My older dog snapped at our puppy

ugh... this time i used a different browser and the preview even showed separate paragraphs, i'm not sure what happened... sorry for ANOTHER long 1 paragraph post.

It sounds to me like corrective behavior.  When we had a 10 week GSD puppy in our home before Christmas, my older female would do the same thing.  Puppy teeth are sharp and some dogs won't give a puppy a free pass to behave how ever it pleases.  There's a difference between aggression and a reasonable correction.  My oldest dog has a few places she likes to be left alone.  The other dogs know and respect this but the puppy did not.  If the puppy was out, I did my best to keep her from pestering the oldest dog.  Every once in a while she'd get too nippy and get a flash of teeth or a quick nip but that was it, it's just how dogs communicate with each other.  Not every dog can be expected to tolerate a puppy's constant pestering.  Both incidents you describe sound normal to me.  I would just keep the puppy from jumping on the other dog when she is in her bed or resting.

This is normal behavior. Your older dog is letting the pup know the rules, and I wouldn't worry. My 14 y/o dog does the same thing to younger dogs, she won't put up with any shenanigans! It's good for the pup, teaches them boundaries.

Loopy

 

This is normal behavior. Your older dog is letting the pup know the rules, and I wouldn't worry. My 14 y/o dog does the same thing to younger dogs, she won't put up with any shenanigans! It's good for the pup, teaches them boundaries.

 

Agreed.  While older dogs often tolerate a lot of puppy stuff, some of them are less forgiving than others.  The good news is that your older dog is not doing any damage to the pup and is not making a point of doing any more than is necessary to tell him off;-)

I am surprised no one has mentioned this but I'm gonna --

The second scenario the older dog was up on the bed with you -- frankly, that's a prized position for ANY dog.  The younger dog comes slamming in and jumps up on the bed -- YEP -- he's lucky he didn't get his face ripped off!!

With YOU on the bed, the bed being a "prized place" (it's "up" it's YOURS and YOU were **THERE** -- so let's say prized times three!!) you want to be REALLY careful and not set this puppy up to fail.

YOu really don't want to put these dogs in a position where either of them is guarding "YOU".  You literally become a resource in this case -- you and the older dog were enjoying a moment.  NEXT TIME have the other person ANNOUNCE to you "we're on our way to the bedroom" IN TIME for you to get the other dog down OFF the bed or else for the other person to have control of the pup so the pup can **ASK** to come up onto the bed for a cuddle. 

YOU are the human and you can say yes or no to this. BUT don't put the older dog in the position of "power" and then wonder why it snaps at the pup.  And you can set this up to increase next time so the older pup then feels compelled to defend ITS place on the bed ....

My point is this -- so far this is just corrective behavior -- I totally agree.  HOWEVER -- you can actually set the stage for worse in the future by not controlling what you can.

Now -- for a pup to jump into another dog's bed ... that's just kinda rude and crude but as long as you're still I'll tolerate it. 

BUT when it comes to a position that is both close to you and a position of power -- you're coming close to setting these two up for conflict.

Do I make sense?? I'm not giving you a hard time -- just warning you that you want to be extremely careful not to set situations up to MAKE problems.

Callie I see what you're saying but who knows, we weren't there.  My rule is that no dog loses privilege because I add another dog.  Kenya, Coke, and Nikon have all earned couch and bed privilege so when Ana was around, they were still allowed on the furniture.  If they want to lie next to me, they can.  I didn't make them get off to avoid a perceive position of power.  In fact they did have more "power" in that they had earned the privilege of being on the couch and being near me, the puppy had not and would have no right to jump up and pester us.  I would prevent the puppy from pestering the dogs in this situation, but not ask the dogs to get off when they did nothing wrong. 

I may be wrong but I think what she was saying is that BOTH of these dogs are relatively new. 

And I don't mean to kick the one out of bed permanently -- but merely to make sure you have the situation under control when the younger one comes bounding up so there isn't an altercation ON the bed.  I've see that happen and it can get real ugly really fast and learning to set things up so disaster doesn't happen is a big deal for me.

If I read correctly, both dogs are recent additions??

The first incident sounds to me as if the older dog was correcting the puppy, which, imo, is perfectly normal, & acceptable.

The second incident sounds like resource guarding to me.  Since I like simple, easy fixes, I would crate both dogs at night.  That way, the older dog doesn't feel the need to guard you or the bed.

Thanks for your replies. Callie isn't a new addition, she has been with us since she was 2, so about 4 years. I see what you're saying about the bed and resource guarding, etc... that's definitely not a position i'd like put them in again. As i mentioned, up until Monday or Tuesday, the puppy wasn't even able to get up on the bed and had only tried a few times so i wasn't expecting it, and i was sleeping so it was even more unexpected. Callie always starts out sleeping on the floor but will end up in bed with me, i'm terrible and don't notice until the morning. We work full time so i don't like to keep her in her crate more than she needs to be (although Artie does stay in his crate at night for house training purposes). They're fine on the couch together next to me or my boyfriend, although right now that's still more of a controlled environment. I guess i should work on training them both not to jump up uninvited onto the bed, or the couch to prevent future incidents. I'll also think about crating them both, while i'd eventually like to have them both out of their crates at night, i don't want to set them up to fail. Thanks again for your input.

 I do believe that it is simply a correction when Callie feels that the pup crossed the line. There is no reason that an older dog would have to put up with everything from a pup. When enough is enough, something must be said. Little pup needs to learn some rules and respect.

Jasmine used to do that to J.D. a lot, until he smartened up. Now, showing more respect, he can also get away with much more. Jasmine never hurt him, but would let him know when he was overstepping the boundaries. They bonded very closely and get along beautifully now. He still respects her. He might get the odd snarl when he pokes her with his nail while snuggling. He thinks nothing other of it than it is.