The morning after the first night

[Beth Pladson]

Hello. Even though I'm sleep-deprived, I am feeling relatively okay... for now. So, we picked up 9 1/2 week old Roddy (lab) yesterday afternoon. We brought 11 mo old El (lab from same place... they even have the same sire!) with us to meet her new baby brother at the breeder's. She reacted well to him and they both slept a bit on the car ride home. Once we got home, though... she thinks he's a little moving toy. She's about 60 lbs and he's probably 10. The only way to get them both to settle down is to separate them at this point. Last night, we crated Roddy and El, who is no longer crated, whined, barked, and stared at him until we put her in the bathroom with a gate. She would eventually settle down until he came back from potty breaks and then it all started over again, this time with her at the gate doing the same thing. Okay, so my questions are, what can we do so that they both sleep at night? and how do we keep El from accidentally hurting Roddy while they're playing? Is this just the "getting used to him" period until El realizes he's here to stay and gets accustomed to him? Any suggestions on how to keep them both together while they're awake and NOT playing? (yeah, right :wink: )

Thanks! This forum has been indispensable!

[Mario Niepel]

Beth, do you have an indication that El is in fact hurting Roddy during play. A squel or a yelp every now and then is probably not such a big deal. It is actually the puppy teaching El what is acceptable play and what is not.

I had the chance of observing Sammy playing for multiple days with a 12 week old puppy visiting from out of town. During the first day there were a few occassions where Sammy accidentally stomped on Ithcy or where somebody bit somebody a little too hard. However, after the first day that went away virtually completely.

Having these guys play together is also a good way to get them to sleep well. Play time is usually very tiring.

[Beth Pladson]

After reading your response, we just let them play and didn't intervene. El suffers from what I call "small person's disease" where her bark is way worse than her bite and when it comes down to it, she's a big pushover. Roddy let her know when she was hurting him and she backed off. Later, she was bugging him and he retaliated enough to make her jump away. But their tails kept wagging, so nothing really bad was happening. It was rather funny when he just wanted to play with his toy, but she wanted to play with him, he kept trying to get in small places that she coulnd't fit in so he could chew in peace.

[Mario Niepel]

Beth, I think you are on the right track. One thing to keep in mind in general though: tail wagging is not a sign whether a dog is going to bite or not.