[selzer]

Your 3 year old dog weighs 75 -- 90 pounds? Your 10 week old puppy weighs 15 -- 20 pounds? The little dog weighs?

Throw the ball. Large dog bumps or steps on the puppy and causes a serious injury -- it IS possible. Puppy is hurt or just terrified and screams. Dog's prey drive or pack drive comes in, and he turns on the puppy. You rush up, pick up the puppy and cuddle it in your arms. I don't even know what message to the dog that is, but the little dog comes up and experiences the redirected aggression from the big dog.

We need to protect little dogs and puppies from the sheer size of our bigger dogs.

Instead of picking up and cuddling the puppy, you should have gotten the big dog under control and put him in a crate or kennel and then helped the puppy. I am talking about seconds, either call the dog to you, or grab him by the tail and pull him off the little one, kennel him, and then go and determine the damage.

I am sorry your little dog got hurt. Play with your big dog by himself. Normally, when you have a dog that is the leader dog, the other dogs run with him for a toy, but let him take the toy back.

Lots of dog parks do not even allow toys because they can be a accelerant to fights.

I am really sorry that this happened, but now you can adjust for it.

 

[selzer]

MaggieRoseLee, your advice is to put the ten week old puppy and the 3 1/2 year old dog that has already shown some serious aggression toward the puppy together right away again?

I think that you really need to let the two get used to one another on lead, and you need to supervise completely, and you need to only allow the puppy and the dog to be loose together some of the time. The older dog may not like having the puppy jumping around him constantly.

Since there has been aggression already, this puppy could become dog aggressive if it is attacked by this dog again. I would let the puppy get a little bit bigger -- maybe 3 1/2 to 4 months old before I would allow them to play together.

 

[selzer]

I had watched your vid and that is nice. I have NO idea where around here there is anywhere that safe where my dogs could be off lead.

I will take a dog off lead in the woods, but not multiples.

It seems like this dog inadvertantly hurt the puppy, making it scream, then went after it, and then when she picked it up to make sure it was ok, the dog kept trying to get at it in her arms. When the little dog came up, it redirected the aggression toward the little dog causing the blindness.

An eighty pound dog stepping or jumping on a youngster like this can cause injury without any aggression. If that happens again, a mile away from home, isn't it likely that the large dog may go after the pup again. I think it is very risky.

Also, if your older dog is well trained and used to hikes in the wilderness, that is great. Taking the puppy along is no huge feat. If you have a young dog that is not accostomed to this, and want to do that with him and a pup, unsure who else might be out there hiking or checking on their marijuana plants, I don't know, I think that is another thing altogether.