• When I brought Rally home, Nicky was pretty mad that I brought home the wrong color. His first reaction was, "Take her back." He pouted for a good week or more. He would sit on the recliner with his back to her. Which only encouraged her to learn how to get on the recliner to get to him. He would play with her only when she was playing with "his stuff" so that she would stop playing with "his stuff".

    This year when we had Clark here for a week, the two elder dogs were not very interested in playing with the puppy. They would get up high on the bed where he couldn't get up and would make awful noises at him to let him know that he really shouldn't go near them. Clark has excellent communication skills and would do all the things he was supposed to but they only wanted to interact with him on their terms which he pretty quickly figured out though occassionally "forgot". I was lucky though because my youngest girls loved having a "baby" in the house and would play and play with him, tag teaming so they could wear him out.


  • I knew about and had previously been around all of the noises, but I don't think I was really that prepared. I was expecting more "short" corrections but these are much more prolonged than I was anticipating. Zoni submits to him immediately when he does it, and I was hoping he would back off when she did that but he's not. Which suggests to me he's not really that confident in the situation. That's been more of the concern to me than anything.


  • When Clark came, Rally and Nicky weren't looking for submission, they wanted him to leave them alone. They wanted to pretend he did not exist. For the first two days every time he reminded them that he existed they would growl at him and tell him to "go away". By the second day they decided that he was occassionally OK but as soon as they decided they were done he needed to leave them alone.

    Just work on finding a schedule where you are working on wearing Zoni out and Nemo can pick and choose when he wants to interact with her. Try to make sure he has some places he can go to escape from her and make sure he gets time with you where he feels like he is the special one. It may take a while before the corrections stop but he should start to be less emphatic about them.


  • @Nemo:

    I knew about and had previously been around all of the noises, but I don't think I was really that prepared. I was expecting more "short" corrections but these are much more prolonged than I was anticipating. Zoni submits to him immediately when he does it, and I was hoping he would back off when she did that but he's not. Which suggests to me he's not really that confident in the situation. That's been more of the concern to me than anything.

    For some reason, the noises between and adult and a pup seem a lot worse to me :eek::eek::eek: than all the noise I've heard between my 2 adults…I'm beginning to think that short corrections from an adult don't work on a puppy unless it is good at reading the other dog. But I also think and Pat are right about it being more about "get away from me."

    I can appreciate what you're going thru, and how stressful it is...all the noise...my situation doesn't seem quite as nerve racking I think because Ruby evens it all out with her tolerance and acceptance. :o


  • @lvoss:

    By the second day they decided that he was occassionally OK but as soon as they decided they were done he needed to leave them alone.

    This sounds like you're describing our situation with Brando and his interaction with Aaliyah.

    This morning, Liyah wasn't reading the signs and paying attention to his warnings to back off, and I chose to just watch how it played out. Well, Brando really told her…really growled loud right in her face, which made her jump back from him and she backed into the wall and so she started screaming (she's a little bit dramatic :D). Well, I picked her up, just to make sure she wasn't actually hurt, and sure enough, no dampness from his mouth, no injury...she was just scared. Ruby came over to check on her immediately. Once she calmed down, Brando came over to her and nudged her with his nose and he let her put her face in his (which nearly always gets a growl from him normally)...almost like say..."geez, I didn't mean to scare you THAT bad."


  • @renaultf1:

    For some reason, the noises between and adult and a pup seem a lot worse to me :eek::eek::eek: than all the noise I've heard between my 2 adults…I'm beginning to think that short corrections from an adult don't work on a puppy unless it is good at reading the other dog. But I also think and Pat are right about it being more about "get away from me."

    I can appreciate what you're going thru, and how stressful it is...all the noise...my situation doesn't seem quite as nerve racking I think because Ruby evens it all out with her tolerance and acceptance. :o

    I would agree, they definitely sound worse. And Nemo does seem to have a case of "get the heck away from me". Although, they eventually did play for about 45 minutes today which was encouraging. But once Nemo went outside and came back in it "get away from me" time again. Similar to what you mentioned about Brando/Liyah, I guess Zoni wasn't reading the signs and tried to approach Nemo who was resting in the sun and he slammed her in the frame of the sliding glass door, which scared the heck out of her, but she seems okay now. They're both passed out and I'm going through round two of puppy proofing. :rolleyes:


  • Hang in there… it will take some time.. but they will become buddies .... and really Nemo will teach Zoni WAY more than you ever could...gggg.... Try not to stress out too much... if it really becomes obvious that Nemo is really being "mean", OK to step in and tell him to cool it... but most times.. he will do only what is needed for the situation...


  • Soon you will be sending us photos of them playing and sleeping together.


