We just got a new puppy 4 weeks ago. She’s lovely – ofc bitey, peeing everywhere but a lovely sweet dog when she’s chilled out, 14 weeks old now. I also sit a 4y/o for my parents, who has been only dog her whole life. Older dog isn’t massively well socialised. My parents don’t do a lot of training with her at home, if any – I trained her when they brought her home (with no warning, me being the only person in the house working from home) and was with her most of the week because of this for nearly 3 years, until I moved put and felt I had to keep dogsitting. She’s been a great little dog but she doesn’t always listen to me as she gets away with so much at home, has guarding behaviours over socks especially, and is not quickly warming up to the puppy. Puppy gets so excited to see people, especially older dog, and hasn’t quite learned how to keep calm yet.
I know it can take months for an older dog to accept a puppy, but this is puppy’s home and I’m unsure if older dog’s behaviour is appropriate, or if I’m even doing right by them. Here’s what I’m doing:
– Crate training puppy
– Keeping both separated with puppy in her playpen and older dog allowed to roam
– Doing simple training and treats with puppy in pen and older dog on the floor or couch
– Allowing them short sessions to sniff each other or be outside together (puppy on lead)
– Playing with puppy in pen, having cuddles with older dog on couch when puppy sleeps (older dog not always interested in play when at mine, she often sleeps – parents don’t have control of how often she’s getting up in the night and just let her wake them to go outside 2-4 times)
– Letting older dog roam and puppy stay in pen while I’m at work for ~4 hours a few times a week (this I think might need reigning back if older dog’s behaviour is not so concerning that she needs to stop coming)
– Training puppy to settle when at home with just me, and when older dog is around.
– Stepping between and telling puppy no / leave when she gets too bouncy for older dog.
Older dog will growl at puppy a lot. She’ll have spells where she doesn’t growl and tolerates but she will paw at puppy to tell her to stop jumping up / bouncing / pawing, then escalate to growling, snarling and pinning. She seems to be pinning more often, and this morning after older dog seemed very interested in puppy – jumping up on me to sniff her, wagging her tail, while I carried her – older dog immediately started snarling and pinning puppy down when I gently put her on the floor. I know correcting is normal, useful and necessary, but when is correcting turning into bullying, when is it too much consistently? Puppy will try to play by bum-in-the-air stretching, pawing and barking.
Older dog is in no way my responsibility financially and I can’t spend tons of time or money on a trainer.
Is it concerning that older dog escalates quickly, growls a lot, would growl and pin that quickly?
I want to be asking parents to consult a trainer, or otherwise older dog can’t come to our house and puppy can’t visit theirs if she’s being bullied or is unsafe. Am I right in doing so? Any similar situations that turned out fine, or needed professional intervention?
submitted by /u/soulvendetta
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