# Dominant behaviour?



## Must dash (Nov 15, 2012)

I'm after advice whether to leave them to sort it out or intervene. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm a first time puppy owner. 

We have an 11 year old male springer spaniel Twig, who is very calm and placid. He loves to chase and retrieve a ball, but doesn't really "play". Our 12 week old female V Sadie barks at Twig and jumps trying to get him to play. He just ignores her or will grumble and show his teeth if she gets too much for him. For the last couple of days Sadie has taken no notice of these warnings and has now started to climb all over Twig in his bed and mounting. I have read this is a sign of dominance. I've also noticed her behaviour the last couple of days is more challenging and she has growled at me a couple of times when I've removed things that she shouldn't have. I have corrected her on this and will not tolerate her dominance of me. Do I just leave them to get on with it, even if she becomes the boss and he lets her, then so be it?

They don't fight over toys or beds. Sadie has only been in our home for 11 days. I may have added to the situation by feeding them together, literally their bowls are placed on the floor at the same time. If they both want fuss together they get that at the same time too, unless Sadie bites then I withhold hers until she stops biting. Have I created them equal and now she's trying to take control.

Any advice on handling this situation would be very much appreciated.

Paula


----------



## hotmischief (Mar 11, 2012)

Paula,

Your puppy is very young and whilst I am sure others might say that you should leave them alone to sort out their pecking order I feel very strongly that Twig has earnt the right to a bit of peace and quite.

We had a similar situation as you. Young vizsla puppy elderly Gt Dane. The Dane is very gentle and subsurviant and the pup is definitely a more dominant character. We took the attitude that the pup was not to bother or jump up at the Dane. So whenever Boris started trying to get Fergus to play with him we told him "NO", gave him a toy and we played with him. The biggest problem has been Boris jumping up at Fergus. Boris knows he isn't allowed to do this but when he is excited out walking he forgets. We use the Pet Corrector (from any pet shop) which sprays compressed air - they don't like the hissing noise, and that has worked well. When Boris was very young and he used to really bother Fergus we would put him in his crate to calm down. Your older dog has a right to peace and quiet when he wants it.

The growling when you take things a way is natural - just keep practicing this. We always do it with raw bones. Just as they are tucking in to it take it away. You must be very positive when doing this, and when he growls tell him NO in a very stern voice. After 30 seconds or so, give it back and praise him. Repeat that a few times with every bone or whatever is causing a problem until the growling stops.

Our boys are great together now and the puppy has given the old Dane a new lease of life. They even play tugger together - so there is life in the old dog yet


----------



## Must dash (Nov 15, 2012)

Thank you for your reply. It's exactly how I feel about Twig. He deserves some peace and quiet. He takes himself away from Sadie if she's annoying him, only to be followed and walked on. This morning I decided to greet and fuss Twig first and made Sadie wait. She barked and tried to bite me initially, but after a few seconds waited until I decided to fuss her. Twig walked away to go to his bed and she immediately followed him and started to bark at him. He gave her a warning growl and bared his teeth and she actually listened and backed off. I put his food bowl down first this morning then walked her to the other side of the kitchen, made her sit then put her food bowl down. No problems there. I'm going to continue with this and see how we progress today.

It's all early days and I appreciate she's young and has just been introduced to a new household etc. Also an automatic reaction is to focus on the puppy as she's into everything, house training and we had to coax her to eat for the first few days. Twig has had time with just with me too but maybe not enough focus when we're all together.

Owards and upwards. Today will be a better day ;D


----------



## Ozkar (Jul 4, 2011)

Twig is 11. I presume in possession of all it's faculties yeah? Then let them sort it out. Your pup still carries it's puppy licence. This expires at some point between 4 and 6 months without notice. Till then, Twig will cop a bit of rough stuff from pup and chalk it up to puppy licence. Believe me, the springer will nail the pup to the floor once it reaches critical mass......  But, you should also leave this to occur, all be it monitored. If you intervene, pup will not learn the right social graces and will lack reading skills which can cause issues when they are an adult. Pup will most likely benefit from the learning process.


----------



## Must dash (Nov 15, 2012)

Yes Twig is perfectly well. Reading the signals of other dogs makes sense. The boisterous play doesn't bother me, it's when she stands over him and has started the mounting/humping behaviour. The dominant signs just seem wrong to me from a 12 week old puppy. I guess that's me putting my human feelings onto it. She's been a little better today so far. She's backed off when he's grumbled at her. Yesterday she just ignored any warnings he gave her. I suppose I just need to let them get on with it.

Thanks for the advice Ozkar


----------



## redbirddog (Apr 23, 2010)

http://redbirddog.blogspot.com/2009/12/history-and-misconceptions-of-dominance.html

http://redbirddog.blogspot.com/2012/02/inter-dog-dominance-aggression.html

Hope these couple posts help in understanding. Your pup will loose that license soon.

Happy trails,
RBD


----------



## Must dash (Nov 15, 2012)

Very interesting reading RBD. Thank you!


----------



## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

It sounds like the new pup is just being a pup, and Twig is acting his age. The only thing I would do is give Twig a place that he can go when he doesn't want the pup to bother him. Be sure to give them individual time and attention.


----------

