A post for the doggy experts here...

Sad news last week when our first dog, Belle, died after 11 years with the family.

We've replaced her with a puppy, who seems to be settling in very well and is very good natured (and is even doing really well on toilet training).

However, our other dog, Woody, doesn't seem to know how to deal with her.

Woody's a three year old mongrel, who came to us after the RSPCA removed him and his mum from the home they were in. We don't know why they were removed, but it seems he's had a pretty sh*tty life; he's missing quite a lot of his teeth, his top and bottom jaws don't line up, so he's got a permanent snarl on his face and he has no idea how to play. Honestly, I've never known a dog like him - he has absolutely zero interest in chasing after sticks or balls and any indoor toys we buy him go untouched.

In spite of this he's an incredible family pet, very sedate in the house, but runs like a mad thing when we take him out for a walk. He's also happy to be friends with every person and other dog he meets. The only dog he's ever even growled at is one who tried to bum-rape him...twice

Now Jessie's joined the household and she want to play with him - which means jumping up at him with her sharp little claws and biting at whatever she can reach with her sharp little teeth. Of course, she's used to being in a litter of puppies all doing the same thing, but Woody has no idea of what to make of it.

My gut feeling is that he should be slapping her into place a little bit, showing her that he's the top dog and that he wants to be left alone.

What he's actually doing is avoiding her as much as possible and, if he has to be in the same room as her, keeping walking (With her jumping at him), doing a low growl, but also wagging his tail.

So, dog experts, do I:

1. Take Woody's side, and tell Jessie off for jumping up at him?

2. Take Jessie's side, and tell Woody off for growling?

3. Leave them to sort themselves out (I like this option, but it don't seem to be happening)

4. Lock them both in the kitchen for 24 hours and keep the survivor?

Answers and abuse on a postcard, please.

Andrew

Option 3. They'll sort it out and will accept the staus quo. Adult dogs can look quite brutal putting a pup in it's place, but sticking up for the pup will only affect the natural balance of power.

Most adult dogs despite my earlier comment are pretty forgiving of pups. It changes as the pup gets older and needs discipline. If you don't want to end up with a chav pup don't interfere with that process. Easier said than done with women and kids trying to protect the pup

Thanks, RK - I am expecting Woody to finally get his act together and put Jessie in her place, I'm just not sure he knows that's what's expected of him. He seems to be opting for avoiding confrontation, rather than asserting his place as top dog.

Entirely different beasts, I accept, but I did option 3 with our cats and they get on fine now.

Bigger (older) cat tolerated the exuberant youngster's aggressive playful manner for so long and then showed him who was boss once he'd had enough.

He's probably confused going from an older dog to a pup as companion. Was the older dog the dominant one?

He may never become top dog if it's in his nature to defer and may allow the pup to take over, especially if she is dominant.

Good on you for giving a badly treated dog a good home by the way!

We did worry about doing it. Woody's mum had been re-homed fairly quickly, but Woody spent a year in an RSPCA shelter without finding anybody willing to take him in, so we did wonder if he'd become institutionalised, in need of toilet training all over again and if there was a reason people had passed him by.

We've had him a year now, and he's never been a spot of bother. He's not the prettiest of dogs (as you might have guessed from the description) and he wasn't (and still isn't) interested in interacting with people when he's out for a walk, so I assume those are the reasons he was overlooked for so long.

This week we'd have got another rescue dog instead of a puppy, but we wanted something medium sized, not too old and with plenty of energy (i.e. a match for Woody, who loves nothing more on a walk than to find another fast dog to play chase with him). We found a good match in one of the local sanctuaries, filled in all of the paperwork and then were told that the dog was described as 'boisterous', so they wouldn't home it with anybody with a child under 12.

I appreciate that the sanctuaries have a duty of care not to pack us off with a dog called Ripper McKiddykiller and what-not, but this policy was totally rigid. They wouldn't even let Lisa or I into the socialising area, without the kids, so that we could meet the dog and judge whether it was suitable for us. It was just a flat-out refusal to let us have that dog.

I too would go for option 3, but still make sure you keep an eye on them.

The low growling is still a warning, even if he is wagging his tail.

Ideally, the dogs need to be looking at you as the pack leader, not each other.
Do things like remove their food when they've finished eating. Let them see you eat before they do, etc.

Establish yourself as their leader and they should remain neutral to each other and get along without problems.

There is some interesting psychology in establishing yourself as pack leader. Specific actions include:

Feeding yourself first as T says
Walking through doors/upstairs first
Standing in their bed so they know no place is "theirs"
Play fight, but finish by pinning the dog on it's back by the throat
Take their food/bones from them while they are eating, then replacing it so they know they won't lose their food. Stops them being over protective of food especially if there are kids around.
Keep them off the furniture and especially beds
The bum-rape is a dominance thing as well, but I'm guessing you won't want to establish that degree of dominance

Just as importantly your wife and kids need to do the same. My dog was happy to settle for second place in the family hierarchy...

Well, Woody had finally had enough yesterday evening and gave a proper bark at Jessie. Scared her enough to send her running, whimpering, but he didn't hurt her and it got him an hour's peace, so I guess that's a good result all round.

Having introduced 4 rescue Greyhounds into my home over the last 10 years or so, without problem, I'm currently into day 2 of having the same problem as you Andrew.

Since just before Christmas, I've only had 2 dogs in the house and over the last couple of months, I've looked into maybe rescuing another Greyhound or maybe getting a pup.

I decided a pup might be best this time and I picked up a puppy yesterday. The introduction has gone well with my oldest dog, Lucky, (around 10/11 years old), but the younger one, Gem, (around 8/9 years old), who I've never seen signs of aggression in before, has been snapping and snarling at the pup

I thought introducing a pup would be easier, with the older ones accepting she's a pup, but I've found introducing older dogs to each other is much easier.

The pup and the older dog are both in the kitchen lying close to each other, but in separate beds and the other one has disappeared into their shed outside

Anyway, pics of the new addition

Awwww, she's lovely.

My two seem to have pretty much sorted themselves out - they were even spotted snuggled up together on the same bed earlier this week

What a lovely woofer!

Thanks Andrew

I'm glad yours have sorted themselves out, excellent news and hopefully, they'll be friends forever now

In time they will sort themselves out T. Becky's parents had a similar issue with the Papillion's as she breed them. The Alpha got kept running away / hiding / growling at the puppies because they wanted to play, as soon as he snapped at them, they soon started to learn and all get on fine now.

Lol, I think I've got a baby kangaroo, not a puppy

"What's that, Skippy? A dingo, you say? Masquerading? We'll have to see about that!"

She's a lovely pup, T.

That is one cute dog T. Lovely colour too. ...... like my car

Name her crono

Never ever give a dog a Fiat related name, you're just asking for breakdowns and uncontrollable leaking...

Lol, she came with the name Sadie, which I thought suited her and have kept it.

Otherwise, it may well have been something like Sprinty if left to me