as sonny is ok with my older dogs, and they are great with him, i am letting them play/interact most of the time now, i had been separating them.

How much, if at all, correcting should i allow my older dogs to do to the pup? Example, he is doing the submissive lick the face dance to one of the older dogs, and they growl at him and chase him off-is that ok? Obviously, i would be watching, and not let it get carried away.

Are we talking about Bart?

no, bart is bottom dog, he cannot correct ANYONE, or he gets it. If any dog in the house tries to take his toy, or his sunny spot on the floor, he is expected to take it. Of course, i don't leave him alone with the pup.

I am talking more with roxie, maya and capone. Capone is his dd, and roxie had 11 pups before i got her from the rescue.

i ask because, with the adult dogs, i allow them to occasionally settle very minor disputes on their own, while i am always watching, ready to step in if i need to. If they start to argue over a toy, and they don't knock it off when i say knock it off, i take it away and no one gets it.

Now, Sonny is being integrated more and more into my pack, and i am curious if i can allow lets say roxie to tell him to knock it off, or if that would be bad for sonny.

There have been a few times when he has run up to her puppy style, all wiggles and licking, and she basically tells him off, and of course he is fine, he tucks tail and goes to bother maya,and then comes back to bother roxie again, but should i be allowing this?

I, personally, wouldn't allow dogs to correct each other or settle even minor disputes on their own. It could so easily and quickly escalate into something major, with major consequences.

If Sonny is annoying the older dogs he should be stopped and separated. Not fair to them, IMO.

That's my inexperienced $.02.

not really annoying, i mean, if he gets carried away, i do separate them, but just normal puppiness.

I never allow them to correct one another. If I have a pup antagonizing, even just regular "puppiness" (which there are entire threads dedicated to the little heathens we bring home!)I re-direct the pup with toys. I don't want a pup accidentally getting corrected too harshly by another dog and I don't want an adult thinking that he now has the job of resolving disputes. That's just me, though. I also limit how much a pup is allowed around adults, to prevent the adult's routine from being messed with too much.

thanks.
he isn't around them all the time, they need a break! but when he is, i just wasn't sure. I have not had such a young pup to add before, bart was an adult before i got maya, all my other dogs are adults.

Mostly, i was curious about roxie, sonny seems to like her best, and because she has been a mom before, i didn't know how much i should allow her to correct seeing as how she has had pup experience before.

yeah, he is great most of the time, but he does like to bait them into chasing him off, he loves that game....


on a similar note, he has really grown, i see him all the time, so i don't notice, but this morning, Frankie, the chihuahua that i let my neighbors adopt was in my yard, and sonny was playing with him, and he used to be smaller than the chi, now hi is like double his size!

 Quote: Sarah Morris

I, personally, wouldn't allow dogs to correct each other or settle even minor disputes on their own. It could so easily and quickly escalate into something major, with major consequences.

Ditto. That's my job. Only me.

Mallory,
I am pack leader in my house. Any correcting is done by me. Allowing your group of dogs to correct each other, puppy or not, is a bad idea in my opinion.
It causes confusion over who is boss, and confusion over who is boss can lead to dog fights and dog bites, again, in my opinion.
I am so NOT the exeperienced trainer that most of the other people on this board are, but even I can see that allowing one dog to "correct" or "boss" another when I have a pack of dogs in my house is not a good idea.

Am I just totally wrong, but dogs do some correcting just to let other dog know where things stand, there is rank among the lower members and they have to sort it out with growls. I never let all correction be done, but if one dog is just letting the other dog know, hey, dont step that far,,,,,,as long as not in extreme, would that be a problem....SOrry didnt mean to hijack