sarahlux

As you know we have 6 month old (male) Degan who entered our lives in January. My mother came to live with us a year ago with her female Bichon (now 10 years old). We've been cautious w/ the puppy not jumping all over the Bichon and in retrospect we've kept them separated too much to this point in time (Bichon in a different room, etc). When we do expose them to each other, the Bichon snaps at Degan and growls at him and he swats at her (his boxing routine) and lunges at her (he is on a leash when he's interacting w/ her because my mother is so afraid he'll crush her). It's getting to the point, though, where this business of different rooms and confining Degan so much from free reign in the house is not balanced or fair. So, what's the success probability for these two dogs co-existing without a disaster ensuing? I was thinking maybe loose in the garden outside (if it ever stops raining over here) or in a neutral place to start for limited amounts of time that eventually increase? But the puppy is very exuberant about his lunges toward the smaller one and I don't think it's aggressive but more excited and playful but definitely in the spirit of too much "rough" play for a small older dog. The bichon has done a lot to piss him off I have to say, by snapping at his face and growling at him, and he might have big plans for her. That's the worry. Anyone else have experience or ideas?

Mackadelic

My pup does the exact same thing with My 22 month old Boxer. He constantly nags and naws on him. He goes straight for his private parts. I don't know if he think its a mothers nipple or what. One good bite down there and he's sure to be bitten. While I am there my Boxer won't snap at him, but I make sure I have them seperated while I am not there. I also tell my pup to stop with some volume and he usually does (for the moment). I throw alot of toys at him to chew on instead.

velmadobe

I would maybe try taking them for walks together - it might be easier for them to get to know each other that way while being kept busy walking so they can't play too much.

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alwayshadpets

Read an article that discussed this issue. this is a summary of of it.

Olfaction. Rub the puppy with a soft cloth, especially in his ears, under his tail and around the urethral opening. These are all the places that dogs sniff one another. Rub the cloth gently on the noses of the adult dog.

Vision and audition. Reintroduce the dogs off your property. With a different person holding the leash of each dog. Take them all for a walk so they get used to one another on neutral territory. Put puppy in an exercise pen where he is protected from the adult, but have visual contact.

Taste. A specific exercise is to walk one dog up to the puppy and quickly give that dog a treat when they are close but not within biting range.
The puppy should be given a treat, too, by his handler. Do 10 times with the adult approaching the adult and 10 times with the puppy approaching the adult.

It is important to know whether the adult dog attacked without preamble or the puppy tried to play with the older dog.
The former indicates a more serious problem.

JanS

This is the exact problem we have with our 13 year old Sheltie and Boris. She is just plain cranky, and yes Boris has tried to stomp on her a few times when he wants to play, but she also snaps at him for no reason at all. For this reason we've also had to keep them separated, and we are getting worried that there may not be a solution.
The Sheltie is my Mom's old dog that we took in when she passed away, so she was used to being the only dog with only one person and now she has issues with not being the only one.
Any suggestions?

I hope I'm not intruding on your thread sarahlux, but since they are such similar issues, I thought maybe we could both benefit from any insight on it.
I certainly is frustrating to have to keep them separated all the time.

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alwayshadpets

The above article said the process could take sevral weeks. If all goes well with the above steps (remember it can take several weeks).
The next step is--all good things happen near the puppy. Ignore the adult dog---no touching, talking or looking at them unless you have the puppy near by. If the adult is misbehaving (snapping, growling) take the adult away in a calm manner, no petting, talking etc. This can take several weeks also.

sarahlux

No problem JanS for adding to the question. We both need help here and all comments are welcome. It's nice to hear I'm not alone tw/ this problem!!!