grumpy puppy, growls at our other dog

[Isabel186]

We have 2 GSD, one is male (Viktor), about 1.5 years and the sweetest dog one could ask for. We recently acquired a second pup (Gretta), she is now about 7 months and is a great member of our family EXCEPT for when "grumpy Gretta" makes an appearance.

They get along very well together, play fine without aggression, can eat within a few feet of each other. We take them on walks together to build their "team" attitude. But once Gretta is tired and lays down somewhere, Viktor cannot even get up and stretch without her growling like crazy. It doesn't matter if she has a toy or doesn't, so I don't think it's a possessive thing. She doesn't get up and go after him, just lays there growling. He doesn't go over and pester her at all, but literally every time he gets up and moves once she's "settled" she growls....constantly. But then if he lays down, she'll come right on over to him and lay down too, so I don't think she's afraid of him. Is this some kind of weird dominance/ territorial thing?

We've tried what seems like everything. We tried having them near each other when she growls and rewarding her as soon as she stopped. We tried having her on a leash w/training collar and giving her a check, that just made it worse. We even tried growling back at her all alpha dog like. We've currently been trying calling her away from the spot to another room to distract her/change her focus, that sort of works but she'll get up with a bark and then grumble all the way to where we are. She's very sensitive to any negative reactions and I don't want her to develop a fear of us.

She is totally fine if we approach her while she growls and has never shown any aggression towards us. We just moved away from our trainer and are looking into a new one, but if anyone has ever had something similar any feedback would be appreciated!

[MiraC]

Sounds like she is establishing who's the boss,tell her to knock it off.Our pup does this to ,we have 3 dogs a male,another female and our 7 month old German Shepherd female she leaves the male alone but the female who is a coon hound and built like a tank she started to go after when she was around 5 months. They got into some fights then the coon hound put her in her place but I also started to realize that I kind of had spoiled her a bit,letting her get away with taking toy,food ect,told off older dog instead of her.No more!
I learned that there is an order of things, feeding older dogs first plus I have learned to watch signals in body language and sounds
I tell her to knock it off ! German Shepherds are very very smart and intuitive dogs and they can wrap you around their little toe pad!


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[MiraC]

I meant to add I personally would not reward for ceasing to growl she may think you are rewarding her for growling at the other dog.


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