I'm totally stumped about my dog's barking... I have a 22 month old male fixed APBT (Eli) and a 5 month old female APBT (Macie Mae). The dogs seem to do well together. Eli is very tolerant of the puppy. He does however seem to have his limits and he will get after her and she backs right down. She seems to be very submissive to him and us. The question I have about this is; Recently Eli has gotten to where he barks at the puppy and at us and does not want to quit for what seems to be no apparent reason. I will put him in a down stay and he stops at that point but as soon as you release him from his down stay he starts again. So I don't know if this is a sign of trouble that I should be dealing with more strenly or what. Also, when the puppy bites at Eli and is just annoying him and Eli snaps back who should be corrected? Either one, the puppy, or Eli? I have read that you should not correct the dominant dog because it will make it more dominant. However, I am not comfortable with this because I am afraid he will just think he can treat the puppy however he wants and he becomes the boss and will start trying to dominate us. Both dogs are crate trained. We do not leave them out and home alone. The puppy goes in the crate. Also I have read that if you have one dog that seems to be the dominant dog you should go along with it and feed that dog first and get him out of his crate first and so on and so forth. Again I am concerned that Eli will get full of himself and think he rules the roost. I do put them both in their crates for a time out so to speak when they get over excited and seem to start loosing self control. Am I doing something wrong that is causing Eli to bark so much? What is the barking all about?
Thanks,
Jen Somsel

Also, when the puppy bites at Eli and is just annoying him and Eli snaps back who should be corrected? Either one, the puppy, or Eli? I have read that you should not correct the dominant dog because it will make it more dominant. However, I am not comfortable with this because I am afraid he will just think he can treat the puppy however he wants and he becomes the boss and will start trying to dominate us.

No one should be corrected. Allow Eli to dominate the pup. You have a pack and the pup needs to be shown it's place. You are alpha, Eli is next and the pup is LAST. She needs to know this. You need to be alpha over Eli if he becomes overly aggressive to the pup or begins viciously teasing her...let him know he cannot go to the point of terrorizing the pup but he has every right to correct her and tell her to stop biting him. Just because Eli is dominate over the little pup doesn't mean he'll go on a dominance rampage and attempt to dominate you. APBTs are not generally a human-dominate breed while they are very dominate to other animals.

As for the barking, I couldn't tell unless I saw it. Some dogs will bark to create action...they want to play. My female APBT will play bow and bark and bark at my other pit bull until they begin to play. She will do the same with me if I have a toy she wants to play with.

I hope that helps.