Now tell me all, do I have a problem on my hands?
My 10 wk old gsd pup is already trying to dominate my female. He is standing up to my male that is 10 times his current size. My dogs are not allowed to show aggression to him so I think he is under the impression that he is running the place. Whenever he gets something in his mouth he is not supposed to have he gets downright honery if I try to take it out. He got in a tug o war with my male tonight over a toy. Didn't back down a bit. My male has been patient with him but his patience is wearing thin. This pup keeps trying to throw fits to get his way. I'm not letting him have them but I wonder what I am in for as he matures. I've never been intimidated by a dog in my life. Still, seeing him act the way he is has kind of got me a little intimidated, especially for as young as he is. I see a dog fight in the future. HELP!

Why oh why are you letting a young pup frustrate an older male?
Even the most tolerant male won't put up with this for long,
time to get a crate and redirect that little attitude on something positive like his love toy, not saying they shouldn't socialise but he should be bonding with you, right now, I don't encourage my pups to spend this kind of free time with adult dogs they could pick up bad habits or get nipped and pushed around, or as in the case of yours start streching the boundary's.I would stop this immediatley as you said a problem in the making, if it is left unattended.You are the surrogate father now to this pup, now do your job step in and do the necessary, don't leave it to the dogs to sort it out cos they will and maybe not in a nice way, the pup will come off second best.

keep that pup tied to your waist for a week, and keep his focus on you. it's a great bonding exercise, and the younger done, the better.

Here's the thing...my female and him play wonderfully together. She kind of mommies him...been wondering if that is a good thing or not. I don't want him to bond more with her than with me. As far as my male is concerned...I always have Levi on a leash when I am in the family room playing with him. My male comes up and wants my attention. He is an exceptionally needy dog, always has been. He keeps his distance from the pup but still is quite tolerant of him. It is the pup that is constantly pushing the letter. Even with me he tries to push the letter sometimes. Still other times he is quite submissive to me and very obedient. There is just this one time of night that he gets obstinate most of the other time he does quite well all around. I don't feel like I am giving him enough to do or enough exercise. I tried tying him to me the other day and since I am in constant motion sometimes I almost have to drag him up from his spot. I give him a toy but he gets bored with it and wants to start chewing the furniture/cabinets where I am sitting/standing. (gosh I sound like a whinner) Other wise he is in his kennel and I feel like I have him penned up all the time. When I take him out to exercise with him all he wants to do is eat the grass (which is dormant and hard, don't know why he is obsessing about this) I tried taking him around the block for a walk (avoiding ppls yards, only staying on the sidewalk for fear of coming into contact with doggie poo) but folks say I shouldn't do that either. Either I'm giving him too much/not enough/. I've got him kenneled too much or not enough. Should I keep him away from my other dogs entirely for now? I dunno. grrrrrrrrrr!!I'm all about suggestions...bring it on ppl. Blast me if you have to. I want to do this right! Just seems like I can't get any balance here. Maybe there isn't any. Wah!!!

At 10 weeks, the pup should be one of three places: Crated, tied to you inside, or loose/leashed with you outside. Other dogs don't factor in. In fact, if your dogs will IGNORE the pup all the better. Don't let him interact with other dogs at all until about a year old, at which time he shouldn't care about them anymore.

In short, be 100% focused on him and playing with him, otherwise he is crated. Yes, this means he will be crated the vast majority of the time. During his crated times is when your "needy" dog can get attention.

ETA:

I DO let my pup to be around the older dogs on one occasion only; during walks. Brisk walks, where all the dogs are together, but are not allowed to pester or interact with one another. Walks are for walking, and pestering warrants an appropriate level correction (as in, don't rip the pup's head off).

really? Keep them away for a year? Wow...much longer than I expected.

So having him kenneled the majority of the time is okay then? I'm not being abusive?

I have him tied to me right now and all he is doing is whinning. I just had him outside, he peed, don't think he needs to go potty again.

Just seems an awful lot of time in the kennel. ON the other hand the three times I have let him out...and I am not exaggerating he got around the corner and pooped in about 3/10ths of a second. (Levi the fastest butt in the west). Well..okay I'll give it a try.

Don't let him off a leash even in the back yard?

 Quote: robbinmann

really? Keep them away for a year? Wow...much longer than I expected.

So having him kenneled the majority of the time is okay then? I'm not being abusive?

I have him tied to me right now and all he is doing is whinning. I just had him outside, he peed, don't think he needs to go potty again.

Just seems an awful lot of time in the kennel. ON the other hand the three times I have let him out...and I am not exaggerating he got around the corner and pooped in about 3/10ths of a second. (Levi the fastest butt in the west). Well..okay I'll give it a try.

Don't let him off a leash even in the back yard?

Yep, a year... Sometimes less. Around about the time the pup is more focused on me than any other dog. It's a lot of work, since you're doing EVERYTHING including potty breaks and training sessions twice! But it's worth it to have a dog that is so bonded and focused on the handler that the other dogs don't exist.

You are not being abusive by crating so much. Just ensure that he's getting out for a potty break every couple of hours, and that when you can, you spend time with him. I work all day so for me my time is limited. But they get as much of it as I can possibly give them, and they're none the worse for wear.

If he's whining when he's tied to you, give him a little pop with the flat collar and tell him to knock it off. Don't be a pushover. Carry some treats for when he's being a good boy, and reward him for calm behaviour. He's whining because up until now you've been fostering a bond to the OTHER DOGS in him, and he views you as simply something that keeps him from his pack (which doesn't include you right now). This is the reason for keeping them seperate. EVERYTHING in his world should come from you. Food, potty breaks, and all things fun. You have to be the center of his universe, because if you are not he will make the other dogs the center of his universe. This is called being "doggy".

