Large Breed Pup -small Breed Older Dog

[scottie]

Recently we acquired an 8 week old GSD bitch pup to add to our existing family of 8 year old GSD desexed bitch, 5 year old desexed Schipperke dog & 6 year old cat.Other 2 dogs live in complete harmony both with each other & the cat(who is very dog imprinted - sleeps with them,comes for walks etc).Puppy is now 14 weeks old.She is a great little dog,quick to learn ,already pretty much housetrained,walks nicely on lead etc etc. BUT - I can see 2 problems developing & want to nip them in the bud & don't know how so would love some advice.

1) She is already trying to bully little dog - very mouthy with him, jumps on him, tries to drag him around generally. If I call him to me she will try & intercept him & jump on him far too roughly. Similar behaviour with the cat - absolutely fine if he is in the room & asleep/not moving but given half a chance she will chase & try to mouth him.

2)Can see she is going to be a dominant character already & watching the way she plays with my older (also dominant ) bitch I am anxious to quite ensure that I handle things correctly so I don't end up with a inter-bitch warfare down the line.

So far I have cracked down on all rough play involving teeth & keep the pup on a long line in the house so I can intervene whenever I see a problem arising. I never leave her alone with the other animals unwatched - if I can't be there she is firmly in her crate. I feel really sorry for the other animals though as they aren't really doing anything wrong but have to endure either being mouthed/bullied generally or listen to me getting cross with the pup which is obviously confusing them. Think I am getting it wrong somewhere !Think I have 2 problems to deal with - a pup with a strong chase instinct (never had one of these before) & also a dominant bitch pup entering an existing hierachy with an established Alpha female in situ.

Think I helped create the problem when she first arrived as I allowed her to play relatively freely with the other dogs thinking they would teach her manners - all it seems to have taught her is that she can bite too hard !

Edited November 25, 2009 by scottie