Puppy vs. older bigger dog.

[hippywife]

Well it's looking like the big dog has finally had her "come to Jesus" moment with the pup. Charlee, the little one, has been just gnawing on Babe, the bigger one every chance she got. Ever since we got her, there have been never ending wrestling matches with much snorting, snarling and bearing of teeth. Charlee is always trying to chew on Babe wherever she can get ahold of her with her teeth...ears, legs, tail, jowls...anywhere. They never hurt one another, and I'm sure most of it was play, but Babe has been really put out by the whole thing. Really.

This morning it was very chilly when I went out and they were in separate doghouses rather than curled up together. They came out to get their morning treats and Babe went back to her house. Charlee started heading that way, too, and then veered for her house. Since I've been home today, there have been no wrestling matches.

I'm thinking Babe finally put her paw down.

[Venceremos]

1. Agreed, sounds like Babe put her paw down

We have a big, gentle Lab and a couple years ago we got a rescue Jack Russell pup. Jack Russell's are extremely aggressive, and my Lab put up with it for about a month before he "laid down the law" in no uncertain terms. Jack stayed away from him for about a week after that, then they started curling up together again. But Jack hasn't challenged the Lab since.

[hippywife]

2. About the same time line here

give or take. Both of ours are Lab mixes that were dumped out here in the boonies. The pup's mom was dumped while she was pregnant. Anyway, we got her at 7 weeks and she's now 13 weeks or so. Babe is 7-8 years old as far as we can tell. There's such a huge change in her behaviour since yesterday. It's amazing but we figured they would work it out between them so we pretty much left them to it except for chastising Charlee a few times for biting.

Here they are the day we got the pup:



And then last weekend:



They grow so fast!

Welcome to DU, Venceremos. Hope you enjoy the sanity to be found in the groups. LOL :hi:

[Venceremos]

3. CUTE dogs

Babe looks like our Lab in the face, but he's all black. He's a mostly Lab mix the same age as Babe, 7 or 8. And the second picture brings back memories of how Jack treated the Lab (before he figured out who's boss). He would even hang by his teeth off the back of his legs.

We get dumps out here all the time. It's how I got both my dogs and cat. My husband jokes that we should dump our mean, old rooster in town to "teach them a lesson".

And thanks for the welcome - I tried the politics forums first but it's too intense for me right now. The peace and quiet of the groups is more my speed.

[hippywife]

5. Dumped off dogs

make the best pets. At least ours have been really great dogs. Yeah, that rooster would teach 'em, all right! :rofl: Do you have pics of your dogs?

I stayed entirely in the political forums for about the first four years here. Now it seems like few over there can be civil to anyone and I don't need that aggravation, ya know!?

[Venceremos]

7. Same here

Our dumped dogs act like they understand and appreciate that we gave them a good home. It's as if they know what it's like to have a bad owner.

I don't have any pics of my pets on the computer. We use an old fashioned camera with film to take most of our pictures and don't have a scanner. We have an older digital camera, but we switched over to Vista in January and they're incompatible.

[hippywife]

8. When Babe got dumped off

she was one of three that appeared in our driveway together. They must have been from the same litter and were almost fully grown. The vet estimated they were about six months old or so. We kept them all and two of them disappeared after a while. Never found them. They were all very leery of people and wouldn't come near us for a long time. If we went out in the yard, they would sit in the cow pasture next door until we went back inside.

Eventually, Babe and the other girl got over that and we were able to get them fixed and everything. (The boy never did give in to being near us and he never was caught to go to the vet.) The upside to all of this is the cow pasture is the bathroom. No dog doo-doo in the yard except when the odd strange dog from down the road visits. We had another stray that we took in and had for a couple of years before she went completely lame and had to be put down and even she learned to go to the cow pasture. Charlee is learning that, too, and has finally stopped bringing cow pats back with her to chew on! LOL

All the dogs on our road, including ours, roam up and down and visit. We call them time share dogs.

[Venceremos]

11. Unfortunately

our dogs poop in the front yard. Everybody on our road used to let their dogs visit each other. But two years ago a couple moved out from the nearest city, and they don't like animals. We had to put in one of those underground fences.

