we collected our beautiful fox red lab at 8 weeks and she joined our family of adults and also a labradoodle, miniature schnauzer and a young Lakeland terrier. The labradoodle is a little grumpy and our pup, daisy is giving her respectful widebirth, the schnauzer is an old lady and gets out of the way but our young lakie is besotted with her, and all they do is wrestle, mouth and rough play, we are a little concerned as it is constant and the only way to have things calm is to separate them. How do we encourage calmness with them two?
Hi @Maria harrison Welcome to the site. Habituation and familiarity will settle things down in time. In the interim, use a crate or stair gate to regularly separate them.
I'll copy and modify part of a thread I wrote just yesterday for another member, You need to spend some time training them together. Simon says "sit stay". Frequently reward the dogs during the stay, particularly your dog. Then give release cue. Let them play for a few minutes. Then Simon says down stay. Once again reward if each dog stays during the stay. You are rewarding calmness as well as the duration of the stay. You might need an assistant, and for both of them to be on lead or house line. If the other dog knows retrieve, then Simons says older dog, retrieve. Your dog has to stay either down or in a sit. Do it 4 times. Now see what your new dog does when you try the exercise with the older dog sitting in a stay. See whether your new dog has learnt from mimicry. But don't despair if your puppy doesn't. Once does not expect dogs to pick up such complex tasks from just mimicry. But's given you another opportunity to reward calmness. The idea of the joint training is twofold 1. Your teaching the dogs to be calm around each other rather than like goldfish in a pond at feeding time. 2. Perhaps more importantly, you are teaching them that they can interact with you as the centre of attention.
Do think about who your puppy is learning is fun and rewarding: You, and what you have to offer... or your other dogs....? One of the reasons my puppies grow up stair-gated off in the kitchen until they are about 5-6 months (with daily evening outings to be with the other dogs) is because I want them interacting with me and so, bonding to me...
