Recongizing Pack Order

[Alicia Goldberg]

Hi,

I have a 1 year old nutered male Papillon, and we had a 13 year old nutered Golden Retriever (sadly we recently lost him to old age). When we originally brought the pup home, he tormented the older dog, but it appear to be all in play. They often curled up to sleep together on the older dogs' bed during the day, but the little guy had rights to our bed from early on. I would often find the pup cleaning the ears of the Golden but he also tried a few times to hang on the Goldens ears and drew blood. All in all the old guy put up with a lot, but after the pup was nutered, the Golden became less willing to put up with his playfullness. They had a few disagreements over toys, and the Golden always kept his temper but I really couldn't tell what the pecking order was.

The reason for my long posting is that we intent to get a german shepherd pup in the near future. I am trying to determine if our little Papillon was showing Alpha tendences toward our Golden, should we possibly consider getting a female shepherd (we originally wanted another male)?

Anyone's thought on this would be very much appreciated.

[imported_Jen]

Hi AliMarie....You should check out my question and the advice that I got on this situation....I posted as "social ranking/dominance" In Melissa's last post there was a site with a very interesting article about this...Good luck! Jen

[Amber]

The owner of the animal shelter I volunteer at always suggests getting a female (and getting her spayed) if you already have a male (neutered) at home or vice versa. There are instances where two females get along or two males get along, but usually not so much so...unless both are neutered or spayed.

I have two female dogs (spayed) that get along perfectly well together. However, both are submissive dogs and my rescue dog is scared of just about scared of everything but me and my other dog, so...take my advice as you may.

[Renee]

Hi Alicia-

It really doesn't matter which dog is alpha....you should be viewed as the alpha by your dogs (check out the Nothing in Life is Free Article). Putting your dogs on a NILIF program is a great way to show them that your are their benevolent leader.

If your Papillion was biting your GR and drawing blood, then that was unacceptable. By allowing this to happen, you could be creating a bully. Not only that, true alpha dogs would never pester or bother another dog. Only insecure beta dogs act in this way (we call them alpha wannabys). If your Papillion bothers your new-dog-to-be, redirect the behavior to something appropriate - like a kong or other chew toy.

Good luck,