Don't let him off leash in the back yard unless you know you can get him back. There's no problem with him being off leash (though he should be dragging a line) unless his being off leash starts to cultivate problems with the retrieve and/or a disregard for the recall commands (or "leave it" commands as the case may be if he starts to get into something).

Jennifer,

How do you train your multiple dogs to walk on leash together? You say to give them an "appropriate level correction". What would you consider appropriate? I have two large breed pups- an 8 month old and a 6 month old and I've been trying to get them to behave on our walks. I walk the older (more dominant)dog up front while my husband walks the younger behind us, since we don't all fit on the sidewalk in a row. The dogs both walk fairly politely on leash separately, but when they are around each other the younger dog keeps wanting to pester the older dog and then they both start acting up and wanting to run ahead. I tried walking them the other way around, but the older dog definitely insists on walking first, which is as it should be since we have had him longer.

I use different collar styles for them because they have such different personalities. Up until now I have been using a gentle leader collar on the older one because he really likes to pull on a flat leash, insisting on being the leader, so his correction is the correction on the packages instructions: pull upward so that the collar tightens around the mouth and as soon as he stops pulling, let it loose. The younger has the body harness, because he also pulls, but isn't as defiant about it as the older dog. When he pulls I just bring him to a halt and make the negative marker sound. When he stops pulling we can continue, otherwise we just keep halting. I'm hoping that he'll understand that he can't go anywhere unless he behaves. Do you think this is a good plan? It seems to work excellently when they are being walked alone, but as soon as I put them together they just get so excited that it's hard to implement the same tactics.

Do you think I should just wait until they are older? Even though the 8 month old seems so adult, I am perfectly aware that he is just a big puppy. Maybe I should try again after he is a year old?

As for RobbinMann:

I'm not sure what to say about the 10 week old pup. I probably wouldn't allow him around the other two until he is older, either. The mothering dog is just making him dependant and the older dog is just building his ego. He sounds like he has dominant tendancies, but that doesn't nessisarily mean he will become a dominant adult if you train it out of him. My older dog showed a lot of dominant tendancies as a little pup, but through a lot of obedience training he has mellowed out a lot and I know he will not hurt our other male dog. The thing is we had to discourage the behavior in him at an early age. For instance: the game tug of war should be controlled by you alone. You should decide when he can play tug and you need to take the toy away if he starts getting possessive about it. It sounds like being alowed around the older dog is encouraging the wrong behavior, so I would wait until the pup is older and has gone through obedience training. Are you planning on getting him neutered? I hear that sometimes helps control the behavior.

Jay,

It's relatively simple to explain and do, but harder to understand if you make training to complicated. You ask how I train multiple dogs to walk on leash together? Well, I basically say to myself, okay, I live here (Point A) and I want to go there (Point B) with my dogs. And in doing so, they have to walk and can't be pissing around with one another or tripping me up. So that's what I do... I just leash them up, and walk. And if/when one dog steps out of line or starts into it with another dog, I pop him at an appropriate level to get his attention and make him stop. And I keep walking.

I don't use halties. I have prong collars on the adults since they're the safest, most effective training collars, and I have flat collar on a pup because they're too young for a prong. The pop is of intensity to get the dog or pup to stop whatever it's doing, and focus back on walking.

It's amazing, if you walk like you mean it, they follow like you mean it. It isn't about a certain number of steps in a training program. It does help to have walked the dogs seperately around the block a few times so they understand what "correctly" means. Other than that, no training.

See, it is NECESSARY for my dogs to walk together because I have limited time to walk them. I can't be dividing up the time. And since there's only me, I can't employ an extra body to help me either. So we walk. And I make it happen.

Sorry I couldn't be more detailed in a step by step program.

Well for one, walking 2 dogs together is easy, simply don't allow the unwanted behavior to go on, when I walk 2 dogs that want to play during our walk I correct them seperately.I have on eleash that holds 2 dogs now cause they know how to walk together properly, I can actually walk all 3 together but I rather not but if you have a leash each on your dogs it is easy to coorect one at a time for the unwanted behavior.I always tell my dogs when they stop for smells or whatever they do that halts the walking ,I say" let's go" it's a command they know very well.I have taught that to them seperately on our walk, and it simply means "go ,keep walking.." Correct the unwanted behavior , you have to be consistent in what you want out of your dogs, don't over look anything, they learn very easely if you are firm and consistent.

Robbin,
one thing I taught my dogs is that when I pet one , the others have to wait.When I sit down, I don't want all 4 to rush me, for one) that's alot of dogs in my face and 2) that's a recipe for disaster.
SO I teach ,lets say one of them comes to me I motion with my hand and snap with my fingers quickly for the others to stay away, over time they have quickly learned to respect that command.It takes time but worth the effort to do at all times.When my young male was a puppy , and the older male would come to me and want attention, the puppy would always come at the same time and try to fit himself in between, well for a while it's ok but as this pup gets bigger my older male would not have allowed that behavior and a quick bite would have taken place.SOO wht I do is my male comes to me , the pup sees it and rushes over ,I grab the pup and put him him in a sit before he starts to jump up.I did that everytime , to the point thatafter a while the puppy would not come until no dog was on my lap first.You have to teach boundaries to your pup now.What ever dog you are petting does not mean everyone else has to join.I learned that from a clip I saw of "living with wolves".When the pack leader of the wolf pack went to give affection to this couple (that had raised them from the time the wolf pack were pups) they all took turns to come up to the humans, they came one at a time , they did not rush the humans ,it was amazing. I thought , hey I can teach the same respectfull behavior, why not.And today I can say they respect my time with each.