We have a 4 month old English Blockhead named Libby who is just perfect...except one thing. She tries to play with our senior (and much smaller) dog all the time and it gets way to rough too fast. Libby is all puppy and she chases Sundae (weenie dog mix) and pounces on top of her and chomps down on Sundae's neck/scruff area in an attempt to engage play. I think Libby thinks Sundae is one of her litter mates and tries to harmlessly play like she would if Sundae was another 30lb Lab Puppy - but she is not. We have tried everything to get her to leave Sundae alone. Our fear is she is going to hurt Sundae by accident. We've tried, "no", re-directing her, separating them, etc. Our goal in getting Libby was that she would bond with Sundae and we all could co-exist peacefully. We know Labs are a hyper breed and Libby won't always be a puppy, but we need some kinda advice that will help these 2 sweet girls get along!!
You will need to manage this carefully throughout puppyhood. I have oldies which don't like to be harassed by puppies. When I introduce a puppy: The puppy spends most of the day stair-gated in the kitchen. When awake, out of the crate and either hanging out and playing or training with me. When the pup falls asleep, she goes in the crate and I then spend time with the older dogs in the rest of the house. In the evenings, the pup joins us all together for family time, but the pup is on a 2.5m puppy house line and so I can restrain her and prevent her from harassing or being a hooligan or bully to the older dogs. If she gets too worked up, she will go in the crate with a Kong until she calms down again. As time passes, the pup grows out of being a hooligan and needs less close supervision. I would never leave the pup uncrated with the adult dogs until I absolutely know everyone is ok together. It is hard work, but that's what it is...
