3 year GSD nervous around new puppy.

[BlackJack]

Ok, we have almost 3 year old, altered female, who is now being introduced to our new 9 week old puppy.

We are using a exercise pen to raise the puppy inside and when he is in the pen, she will come up and offer toys, try to play with him, and give kisses. When he is outside the pen, she becomes nervous, he the typical GSD who wants to play rough and tries to play with her. But you can tell she wants nothing to do with him and I have to pull her back before she becomes aggressive. During this time I am chain feeding her treats when she looks at him and trying to reinforce that puppy means good things.

BTW tomorrow it will be 1 week since the puppy came into the household.

Alot of this goes back to some fear she got as pup, she is the wifes dog and some of earlier experience where with dog aggressive dogs attacking them on walks (happened twice) and wife became nervous and stopped socializing when I was deployed.

The pup is my dog and I want his pupphood to be perfect.

Any other suggestions?

[jetscarbie]

Your 3 year old is probably anxious that another dog is around and on her turf. Especially if she's already dog aggressive.

I wouldn't leave them unsupervised at any time.

Just a suggestion....if you are training your pup...maybe you can start all over and train your 3 yr old. Work with a trainer on both of them.

[BlackJack]

Originally Posted by jetscarbie

Your 3 year old is probably anxious that another dog is around and on her turf. Especially if she's already dog aggressive.

I wouldn't leave them unsupervised at any time.

Just a suggestion....if you are training your pup...maybe you can start all over and train your 3 yr old. Work with a trainer on both of them.

Oh they are never unsupervised in the same room together. She nearly perfect other than her dog reactive issues. I think this a is little territorial related, see has met pups in netural grounds and at most gave them a lick, mostly she ignores them.

When they are in the same room together Immo, is in a puppy excersise pen and Molly tries to play with him through the pen. Even today when the puppy started whinging in his pen, she got up and went over and laid near him in the pen. She only gets nervous when he is out the pen and in full land shark mode.

[robinhuerta]

Another thing you need to consider and be careful about......
Her behaviors will be mimicked by the puppy....puppies "learn" from older dogs.
If she shows aggression, he will learn aggression....if she shows nervousness, he will learn nervousness....etc...etc...

[BlackJack]

Thanks Robinhuerta, you bring up a good point I didn't even think about. I was too busy thinking about smoothing things over and keeping the pup from physical conflict.

I think I am going to hold over for two more weeks before trying face to face introductions. Right they are sleeping beside each other with the ex-pen seperating them. I think that pen creates a bit of safety net for Molly.

She has warmed up to older dogs in the past, when we had to kennel her for a week or two. Last time she was kenneled for two weeks, she made friends with the lab in the next run.

[BlackJack]

Update. We have been walking them together for the last week with great success and Molly has been getting tons of treats from it. After the walk, I take them to the field, I use to train and let them loose (Molly is dragging her leash on prong if needed), Molly then starts getting very mouthy with the pup and nipping at him. Of course this really doesn't phase him, he gives it back to her as good as he got it, then he gets bored and starts looking for sticks to play with. With her interrupting his hunt for sticks with nipping and nudging.

I can only assume this her trying to express dominance, but really isn't workout too well because he could care less, I shut it down when it goes beyond the nipping.