Should I be worried about her?

[Juno]

So I've had Juno for a week. When I first got her, she was terrified of my older dog. We have had our older dog, Sadie for about 8 years now. The only other dog in the household with her was a puppy we got a while back. He was annoying, and constantly chased her and bit her tail and snapped at her face constantly. Of course, she would bark and tell him off and it wouldn't stop him.

Well, when we got Juno, she was very submissive and great with her. Sadie seemed to love it too, and she would use her powers for evil and growl at her any chance she got. It seemed to keep her in her place for a little while... but I would take her on confidence walks with her so that she could perhaps be a little less afraid of Sadie. I didn't know it would work within three days. After that, she was no longer afraid of Sadie. I was fine with that, but it's gone from being afraid, to not caring, and now she torments the poor dog. She jumps all over her head and back, and just lunges at her. I'm not sure whether or not she's playing, or if she's trying to learn her place in the family.

When it comes to feeding time, the dogs will hover around me, but not jump. At first they would sit and wait patiently, but now when Sadie gets close to me making the food, she yips at her and snaps at her face. She also snaps at Sadie when she gets close to me and tries to love on me.

To me, it seems as though she has a resource guarding issue. This can be fixed, I'm sure, but how? I've dealt with this before with the puppy we previously re-homed, but his food aggression was so bad that he was starting to just randomly attack us. His food aggression was turning into random aggression, and he was becoming a liability issue.

Of course, she doesn't have food aggression with us, or any type of aggression with us, it's just Sadie and her age that we worry about. Any advice on stopping this so that I don't lose my puppies trust, or cause it to escalate?

[Kissu & Aara]

First off, though it is not an excuse, don't be so ready to expect to lose trust in a puppy. If you are. She's a puppy; growing, new confidence, playful, teething maybe.

Best thing to do is to remove her when she snaps at your older dog when there's cuddles. I wouldn't even say ah-ah. I'd just pick her up and put her in another room or crate.

If what she's guarding is actually hers, like kibble or a toy, I'm not sure. Someone else probably has some suggestions.

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[Juno]

She really doesn't guard her toys or chew things. Earlier today though, she ran up to Sadie and stole the cow-hoof she was chewing on right out of her mouth. Of course, Sadie barked, growled and attempted to keep it, but Juno was persistent. I suppose it could just be a puppy thing.

[Robinhuskylover2231]

First off, though it is not an excuse, don't be so ready to expect to lose trust in a puppy. If you are. She's a puppy; growing, new confidence, playful, teething maybe.

Best thing to do is to remove her when she snaps at your older dog when there's cuddles. I wouldn't even say ah-ah. I'd just pick her up and put her in another room or crate.

If what she's guarding is actually hers, like kibble or a toy, I'm not sure. Someone else probably has some suggestions.

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For the most part I agree with this, I just want to add that putting her in a crate may be a bad idea because you don't want her to associate punishment with her crate, you want the crate to be a happy place! & it's probably just a puppy stage, she may grow out of it and she may not but eventually Sadie will get fed up and tell her enough is enough

[Removed #5]

There's a good article on the Puppy License and it might give you some ideas of what's going on between the dogs. Puppies are allowed a lot of leeway - up to a point, then the older dog reachs a point where it decides that enough's enough. My infamous phrase, so long as there's no blood you're better off letting the dogs work out their own problems.

[Juno]

That seems to go on, only Sadie wants nothing to do with her. I don't mind her barking at her inappropriate behavior, but when I'm trying to pet them, she jumps on Sadie with her mouth open and nose wrinkled and of course Sadie will bark like mad at her. I mostly fear for my safety since they go at each other with teeth. It's never viscous, and it's typically over in a few seconds, but I'm still concerned. The other puppy I had would go at her every chance he got, and he eventually became aggressive to us.

The crate is upstairs in my room, so I don't really have time to stick her in it when she's being bad. I've just started throwing her outside.

I did notice something that startled me yesterday. I was on the floor and she started to fall asleep. I tried to love on her, but she started to growl, and then she walked away and laid down somewhere else. Also, later on while she was asleep, I tried to pet her, and she woke up and growled. Of course, this time, I just paused, and kept petting her, and she stopped and fell asleep again.

I supposed it's time to start treating her like a dog and stop letting her become the center of my world. I'd hate to have another brat like the other puppy. I can't go through another thing like that again.

[Removed #5]

Petting a sleeping dog isn't really the safest thing in the world to do. Depending on their dream state ( or being punny, the state of their dream ) they may react to the dream not your affection. If you really can't resist, say something before you pet, give her a chance to wake enough to know who you are first.

While having a couple of rowdy dogs 'in your lap' may be scarey, I'd bet they know enough about what they're doing to not get you by mistake. It sounds like Sadie is doing her best to correct the brat - we suggest ignoring a brat, Sadie is; we suggest telling them 'No!', Sadie is; we don't suggest brute force, but puppies and dogs do work differently. Sounds like Sadie understands how to correct her misbehaving 'monster' ... you should really let her.

[Juno]

Okay, I will!

Things are going to have to change in the household from now on, I guess. Even though I love it when Juno pins her ears back and smiles at me when I get home, I really shouldn't be enforcing her excitement. I'm going to also work more on making her heel while walking, we eat before she eats, and affection is given only when we ask for it.

[Removed #5]

I'm going to take exception with a couple of items on your list.

At one time, many many years ago I was engaged to this neat lady - who had a rather neater mother - one of the jobs that her kids had was to feed their dog. Before they sat down to eat, someone had to feed the dog - in her viewpoint it was important that the dog not feel left out of the meal; nor to sit there smelling this good stuff while she had to wait. Even though I'm having an ongoing discussion with one of my two rescues, I tend to agree with Ima. It's important that they know that you're the provider, that it's your food that you're letting them have - but not, imho, so important that you "exert your dominance" (in my mind this is BS!) over the issue ... of course, that may be part of why I'm having a problem with one of mine ...

The other is affection, dogs are pack animals and interact easily with each other ( or they're supposed to! ) Both of mine will occasionally come to me to say "Hi!" and get a pat or three. They also know that if they get obnoxious about it they'll get told to "Go lay down!, Git!!" You don't want to stop everything, every time a dog comes to you for affection; you also don't want them to feel that you're unapproachable.

Something that I think is going to become another of my favourite lines "I don't dominate my friends ... and my dogs are my closest friends!"

[Juno]

Yea I've tried that method though, and it didn't go so well with the other puppy. People say that you shouldn't discriminate against breeds and that it all depends on how you raise them, but he was a chow mix that turned on his family. Just like how it's a breed characteristic for huskies to be high energy, it's a breed characteristic for chows or chow mixes to be aggressive in some way or another.

I know cesar millan is looked down upon in the dog community, I do believe he has helped people with their dogs when no one else was able to.

For me, I don't see it as exerting my dominance as though I'm a bully, but more like drawing lines to avoid future problems. As a family, we praise affection and sweet behavior and try to enforce it, but for us it's difficult to find out what to do when she displays negative behavior, such as her growling.