My next door neighbor has two older dogs that love my 6mos (gsd) old puppy, they play tirelessly. Fairly regularly since we got her @ 8 weeks they let her know they are the boss and she is the subordinate. She is from good working lines and I intend for her to do some kind of work( Sch , protection, etc.) lately when she come in contact with other dogs she seems too submissive, even offering her belly to a lab she originally bowed up to yesterday. Is this natural? Am I teaching her to be a coward? What, if anything do I need to do to correct this behavior. I want to be sure I do not screw her up by letting her enjoy her pack.

I have a 11 month old GSD and he is best buddies with the dogs on both sides of our fence. On one side is a female lab about 9 months old and on the other side is a 13 month old corgy. Every morning when my GSD enters the yard, he goes to one side of the fence and the neighbor's dog rolls over on his back, then he goes to the other neighbors dog and she too rolls over on her back for my GSD. This is now a daily routine but only done once a day. They seem to have established their own little pack and pecking order. Since they get along well, I don't interfere with their arrangement. I had male Lab that was submissive to any dog be it male or female that was the same size or larger than he was. I did not try to change his behavior. As he matured he dominated smaller dogs but was submissive to any larger male. Never once did I have an incident with dog on dog agression. I am not an expert at all on dog behavior but from my past experience , dogs seem to "work things out" among themselves. I don't think I would consider your GSD as a coward, after all he is only 6 months old and still thinks he is a little guy. Has he ever been attacked by an older dog? I also had a male GSD whom as a puppy showed submission to older GSDs (by licking them on the mouth or showing his stomach). As he matured and realized he was no longer 9 pounds his submissive behavior stopped.

Sometimes the dogs next door pin her to the ground around the neck, it seems to "correct” something she has done, it looks kind of tough to me but then they go back to playing and sparring.

Scott,
Is there a fence between the two or are they running freely together? What is the other dog?
I think that things will work out in time. I have an older (11 years) basengi (spelling ?) mix male that tried to dominate my GSD pup. This only lasted until my GSD pup realized he was bigger than the older dog. Now the situation is reversed. My GSD will make the older dog roll over on his back occasionaly. other times he will mouth the smaller dogs head (gently though) or grab him around the neck. afterwards they play and run around the house, steal each others toys etc but they get along very well. if my GSD gets too rough, I tell him to be gentle (a command I taught him when he was baby). Otherwise I do not interfere in their relationship.

They play freely; I tried an invisible fence for a while but it did not seem to work so well. One dog is a Beagle mix, and, the second one is Chow/GS/lab mix. It is mostly play I guess.