Puppy biting older dog

Cunning Stunt

Hi all,
quick question -- we have a 15 mnth old lab and a 9 week old Danish farmdog pup. The pup is constantly biting our lab on the ears, neck and lip. I know that this is how puppies play, but I am not sure if it is too much. The pup jumps at the lab, bites onto him, swings out of him etc. The lab has a lovely temperament and even though he yelps sometimes when the puppy hurts him, he never turns on it, so it just continues.

My question is - is this normal behaviour between the two that I should just ignore, or should I step in and reprimand the pup when it bites the lab so hard?

Graces7

Cunning Stunt wrote: »

Hi all,
quick question -- we have a 15 mnth old lab and a 9 week old Danish farmdog pup. The pup is constantly biting our lab on the ears, neck and lip. I know that this is how puppies play, but I am not sure if it is too much. The pup jumps at the lab, bites onto him, swings out of him etc. The lab has a lovely temperament and even though he yelps sometimes when the puppy hurts him, he never turns on it, so it just continues.

My question is - is this normal behaviour between the two that I should just ignore, or should I step in and reprimand the pup when it bites the lab so hard?

You mean nipping ie not breaking the skin?

This is normal play for puppies; and sooner or later he will get some comeuppance from the labrador which will establish their status.

As long as it is nipping and as long as the older dog tolerates it, I would be inclined to let them sort it out; keeping a weather eye of course. They need to sort their relationship with each other out.

We have had this with our two both older when collie arrived' it seems that often the dominance has to be reestablished over and over again, with less hassle over time.

The noise can be horrendous; but as I have been repeatedly advised, it is only talk.

If you feel it is getting too much easiest to simply distract the puppy. rather than reprimanding. See the thread re balls!

kylith

Older dogs can be very tolerant of puppies (think of how we let babies pull our hair, stick fingers up our noses, etc.), but when the pup gets a bit older the lab will let him know what isn't acceptable.

are you serious

I have and am still going through this but I am at the end of it now. Dont be too alarmed about it!

Just make sure there are no small sores breaking out from the constant biting, Buddy got a couple of small bites from the constant nipping from Izzy. None of which were too sore, she did however once do it too hard and he swiftly put her in her place :eek:

I leave them as much as possible when play fighting as I know none of it serious. Dont be worrying too much though is my main point, just keep a close look on your older dogs ears and around its neck!!

baords dyslexic

Same happened here with our GSD x pup and JRT. Poor old JRT was what I'd have called a Fat Russell before the new pup arrived but he's a typical JRT type and his own worst enemy and if the pup wasn't giving him the sort of attention you'd think was bad for him he'd go looking for it. Anyway in all the play fighting the JRT became a fitter dog shed pounds and the GSD x never broke his skin or did any noticable damage at all. The other benefit other than a fitter JRT is that the now huge GSD x has excellent bite control. And they still play fight nearly 12 months on (the noise would drive you mad) and the JRT often starts it :rolleyes: if it ever looks like getting out of hand a ball rolled for the GSD x will have him off on another tack straight away.

fenris

My GSD tolerated the "Attack of the puppy" phase very well, until one day Toby (Irish Setter) pushed it a bit to far/often, we discovered that a setter pup's head fits completely in a GSD mouth, he held him like that for a couple of seconds then flicked him away, repeat performance about two minutes later from goldfish brain!

We did notice that that was the end of the all out dive on the big dog phase of puppy play and things got a bit more structured, more stalking, grab the front paw type games and "jaw wrestling"

The puppy license to commit acts of random madness gradually wears off during the first year, sometimes in very noisy stages but it is part of the process of the young dog learning how to behave from the older dog, also be careful not to judge dogs behavior/motives by human standards, let them sort it out within your boundaries.