[hippywife]

13. Heck!

I lived in the city all my life until we got married and I moved down here from Ohio. What's wrong with those people anyway? :crazy:

[Venceremos]

15. Beats me

They have a one acre pond that I'd kill for. The previous owners built it as a waterfowl sanctuary. Now the new guys keep shooting bottle rockets at the waterfowl so they'll stay away. But so far, the birds are winning! :applause:

[hippywife]

16. OMG!!

What a total ass! I wonder why he thinks that pond was built in the first place and that they will always be drawn to water. He should just fill the damn thing in if that's the way he's going to be.

[JeffR]

18. They're just beautiful

They're gonna a fine pack.

[hippywife]

19. Hi, Jeff!

Thanx! They did end up cuddling in the same house last night even tho it wasn't as cold. Babe's looking all dejected at the moment because I gave them both a hot dog. Little Charlee scarfs hers down practically whole and then steals Babe's. She likes to put hers down and think about it a moment before eating it. I'm not giving her another one. She's gotta learn to work around Charlee on this one. :eyes:

Love your avatar, BTW. Been meaning to tell you that for awhile. She's one of my top five. Her music has been a huge part of my formative years. :hi:

[JeffR]

20. Thanks!

:)

[livvy]

4. Story about my golden.

When I first brought home my bouvier puppy, Sophie, Maggie, the golden was not pleased. She had been an only child for 4 years, and thought life was good. She paid no attention to what mom said, and mom, being a first time dog owner thought it was unreasonably unfair that the hand that fed her, was not the favorite over the one that walked her (my ex). What a dumb squat I was! Anyway, I brought home this tiny, if you can call a Bouvier 6 week old puppy, baby home, and the queen was not happy.

She basically denied her existence, ignoring her every plea for attention. She walked through life like there was no puppy clamoring at her feet, and pleading for attention. She just walked around or over. There was no puppy.

Then one day, I heard this pathetic yipe. Maggie had struck. The bouvier puppy came running to mom like a rattler had struck her. There was not a mark on her, just a little wet spot on her neck. Maggie had had enough. Being out of mom's sight she had let the bouv know enough was enough.

They were good friends throughout my bouvs short life. My darling golden lived to the ripe old age of 13 and put up with several other newcomers to her once sacred kingdom. She never liked the newcomers, but she put up with them, and never let any of them forget that she was the original queen.

[hippywife]

6. I guess it really is

just like having kids in many ways. I've always been more a cat person and cats can definitely get their noses out of joint with new arrivals. I have never raised a pup before so I was really hoping they would just work it out, I figured it would have to be up to them, really. And it seems to have finally happened. There have been lots of yips but no injuries. But something different must have happened last night that changed the dynamic entirely.

Do you have any pets currently or pics of Maggie and Sophie? :hi:

[livvy]

9. I currently have 3 lovely bouviers.

Maggie passed away several years ago, and Sophie passed away, very suddenly, many years before Maggie. I don't have any pictures available on this 'puter. I did on my old one, but they disappeared along with the rest of my data when it called it quits.

I loved Maggie dearly, but Soph was my "soul dog". When she passed, I spent an entire week completely out of it. The only thing I remember about that week was buying a bread maker on QVC. I don't even like bread that much.

I do have lots of pics of my current "children". Here's a couple.

This is Alexander. He's an AKC champion, doesn't like to get wet, and prefers to stay cool, pampered, and comfortable at all times.



This is Roufous, Alexander's son, who has the personality of a perpetual clown, a "Marley" prototype. I helped bring him into the world, and when the breeder handed him off to me, I felt a zing, and I knew we belonged together.



And this is Maia, playing with Roufous. She's on the right. She is Alexander's daughter and a total goofball. Not the brightest crayon in the box, but lovable and loyal as can be.



Finally, this is the three of them enjoying a game of chase.

[hippywife]

14. They're adorable!

How fun that they really enjoy playing together so much. Looks like they are lots of laughs and very companionable animals.

[Venceremos]

10. I adore Goldens

We had a 110-pound Golden who died of cancer five years ago. They're such great dogs. I'd never heard of a Bouvier until I read your post. I just looked them up - great looking dogs.

[livvy]

12. Maggie was not your typical golden.

The breeder tried to discourage me from choosing her. She told me she was different. As she described her, "She's the last puppy out of the kennel in the morning, and the first one in at night." She was like that until the day she died, last one out of bed in the morning, and the first one in at night.
She wasn't particularly fond of children, basically trusting no one under 4 ft tall. She was stubborn, and unruly, and damn proud of it. Great dog, but not your typical golden. She was Maggie, and damn proud of that. It was one of the things we could agree on. Great, individualistic, and beautiful girl.

