Dog Community

My puppy and my parents 6yr. old dog

Posted : 9/28/2006 10:33:56 AM

My little guy, Buddy, loves other dogs. He goes nuts for them. He licks them, jumps at them, tries to engage play all the time. This is a problem for my parents' 6 yr. old mini schnauzer, Maizy. Maizy has never liked jumpy, hyper dogs, even as a puppy. She is very curious about dogs, approaches slowly, wants to smell them, cries and whines when she is held away from them, but as soon as the other dogs approaches her she backs away. We went through obedience training with her for almost a year, but since she seemed leery of the dogs we never pushed interactions, only let her initiate them.
When I got Buddy the first place we went was my parents house to introduce the dogs. The initial meeting went well, with Maizy letting Buddy approach her and Buddy even rolled over in front of her in a submissive position. The next two times they met, the interactions slowly deteriated. Buddy became more comfortable with himself and the environment and tried harder to engage Maizy in play. Maizy started snarling and huffing and puffing at him and constantly backing away from him. It will sometimes escalate into growls. Now, Buddy is constantly on a leash around her or behind a gate. We keep them separated in the house.. They are together 2-3 times a week, always at my parents house. We have taken them for walks together and Maizy will tolerate Buddy better while we are out walking and Buddy will leave Maizy alone more while we are walking.
When Buddy is behind a gate, Maizy will approach the gate and watch him and if Buddy's behind is near the gate, she will creep close to try and smell him. But, if he turns around and jumps on the gate to engage her, she backs away, sometimes with a huff and a puff or a bark.

I live 15 min. away from my parents and are extremely close with them. I am at their house all the time. They know that Maizy has a problem and welcome Buddy into their home with open arms. We have tried to manipulate the environment as much as possible to make this relationship work. What can we do about this? Do you think this will take care of itself over time? If Buddy calms down as he gets older, will the relationship get better? Buddy is 5mo. now. Is it worth it to get a trainer or behaviorist to work with us?

Sue

jones

Posted : 9/28/2006 5:05:39 PM

I don't think Maizy's behavior merits a behaviorist or trainer or really any correction/treatment, at least at this point, at least the way you have described it. Huffing and puffing and barking and growling are all totally normal, acceptable ways of rebuffing a rambunctious, brink-of-adolescence puppy by an adult dog IMO. I don't think either dog has a "problem," this is just a normal phase where the puppy's "puppy license" runs out and adult dogs will no longer tolerate him to be rude or pushy or insistent on playing (meanwhile adolescent dogs will often be rude and pushy and insistent on playing [

], at least until they are "told" to cut it out by an older dog). In my book even air-snapping and a mean-looking (but physically harmless) smack-down would be acceptable behavior on Maizy's part. If it were me I would allow them to interact but just supervise carefully to make sure that Maizy's not unable to get away from him and also that a real fight does not break out.

Sue and Buddy

Posted : 9/30/2006 2:52:06 PM

Do you have any suggestions of how we can do this? My mom is very nervous about this and has said that if we do let them interact off leash, she will have to leave. She isn't against it, just can't be involved.

Sue

Scout in Canada

Posted : 10/13/2006 9:16:57 AM

We have an identical issue with Scout and my mom's 13 year old dog. We decided to try letting the older dog "teach her a lesson" or whatever... she growled and snapped at Scout, and Scout backed off temporarily. The problem is, Scout is about 20x the weight of the old dog, so she's not that intimidated.

I wouldn't be afraid to let them interact and see what happens. They are both smallish dogs it looks like, so I think you are OK to let them be together and see what the older dog does. She may growl, do a scary sounding series of growls and barks and snaps, and then see what happens from there. Odds are, she won't actually try to hurt Buddy, just warn him off. Maybe he'll get the message, maybe not.

Xerxes

Posted : 10/13/2006 10:01:42 AM

I believe in letting dogs work certain things out for themselves. Sometimes it takes a bold action from one of the dogs to teach the other dog. This bold action could be a growl, an air snap or an actual nip. If the two dogs are of comparable size, and the puppy isn't heeding the wishes of the older dog-you could let them settle this themselves. If you do this, keep draglines on both dogs.

Since I introduced an older female into my family "pack" I let Xerxes and Gaia work out their own issues. The first 3 days it was a bit difficult on me to watch her put him into his place, but it was necessary. For me to intervene would have been counterproductive and made things drag out for a bit longer.

Sue and Buddy

Posted : 10/13/2006 10:24:01 AM

Thank you both for your responses. I posted over at General Questions that we had great results putting the two of them together. They do better outside...Maizy will try and get Buddy to play, but inside she just tucks her tail and barks at him. Buddy has been nipped or at least intimidated by her a few times and he backed off and let her be. He constantly tries to get her to play, though. lol

Sue