Hi, my husband and I have a 8month old golden labrador, well behaved and enjoys fairly rough play I'd say with other dogs.we are happy with his training and temperament. Today we got another 8 week old labrador puppy to join our family, they have the same mum and dad just 6 months apart. We introduced them on neutral territory, they got along great,so we now have them at home. There are no signs of aggression we can spot, however the 8 month old non stop harasses the new puppy to play. Constantly nipping and bundling into him, often causing the new puppy to bark and attack back, tails are wagging. I think we are worried more about the little one being exhausted and damaged rather than attacked. If we separate them, the new puppy will happily fall asleep however, the older will cry and cry trying to get back to him. Is this a problem that the older puppy is relentless? Thanks for any help and advice.
I would say the older puppy needs to get used to the younger puppy particularly if he has had all your attention before the new one arrived. They will need time apart and their interactions closely supervised when together. My 7 month old puppy can be very full on with our older dog - she often seems 'worse' when she is actually very tired. She is learning though and when we say 'enough', she will stop and generally goes to her crate for a sleep. Sometimes we separate using the baby gate. Would imagine it will just take time.
Hello and welcome to the forum. I would be quite careful with this sort of age gap. Your older puppy will be full of play and almost full size, but without a huge amount of self control or coordination. He could easily (unintentionally) hurt the young puppy. I have an 8-month old, too, so I know what they can be like I'd start work on training an "enough" cue that means it's time for the game to end. A easy way to do this is call "enough" and throw a handful of tasty treats on the floor. At first, right under their noses, but you can start bringing it closer to your feet, so they learn that "enough" means come to you. When you separate the puppy, how about doing some training or engagement games with the older puppy, so he learns that being apart from the puppy is a good thing? What are your puppies' names?
