Hi everybody We welcomed our new black labrador puppy Louie home yesterday and so far he is an absolute dream. We have a 6 year old yellow lab, Samson, who has a lovely temperament and was used to sharing the house with a wonderful older dog until we sadly lost him last year. Samson is not happy with the puppy, who so far (I know it's early days!) hasn't bothered him at all. If Louie even walks past him he growls and has snapped at him a couple of times if he gets anywhere near him. Obviously we will supervise them closely but I wondered if anybody else has experienced this?
Yup! My two dogs hated my puppy when she arrived. I had to keep her physically separate for a couple of months, using a pen and baby gates. They were only allowed loose in the same room with very controlled interactions. The pup was brilliant; never pestered or jumped on them and had exquisite body language. They just hated her. It took time, but now they all adore one another.
Let the older dog growl. It’s his way of saying ‘don’t you think you’re going to jump all over me, whippersnapper!’ Zaba is like this with all my new pups. They soon win him round, but he can always default to the stiff legged, head turned growl when he’s had enough of their shenanigans. Tatze adores them from the start and then has no way of stopping them when she’s had enough. I have to ‘save’ her from them every time and make sure she has a safe puppyless retreat to snooze out of their way. And welcome to you from Mags, Tatze and Keir from Manchester UK Tatze is my pet dog, a black Lab and she's four years old. Tatze means 'paw' in German. Keir is my fifth Guide Dog puppy, a yellow Golden Retriever/Flatcoat cross and he's eight months old.
Yes, I agree that growling is fine, but attacking the puppy isn't, which is what mine would do! So it's a case of looking to see whether the behaviour is simply an appropriate warning or something worse. If you're unsure, you can't do any harm by being over-cautious. Don't tell your older dog off for growling or snapping, though - these are very important communication devices and suppressing them can be dangerous as your dog then feels that he has to escalate to more drastic behaviour without warning. Just use baby gates, pens etc to keep the puppy away from the older dog when you're not able to supervise.
I would do this anyway, however friendly the older dog is. I don’t leave the pups alone with Tatze until they are over seven months old (in Mollie’s case, 11 months!). The older dog needs to know that you will always give them space when they need it - and that can’t be done when you are out of the room.
Thank goodness for this posts and these replies. This makes me feel so much better that time will hopefully be the cure for my older dogs aggression towards the new pup.
