Zoe and her brothers

[Nicole Leveque]

This is my 11 mo. old rottweiler, Zoe, and her newly adopted brother, Ollie:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/nleveque/ZoeandOliver1.jpg

This is Zoe (on the left) with her littermate, Cooper (at a play date a couple months ago):

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/nleveque/ZoeandCooper.jpg

[Jesse Cruz]

photobucket works great. most of here use it. after you load them into photobucket you take the IMG link and put it into the thread. the pics will show up then.

[Nicole Leveque]

Thanks, Jesse - I think that worked. I'll revise my other thread using photobucket, too.

[Jesse Cruz]

Zoe and Ollie are very cute! How are they getting along?

[Hee Yung Lee]

Cute doggies! That is really cool that you got to have a play date with Zoe's littermate.

[Nicole Leveque]

Zoe and Ollie are very cute! How are they getting along?

I'm not really sure. Ollie follows Zoe around everywhere ("like a lost puppy dog..."), and Zoe seems to like the attention. In fact, she'll pick up one of his toys and bring it over to taunt him if he's not paying attention.

The problem is that they seem to fight a lot, too. Either one might instigate, but it always starts with Ollie biting Zoe's face (usually her cheeks). He just latches on, and sometimes shakes his head as if to make her fly through the air (except that she's 7 times his size, so she's not going anywhere). She'll tolerate for a short while, then open her mouth onto his (but not close it or bite). She'll then either sit on him, pin him, or body-slam him into the cushions. She doesn't actually seem to hurt him, and she doesn't seem hurt by the biting, but the biting really worries me.

Is this acceptable, or should I be correcting him? Zoe will sometimes walk up to him and lick his mouth until he licks back and then eventually starts biting, so it isn't as though the biting is always unprovoked. He doesn't bite me at all.

They sleep together each night on a dog bed just outside my room with no problems at all - no fighting or tussling. I think it's mostly play, but I don't have experience with multiple dogs (especially such different breeds and sizes), so I'm not sure.

[Krispie]

My two dogs play in a similar manner. Kobe is 3 and Shiba is 3 months and it seems all they do is mouth each or grab at each others fur( usually the cheeks or under the collar). They are never really biting each other but they both end up full of saliva(yuck!). When Shiba first came, kobe would always roll her to the ground and sometimes sit on her to show her who was boss, but now she lets the puppy roll her over too so they take turns being queen of the mountain. Every once in a while they grab the fur on the cheeks and start to pull or shake and I just tell them enough and they stop. I took a video of what they were doing and showed my vet because I was unsure also if that play was "OK". When I got Kobe as a puppy, my other dog was 13 so playtime was lasted about 5 minutes and she was done! My vet said what they were doing was normal play but to supervise them while they are learning the boundaries. Neither dogs have shown any aggression at all, so I am chalking it up to them just being very energetic and playful. They both instigate play and even though the baby is a pain sometimes, Kobe seeks her out to play. Kobe will let the puppy know when she has had enough( although I don't think the puppy totally gets it yet!)

I don;t know if that helps, but at least you know it isn't just your two babies!
http://tinypic.com/4kh7pk

[Nicole Leveque]

Thanks, Kristi. I'm much more reassured. Things went so well last night, particularly with another dog over visiting, that I'm convinced it's play and not aggression. I think I'm really going to enjoy have the 2 of them grow up together. I'm very glad I waited until Zoe was almost a year, though, before introducing a 2nd dog.