Sharing toys

[Sabrina and Bentley]

Just added our 2nd doodle last week. Struggling with what the right thing is to do with sharing toys. Bought Grumman, our 11 wk old puppy, a puppy nylabone which he enjoys. But our older dog, Bentley is always chewing at it and growls at him when Grumman tries to take it.

I struggle because I feel like the puppy bone belongs to the puppy but I know that they have to share. Grumman chews on Bentley's bone but Bentley does so much more damage to the puppy bone. I just feel bad for Grumman. Lol! I'm fine with them sharing as Grumman gets older and they can have similar size toys, but all of his stuff is so small.

Am I creating trouble by not letting Bentley chew on Grumman's bone? Do I need to take it up and only let Grumman play with it at certain times?

Thanks! I'm sure I'll be on here a lot!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

This is often a problem with multiple dogs.  One of our dogs had these soccer sized fuzzy balls that he was very attached to and had carefully played with his entire life.  They new dog destroyed them in minutes.  It is very sad, but we just had to eliminate those balls from our repertoire  of toys.  The bones and such we did have to pick up for a while which is what I would do if I were you and, like you suggested, just give it to the pup at certain times.

[Marie and Hoka]

From our experience, you need to (1) let them work it out "OR" (2) make sure the valuable items are only used when they are separate from each other. 

They will eventually figure out who is boss... and it may not be who you think it should be.

With our 2 dogs that each passed away last year, we had a really hard time telling who was in charge even after 8 years.  They seemed to have certain things they each cared about and somehow shared responsibility.  I suspect Tinker, the golden doodle who was 4 years younger, was really in charge but was a benevolent dictator who only cared about bones.

With Moxie (5 year old little terrier mix) and Hoka (6 month old doodle), Hoka seemed to take charge from day one in our house.  I actually separate Moxie and give her bones so she can chew in peace... Hoka will steal them all. He even steals all bones and toys from the 90lb lab who we dog sit for... and Bogie is a total softie who lets him.

Any way to sum it up... I separate them at times so they can each have their own fun toys, and take up the really valuable ones when they are alone together. It will sort out eventually.