We have a 3 month old working lab puppy, plus an older mixed breed dog. Our puppy will, given the chance, harass our older dog constantly, wanting to play, and our older dog can find this tiresome. To give our older dog a bit of respite, we have a puppy pen in the living room, and if the puppy insists on hassling our older dog, we calmly put the puppy in the pen with a chew toy to calm down. When we do, she often has a bit of a hissy fit, and growls and barks with frustration. My husband doesn't have an issue with this, but I'm wondering if we should be concerned? She shows no aggressive behaviour in any other context. She is never let out of the pen when she's behaving like this, she has to be calm before we allow her out, so we're not rewarding her for this behaviour (in fact, we often leave the room when she does this). Any thoughts?
@CB Sounds good to me. All that I would add is try to get the pup to play with you. Be fun. Interesting. You should be the centre of the puppy's world.
Thanks, Michael. It's a bit disconcerting seeing such a young puppy growling when it's not in play, but in frustration. Is it perfectly normal, and as long as we're consistent with her, she'll just grow out of it? We play with her a fair bit, but I'll be mindful that we ensure we are the centre of her world, not our other dog.
Hi @CB Dogs express their frustrations in lots of different ways. As you are doing, you can try not reinforcing it at all. Don't even make eye contact. Don't laugh. If she doesn't get any payoff, then the behaviour of growling at you should become extinct. If you are using mild admonishment in your other training such as "Oh dear" or "Not that way" then you can try using that as she growls at you. It is to be said in a mild mannered voice, and then turn your back to her. Feign by your body language that you are deeply crestfallen. In either case don't look at her until she calms down. And in either case, when you go back, smile at her, and be warm and welcoming. All of this is trial and error. One has to work out whether no reinforcement, or mild negative punishment (when you pretend you are emotionally hurt and withdraw your company) works better with YOUR dog. I have no idea of her degree of empathy In general, we dog owners don't want to stop growling. If she should be fear aggressive then getting a warning is better than not getting any signal at all, and then a sudden bite because we had missed the rising anxiety..
I think that this behaviour - harassing the older dog as well as the behaviour when penned - suggests the pup is under-stimulated somehow (mentally or physically). At 12 weeks old, your pup should be getting out the house on a daily basis with you for a few hours - not awake the whole time, but with naps in the car whilst driving about between things to see. These outings should be just you and the pup, not the older dog. You should be targeting new experiences and whatever you want the pup to be ok with, when older. Meanwhile, you should be having short training sessions with all your puppy's meals - which at 12 weeks will probably be 3 a day at least. Usually when puppies behave like this, they are not getting their needs met physically or mentally and they need more of an outlet... Assuming you've met all those needs on a daily basis and the behaviour is continuing, it's fine to ignore it. But one alternative to the pen, is to put the pup on a 2.5m Clix puppy house-line and prevent the pup from reaching the adult dog using that instead. That way, the pup still has access to you (since you can sit on the house line or tie it to whatever chair you are in) and you can still interact with the pup - but the adult dog gets some space.
Thanks, Jo. I'm actually wondering if it's over-tiredness causing the behaviour. She's out and about a lot (usually without our older dog), socialising, playing, a bit of training, a bit of retrieving. She rarely sleeps of her own volition during the day (we have to put her in her crate, she'll complain for about 3 seconds, then falls asleep). She doesn't seem to acknowledge when she needs to sleep.
Yes, that's very possible. I'd maybe try to do more training with her on a daily basis, so she tires out mentally - and then maybe to enforce more nap times... Pups generally sleep most hours of the day and need their sleep for development.
