Hello everyone. My name is Vicki. I am new to the site and dog training in general so please forgive my lack of knowledge in this area. I am learning.
I own a 8 year old male, a 3 year old male Chihuahua and a 9 week old male German Shepherd pup. (all non working and neutered except pup)
I have always seen my self as pack alpha, but I am in a place of being unsure of what to do with the new pup and the natural dominant order of the pack. My pup is starting to put his head over the shoulders of my Chihuahua. I know this is a dominant move but I don't know if I should stop it or not. As for the older German shepherd, he tolerates the pup until feeding time. I would appreciate any advice. Thanks much

Hi, Vicki, and welcome. You will get more replies too, although weekends tend to be slower as people are training, etc.

I never allow any overt dominant displays, period. No humping, no posturing, none.

Are you feeding separately, never leaving toys or chewies out, etc.?

What does this mean: " he tolerates the pup until feeding time"? Whatever it means needs instant addressing. If you don't post back before they eat, at the very least, feed them separately, with you standing right there, until this is sorted out (whatever it is).

How much "tolerating" does he have to do? Of what, exactly?

You are right to be exploring pack structure, because you have gone from two to three. That is a HUGE difference .... it's nothing at all like two.

I would fix in my head that the dominant order is you, then all the rest.

Connie,
Thank you for your response. I appreciate all the advice I can get.

As of today all feeding will be done separately. Until the pup (Bogie) there wasn't a problem. We always had a fixed routine. (Twice a day, oldest dog having to sit and wait for food etc) Having a new puppy has changed that a bit. Bogie eats much slower then the rest and its 3 times a day verses 2.

Mikko, the oldest, growls at the pup before the food even hits the bowl. Although he has no food aggression with any of the humans in the home at all.

By "tolerates" I mean that Mikko is 8 and doesn't want to play, or be jumped on etc. So he will warn (growl)when he has had enough. Although being a puppy, Bogie doesn't quite get it. Not sure how to deal with that.

I also shared with my husband the new NO TOLERANCE rule for any dominant displays.

I'm learning, thanks again.

Sounds like that puppy has a lot of house freedom. He'd be tethered to my jeans whenever he wasn't outside pottying and walking or in his crate. For the short time he might be untethered to me, he'd have on a drag line and I'd be right there, and I mean right there.

Growling around food means that you have to be super-vigilant about no food guarding even getting the tiniest foothold in your house.

I think that you will find that there are many pack-owners here (by that I mean more than two dogs) and that the intro of a new member means that feeding is carefully supervised.

My dogs are now all seniors and long-time residents and have known each other for years, and there is no aggression or residual resource-guarding, but I still stand in the kitchen for every meal. This is where in-the-pack dog-fights usually start: at food bowls, over chewies or treats, and around toys left out.

Mikko needs absolute assurance that his food won't be approached or even looked at by the puppy, IMO, and that YOU will take care of that (that he has zero need to guard what you have given him).

Again, a pack of three is nothing like two. You did good by asking so early in the game.

One bad mistake can end up with dogs who have to be separated forever. I'm not exaggerating. Trust me; I'm old. LOL

http://leerburg.com/puppygroundwork.htm


http://leerburg.com/introducingdogs.htm
Some of this, the time has passed for. But there's a ton for you here.


http://leerburg.com/puppy-pack-structure.htm

I also went from 2 to 3:
A week ago raw knuckle bones sparked an ugly fight and now the new pup, 5 months and 50 lbs, is aggressive.
He's also finding himself living in the garage much of the time.

My husband exercises the new pup, that is "his" dog.
When the pup has breakfast, he eats in the garage, and everyone else gets a mini-milk bone instead of a meal. Evening we all eat in crates. Chew toys are in crates. I'm keeping the dogs separated much of the time, even though I have a farm:eg when we drive for chores, one dog runs along, one is inside the pickup. In the evening when
all dogs are in rules are enforced, eg we don't all gather around the dishwasher anymore or stand around the kitchen while I am cooking. We have to be on our mats.

So my advice to you is don't let things blow up: they did here, my mistake, now the character of our home has shifted, and it's guite a bore.

"So my advice to you is don't let things blow up: they did here, my mistake, now the character of our home has shifted, and it's guite a bore."



"It's quite a bore" is probably a huge understatement.

One mistake. One incident of high-value food left among the pack.

That's all it takes.

One ugly fight results .... sometimes even a death, often an injured human who tries to break it up, very often a vet trip.


Betty is doing a big service by explaining how little it takes with a pack to create a separation-forever situation. It's not always forever, but IME, it usually is, after an attack.

You don't want this. You want to address that food-guarding thing and the puppy's excess house freedom and "freedom of expression" right away.

Rather than being alarmed by the replies, I'd consider myself fortunate and wise to be asking and learning early on.

Vicki, you might also want to start a thread on training (upbeat positive-reward-based short little training sessions). I'm hoping you plan to marker-train. (If you don't know that term, it's the term that clicker training falls under; not everyone uses a clicker for their marker).

It doesn't really belong under this title, but you'll want to learn marker training, IMHO.

Thank you ladies! I am taking this all in and there are changes starting today. Less freedom, separate feedings etc. We've only had Bogie for 6 days now, and before that our last pup was 9 years ago.

The crate training is driving us mad. Bogie can be VERY loud and our house isn't very big. Today we've been crating him more hoping he will eventually settle in. (cross fingers)

Connie, thanks for the link, I am reading them all. =D

What do you mean "start a thread"? Like I did here?