I need some help here. I have a 4 month old Doberman pup, a nuetered male. I also have a large male GSD that is about 16 months old. My GSD Luke has been what I would call VERY tolerant with the pup, they play all of the time. And have it has been very common to walk into the room and see them working on opposite ends of the same huge rawhide bone even. Well tonight I got the pup his own bone, a smaller bone. Well, i brought it in, my daughter unwraps it, and gives it to the pup. My GSD walks over to look at it, gets told to "leave it" and starts to back away, then gets curious again and walks back up to where the pup is, the pup then makes the mistake of trying to defend the bone and gets throttled pretty good. It happened within "seconds", one minute they are merely looking at each other, and the next second Luke has covered the 8 feet and has the pup's head in his mouth, my wife has Luke by the collar and the pup has a small gash on his head, and has peed on the carpet. I am taking the pup to the vet in the morning to get the bite looked at, but as of right now it looks pretty ok. Luke was put directly into a down/stay, and he stayed there for 45 minutes while I determined where exactly the pup was bleeding from, I thought it was an ear, but it is along the cheek. Luckily the pup's Wildebrandts is not terrible, or I'd have REALLY had a problem. As it was it bled only for a few minutes, then closed up and stopped bleeding. But it is sore, poor little guy.
As I said, they have NOT had this type of run in before. Up to this point they have gotten along perfectly, in fact Luke wakes my wife up if the pup has to go out at night. I have had them separated since that time, where do I go from here? Luke has never reacted this way, he is coming of age though and his temperment is beginning to stiffen up some in other areas. He did have a slight run in with a Malamute that some nieghbor doesn't seem to control very well, but that ended quickly, they met in the yard, Luke did the play stance, the Malamute growled and showed some teeth, and Luke bounced him and bit him, and the Malamute now doesn't come across the street anymore. My Dobe pup is sweet as can be, but he will try to stand his ground, he has been good though. I was not 100% prepared for this. Any ideas?

Are you saying the pup got a treat but the adult dog didn't?

the gsd is the aplha (caus he is older) he should get everything first. the pup does not get anything, first or more of or the pup does not get anything & the gs gets nothing. if the pup needs to get something (medication) then give it to him when the gs is not around. the gs eats first, drinks first, gets love first from you, sleeps in the best spot..... priority & prefrence is given to the alpha! if the alpa decideds to share with the suborienets then its ok. if the beta had something the gs want it, then the gs can take it away. by giving the pup a treat & not the gs you basically said to him the pup is of hire status then him, which did not go over very well, escpecially when the pup showed defensive posture for his treat.
when i say alpha this is not correct, you (the humans)are the alpha, the gs is the beta & the pup is the gamma.
in a perfect world u being the alpha should be able to tell/show the gs (if u wanted to) that the pup is his superior & he is the inferior pack member BUT you are dealing with almost hard wired insticts & this would never happen in a natural all dog pack. so its best to go with the flow. u are alpha, gs is beta, pup is gamma. when the pup gets older he might want to chalen the gs for status but deal witht that when it starts.

Kevin,
Get rid of the rawhides, besides being a choking danger, most multiple dog environments can turn into bloodsport when rawhides are introduced. Before realizing the dangers of rawhides, I had to shove my arm down one of my rottie's throats to remove the knot from a rawhide. I would have lost a dog that day. They are also the only "treat" that makes my dogs terrorize each other.
THROW THEM IN THE GARBAGE....

Well, I have done away with the rawhides, and learned about pack protocol over the last few days. Both GSD and Dobe pup are fine, getting along normally. Have explained protocol to the kids too.

Kevin,
Raising multiple dogs is always a rewarding challange, we just need to take more than normal precautions to prevent unfortunate accidents from ocurring. Great idea explaining the pack protocol to your kids. It took me until recently to really understand it, and most of that knowledge came from the informative people on this forum. Maturity in dogs will usually change the way they interact, be observant to body language and those subtle changes that only you will notice. Let us know how they do..
Jerry

I am raising two gsd's at the same time... my female will be 4 and the male is 11 months old...have had some of the same problems..but never give one a treat and not the other...asking for problems as you found out...and i am sure that there will more fights dealing with two male instead of the female/male situation..both mine eat, sleep, play and get treats together.. very seldom are not together but when all of this is going on i am standing over them watching and being the alpha..making sure that we maintain the proper order..there are alot of showing of teeth and being vocal around baseballs and treats...Hoss loves to try to steal Gretchens treat. He will go hide his and then come back to steal hers. I am sure that raising two males is a whole different world and dont find myself ever doing it. Both are house dogs and so far we maintain order..If and when there is a problemm the treats or balls they are taken away and we find something else to do with our time...and i am sure that someone that is raising or has raised two males can give more insight..

We have 3 males. Why would it be harder with them than males and females?

All has been pretty good since this little incident. My GSD (the brute) is still extremely tolerant w/ the rapidly growing, and boisterous pup. The only issue that I have seen since then was the GSD had gravy on his food and the pup walked up to it, one low growl and the pup retreated to the dog bed at the back of the house.
We have discussed the lack of need for gravy on their food since then. Better to head it off now.
The pup is 5 months old now, is 23" tall and around 53 lbs. He is sweet, and is coming around to the knowledge that everything in the house is not for him to chew up. He has the basics down, but has relapses in judgement caused by those wonderful things called shoes. In this area the GSD has actually been the one to catch it 1st, taking the shoe and issueing the correction, often before my wife catches it.
As for his education, he knows sit, down, come, leave it, out, and NO. He has not been fond of gunfire down at the skeet range, but due to the GSD just ignoring it he has learned to do the same. The initial blast makes him a little uncomfortable. They both go to the lake everyday, and although the water is still COLD, he swims like a fish, and loves high-flying leaps off of the boat dock.