  • @tanza:

    Hang in there… it will take some time.. but they will become buddies .... and really Nemo will teach Zoni WAY more than you ever could...gggg.... Try not to stress out too much... if it really becomes obvious that Nemo is really being "mean", OK to step in and tell him to cool it... but most times.. he will do only what is needed for the situation...

    Thanks, I need the reminding not to stress out. AND that it has barely been 24 h that they have been around each other. AND that I'm not a dog. :rolleyes: It's just so weird seeing Nemo like that. He's normally the most mellow dog around.


  • @sharronhurlbut:

    Soon you will be sending us photos of them playing and sleeping together.

    I can't wait for that! I tried taking pictures of them playing today but they didn't turn out too well. These will have to do for now. 😃


  • That's one adorable puppy!


  • Cute pics…it will get better, hang in there...you'll develop nerves of steel after this! :rolleyes::D I'm beginning to think the magic combo is to start with the girl and then add a boy...instead of the other way around! 😃

    When do puppies lose their baby teeth? :D:)


  • @renaultf1:

    When do puppies lose their baby teeth? :D:)

    Never soon enough…gggg but usually they start to lose them around 5 months... and the "fangs" are the last to go


  • @tanza:

    Never soon enough…gggg but usually they start to lose them around 5 months... and the "fangs" are the last to go

    Well at least that is better than the 6 months I was thinking. :D:D:D


  • So Nemo…how is it going today...any change?


  • @renaultf1:

    Well at least that is better than the 6 months I was thinking. :D:D:D

    You are right thinking about the 6 months, cause it takes a good month/month and 1/2 for all baby teeth to come out…..


  • Congrats with your new pup!! She's adorable! I hope that Nemo will change his mind about Zoni very quickly 🙂


  • @renaultf1:

    So Nemo…how is it going today...any change?

    Well, I have to say "what a difference a day makes". 😃 They didn't get a chance to interact that much in the morning because I had to take her for her vet check before work. After work, he circled the x-pen and sniffed mostly and only grumbled once or twice. After I let her out, he sniffed her a lot and I let her go and they played for about an hour and a half. Afterwards he corrected her several times (for what I'm not exactly sure) as she was walking around but it was more like I was expecting it to be and not nearly as dramatic as yesterday. Generally he looked a lot more relaxed or at least the hair on his back was only standing up for shorter periods of time. Although I'm curious to see how he reacts once she is able to jump up on the couch and chairs…she's trying really hard. I'm hoping it continues in this direction....

    I'd like to say thanks to everyone for the encouragement. I think I would have been even a worse bundle of nerves yesterday if it wasn't for the support and advice on the forum.


  • Excellent!!! It definitely sounds like Nemo is coming around…I'm sure it will only get better. 😃 Yay, Nemo! Don't you think it is fascinating watching the communication between Nemo & the pup...especially corrections. I think like Andrea said in the "first 24 hour thread", Nemo is probably telling Zoni to shut up if she is crying at all when he is outside the pen. I'm 100% sure that is what Brando is doing...and it seems to work :D:D:D.

    How is she sleeping thru the night?


  • @renaultf1:

    Excellent!!! It definitely sounds like Nemo is coming around…I'm sure it will only get better. 😃 Yay, Nemo! Don't you think it is fascinating watching the communication between Nemo & the pup...especially corrections. I think like Andrea said in the "first 24 hour thread", Nemo is probably telling Zoni to shut up if she is crying at all when he is outside the pen. I'm 100% sure that is what Brando is doing...and it seems to work :D:D:D.

    How is she sleeping thru the night?

    Today was another good day, so Yay for Nemo again! Hopefully I won't jinx myself here but she has actually been sleeping through the night. She seems to quiet down pretty quickly too in her crate. House training isn't going too bad right now. Only one or two accidents a day. I realized she does much better if I let her outside rather than using the litter box. She seems to deal with the cold okay. But she does use the litter box if she is in the pen. Although she knocks her water bowl over constantly. I'm not sure there is a good solution for that as she surfs the edge of the pen a lot and will end up getting into it no matter how I put it in there.

    When Zoni is in the pen she tends to smush herself against the wall and poke parts of her body (like her tongue) through so she can get to Nemo. He really didn't like that previously and only grumbles occasionally now when she does it. He appears to grumble until she looks away from him for a period of time. I agree, the communication is pretty interesting to watch (even though it was a little painful at first). I've never had a very young puppy with an adult before so I haven't been able to watch the dynamic. Definitely a learning experience.

    Is yours vocal? Zoni has the cutest little baroo, particularly when she is trying to get Nemo to play with her. I hope I can get it on tape sometime. 🙂

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