[Venceremos]

17. Sounds like Maggie was beautiful and unique

our golden was pretty typical and goofy. Loved kids but scared to death of small animals.

[MiniMe]

21. I foster for a rescue

They have to work out that sort of thing for themselves, you can't do it for them. I had a foster recently who was only 1 but she really had to figure out the pack order. She won over my goofball then 14 month old, she was over him in pack order. Not that he challenged her at all, she just had to know.

Then she had to find out where she fit in with my 5 year old. They kept standing neck to neck, and I kept breaking it up because I didn't want any blood drawn on either side. Well, she wouldn't give up so I finally said go ahead and kept a careful watch, ready to jump in. I don't know what they did to figure it out, I think she just tried to move him back and he stood his ground, but she gave in to him, then fell in love with him much to the consternation of the 14 month old. But she had established herself as the firm #2.

There was no blood drawn during this period from any of the dogs. I have a lab (14 mos then) and a golden (5 yrs old), both boys and pretty submissive. The foster was a 1 year old female and she was the smallest of the 3.

I had things like that happen several times when I just had my 5 year old, another dog would come in on occasion and wanted to make sure that my boy knew who was queen bitch. It would be quick and they were good friends after that.

Also note that when something like that would happen, it was always with a female, and the female always won except for this last incident.

[TankLV]

22. We do to - we just got our "little girl" a puppy mill mom that was stuck in a trailer

that went around the country to mate and have pups and move on.

They really did a number on her uterus - but my Golden boys positively LOVE her - and leave her to have her space.

She is now in the process of "comming to an agreement" with the resident cat - found a piece of the cat's claw in her snout that I had to remove - I think she thinks the cat is one of her pups...

She's now been with us a full week and has really blossomed - walks around and explores and has discoved (THANKYOU GOD!!!) the dog door!!!

We lost our previous permanent foster - another girl - to massive cancer that was blood borne - went for undectable to too late in a couple days - we're still in shock - but in a way, this opened up a space for us to take in our new "Lil' Girl" or "Precious" and enable the first foster home to foster another one...

We still can't decide on a name - but I think "Precious" is winning because that's what she is...

[MiniMe]

23. My pup was a puppy mill puppy

He spent the first 6 months of his life basically in a dark shed. Who knew the Amish were about the worst of the puppy mills. He is a scared boy, but he is getting better all of the time. Gus has been so good with all of my fosters, and had many as friends, but he was used to fostering and he didn't really get attached to many of them. Until Eddie that is, Gus has loved Eddie since day 1, and made it pretty clear from the beginning that he wanted to keep Eddie. Of course, I really liked him too, so I joke about Gus adopting Eddie. I got him when he was about 8 months old. Gus was a rescue also, and scared to death of everything. He has come a long way since I got him at 9 months, but he still has his moments too. They have both come a long way since they came here, and it has helped Gus mature and also become more outgoing with new people. I still take a few fosters now and then, but it is a different dynamic since I have 2 myself.

So are you fostering or did you adopt your new girl? Pics please. Here are my boys in the early days when Eddie was still a foster.

[badgerpup]

24. Cats have to figure out their social order too...

I do it wrong, of course...don't have the facilities for separate rooms and such for gradual introductions...
I bring the new kid home and bathe them if I got them from one of the rescue facilities so they won't smell like frightened animals and cigarette smoke.
Then, when they're warm and dry, I'll introduce them to the rest of the crew:
"OK, guys...this is _______. S/he's part of the family now. Sort it out amongst yourselves, and I don't want to see any blood. Got it?"

Strangely enough, this seems to work. Within one week, the hissing and bopping ceases...and within two weeks, they're playing with each other.

I don't interfere, but do monitor the 'bopping' (just in case)...but they usually pull their punches, and the claws are always retracted.

The 'legacy cats' (brought in by cats who now reside at the Bridge) just sort of insinuated themselves so gradually into the household there wasn't any difficulty...except between Wimsey and Riktor for a while.

Wimsey thought he was Mr. Studly Hunglow because he had the only set of harbls in the place. Riktor had to smack him down a few times, just to let him know who was really 'da man'...
this problem disappeared after Wimsey's Trip To The Vet, however.
Poor little guy was confused for a few days though...
"Whar mai harbls go? KNOW iz had sum!