Who should I say "NO" to?

[Joyce,David"Mochi,Latte,Popcorn"]

Mochi (the white one) is 2yro and Latte is 12weeks old.

I'll try to make the story short.

The little one likes to steal things from the big one, she's not afraid of the big one's growls and doesn't respect him at all.

Once when she has whatever she stole from the big one, she starts resource guarding it and growls back at the big one.

 

I don't want to limit their toys or bones and only allow them to have those when we're watching.

But should I say NO to the big one when he growls, or say NO to the little one when she robs stuff?

 

I don't want the big one to become a growler (thought he already is) that one day he might really snap at and hurt the little one or other dogs.

But I also don't want the small one to think it's okay to steal other dogs' stuff from their mouth, I'm sure she'll meet dogs that will really bite her at some point!

[Bonnie and Kona]

We have had to interrupt our little one's rough play because our older one is so "tender". Kona doesn't correct the pup often and just cowers to the abuse. Owen, the pup, will "leave it" when he is biting on Kona's ears and we give the command. I'm grateful for this. I have read that the older dog needs to be treated as the alpha. Kona always gets fed first, petted first and greeted first.

[Joyce,David"Mochi,Latte,Popcorn"]

I need to fix this then! We always feed them together and greet them at the same time.

I guess we'll make the little one wait until Mochi finishes everything. That way Latte might learn to know her place and start showing some respect.

Thanks! :) 

 

[cocoincanada]

We just adopted a second dog on Friday, so it's all new to us too. For the first few days, Sunny (the older dog) was trying to dominate Diesel (the younger dog) every chance he got. Poor Diesel couldn't pick up a toy or bone without Sunny chasing him and taking it right out of his mouth. We had to step in a few times, when they were getting out of control with the growling and fighting over a toy (I thought one dog was going to lose an ear or an eye at one point). But, now they seem to have worked it out. We've left them by themselves, not kenneled, while we're at work, so we're not sure if they've duked it out and figured it out....or if they've just gotten used to each other, but Diesel can now walk right by Sunny with a bone or toy in his mouth and Sunny does nothing. He will still pounce on the toy if Diesel happens to drop it or leaves it to play with something else, but for the most part, it has improved and we think they've worked it out.

 

We haven't been feeding the older dog first and petting/greeting him first though. We greet the dogs at the door when we get home, and we pretty much pet/greet whichever one is at our feet first. We've also been feeding them together too, at the same time.

 

Should we be changing the way we do things? I haven't done too much reading yet on how to treat the older dog when you bring a second one into the house. I've just been going with the flow...