# anyone has big dominant breed puppy with smaller breed submissive older dog



## neupane00 (Apr 10, 2008)

hey i have a small breed 2 years old havanese.. very very submissive and sweet dog. really only thing he knows is wag tail and be happy. I added 8 weeks old german shepherd recently. 
Puppy is a working line and very active. keeps biting older dog (playing obviously). but I'm sure its hurtful. (heard few cries.) older dog keeps running away hiding tail. 
what should i do? i don't want to dishearten puppy for two reasons. i want to raise this puppy for possible schutzhund. and another reason is if my support my small breed dog, he might think he can take on german shepherd but obviously when gsd puppy grows he is going to be much bigger and powerful.. at the same time i don't want older dog to suffer. 
please help. any advise would be appreciated.


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## +two (Jul 12, 2011)

You need to step in and prevent your puppy from harassing your older dog. Its not a matter of disheartening, as play can still happen, it just has to be respectful. Also, give your older dog a place to go that is away from the puppy. Enroll in puppy preschool or set up play dates with other large breed dogs that your GSD can play rough with.


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## Elliebell (Mar 13, 2011)

For me it was the other way around, we got a small breed puppy when we already had a large dog, but the same thing that we did might work for you. We made it a rule that whenever they are playing, the big dog must be lying down. That way the small dog can move away if they've had enough and they won't get stepped on or tackled. It took a while to train and a lot of reminders, but now Neeka will lie down on her own whenever she starts playing with SiSi. Of course, this only works if the little dog wants to play. Overall, it's your responsibility to protect your smaller dog. If your havanese is anything like mine, they won't defend themselves, ever. It's up to you to step in and let your puppy know that they're playing too rough. 

I also second that your smaller dog needs a place they can go to get away from the puppy. Maybe put a baby gate up at an appropriate height to block off a room so that the havanese can go under but the GSD can't.


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## LenaCara (May 11, 2011)

When we got Josie, we kept her tethered to her kennel with a 5 foot leash for the first month. This was while we were in the room with her if we weren’t working or playing with her. On top of helping with house training, this really helped with our cats. They could come in an play with her but as soon as she was rough, they left. It also let us tug on her leash and say no kitty. We also focused on bite inhibition right away. Mostly because her little teeth hurt us but it really paid off with the cats. After she was around 3-4 months old, we started giving her more freedom but she had a pretty strong no kitty and if we heard something or saw her bothering a cat, we used it. Try doing the same thing with yours. If she sees that the dog leaves when she is being to aggressive, she will stop just so she can play longer. Also use the no and name of other dog command when she tries to follow the older dog so she learns it now, while you can still stop her.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

I'll try to make this as simple as possible. I had two under 20 pound 5 year old dogs and got a 5 month old large breed mix pup. I used a crate and "Time-outs." I used these two words. When they all began to play too roughly........."Time-out," and into the crate went the big pup. I did not allow any one of them to pick on each other. I wanted to be fair to all of them. I did not want any of them overwhelmed. After a short while all I needed to say was "Time-out" and everybody stopped doing whatever it was I found unacceptable. I later added a hand signal to the words "Time-out.".......and of course praise for listening and a "Good Job!"......the other two words I use. It did not all happen over night, but it did work for my three.  Somehow now, the littlest one has picked up on what is not acceptable and he tells his big Sister (big pup) by barking and body language and she stops. It is really quite awesome..........big dog listens to little dog! Lol!


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## DustyCrockett (Sep 24, 2011)

"...if my support my small breed dog, he might think he can take on german shepherd..."
Don't worry about this, the dog is smarter than that.

There is no such thing as a "dominant breed." Any dog might be dominant, breed is irrelevant. You don't want a dominant dog, that's just asking for trouble. When the puppy tries to assert dominance over the older dog, you have to step in and stop it. You want to set yourself up as the dominant leader, and not allow your dogs to display dominant behavior, like putting the mouth on the back of the other dog's neck or over the top of its head.

When the older dog puts his tail between his legs, and the puppy persists, I call that "bullying." Of course I'm not saying your GSD is a bully -- he's just being a puppy -- but from the havanese point of view he's being bullied.

"...i want to raise this puppy for possible schutzhund..."
An important aspect of Schutzhund is the ability to control your dog -- this might be a good opportunity to start.


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