the other 2 - (mymmum walks the older ones)

i walk millie separately unless im ony going round a little block then i take the eldest and the younges for 10 mins lol!

i dont want her picking up any bad habits ... yet