Comments on: Puppy too exuberant with older dog. UPDATED! http://thedish.sitstay.com/2009/08/04/puppy-too-exuberant-with-older-dog/ Training Tips, Opinions, and the SitStay Dogs Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:52:20 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Lisa Horneck http://thedish.sitstay.com/2009/08/04/puppy-too-exuberant-with-older-dog/#comment-237 Lisa Horneck Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:52:32 +0000 http://thedish.sitstay.com/?p=882#comment-237 Thanks for responding. There seem to be 2 schools of thought on this issue, your response and the other is to let them work it out. I believe that some of her behavior is due to her trying to dominate him, something she has been doing since the day I brought her home. Lots of people have told me that they need to figure out who is going to be the dominant one. But, if I am the boss, does it matter who comes next? You are right in that he is begging me to step in. He'll bark at her and then look at me. He'll go after her, stop, bark at her and then look at me. So, now I am stepping in and telling her to stop. She is already a little better, and I have come to recognize her worst times and not even give her a chance to jump on him, like when we get back from one of our walks. I know that she can play appropriately as she has had the chance to play with a smaller dog and was actually quite gentle with him. She seems to have an endless supply of energy so I play with her a lot already, but I will step it up so more since he won't play with her anymore. We started an obedience class several weeks ago, they use very positive methods for training. She is very smart and picks up on things very quickly. I just hope that they can be friends some day, that was the whole point of bringing home a second dog. Thanks for responding. There seem to be 2 schools of thought on this issue, your response and the other is to let them work it out. I believe that some of her behavior is due to her trying to dominate him, something she has been doing since the day I brought her home. Lots of people have told me that they need to figure out who is going to be the dominant one. But, if I am the boss, does it matter who comes next?

You are right in that he is begging me to step in. He’ll bark at her and then look at me. He’ll go after her, stop, bark at her and then look at me. So, now I am stepping in and telling her to stop. She is already a little better, and I have come to recognize her worst times and not even give her a chance to jump on him, like when we get back from one of our walks. I know that she can play appropriately as she has had the chance to play with a smaller dog and was actually quite gentle with him.

She seems to have an endless supply of energy so I play with her a lot already, but I will step it up so more since he won’t play with her anymore. We started an obedience class several weeks ago, they use very positive methods for training. She is very smart and picks up on things very quickly. I just hope that they can be friends some day, that was the whole point of bringing home a second dog.

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