Help for fighting doodles

[Cynthia Whitfield]

Hi. This is Cynthia, Simba's mom. I've been meaning to get on here and tell you about the new puppy, Yoda we adopted from the same breeder. He is almost ten weeks old (another ALD). They have the same dad, but different moms.

We are having trouble because 14-month-old Simba wants to take everything away from Yoda and stockpile it, even when presented with the options to play with all his own favorite toy. Sharing would also be fine with me, but Simba doesn't like that either. He leans heavily against Yoda which makes Yoda fall and Yoda barks and growls at him. The only thing they play okay with is a long braided rope for tug of war. They won't leave each other alone.

Has anyone gotten a big exercise pen to help with this? We figure they could take turns in there with some toys and a chewy if they are making us nervous with the rough play.

[Ginny Nightingale]

Growling and curling of the lip would mean that Yoda is trying to defend himself--but play can include really loud growling too! Just no lip curl or biting beyond the puppy play nips--it sounds like they are playing, but Simba is bossy--I would get a gate and let them play for some of the time, but also separate them so that you can give Yoda some individual attention and training too...