New puppy and older dog help

[Jane Vasey]

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I have a 10 week old Labrador puppy and I've had my black lab who is 9 for past 9 years. I know this would of been a huge change for my 9 yr old but he's not the problem lol and tbh he's the softest dog ever.

Problem I'm having is puppy keeps jumping up nipping his face and legs and diving for my black labs bed when he sees older dog heading for it. My old lab doesn't even chastise him and normally tries running away from the puppy. I have separated them as older boy can't be bothered to even entertain little one. I'm worried this is going to be a problem and I really feel for my older boy. I've tried everything but he doesn't want to know. I've also noticed when I give my older one cuddles puppy tries jumping in and pushing older one out. Please I'm at my wits end on what to do.

 

[Tarimoor]

Labrador puppies can be quite tenacious, so it will be up to you to ensure the pup doesn't become too much for your old boy. I've currently got three generations, I did have four until earlier this year when my old girl needed to be put to sleep, but up until Christmas she was playing with her great granddaughter, with an age gap of 15 years between them. But then I've not had just the one dog for many years now, I've had two dogs for as long as I had her, as she was my second puppy, and foundation bitch. So unfortunately you'll just have to supervise and ensure your older dog gets the attention and space he needs and hope that eventually they will click and he will bond with the pup as well. Is he generally playful with other dogs at all? If not, it may be that he just doesn't want to know.

 

[Scraggle]

We have a lurcher pup at the moment and 2 elderly terriers. To be honest my terriers will tell the puppy quite clearly if they don't want to be pestered and after 2 weeks my girl doesn't even need to growl she just freezes and the puppy backs off my boy is less subtle and I intervene more there as I don't want the puppy being excessively told off or chased away - it's not the job of the dog to educate them, and some dogs will accept a lot, others won't accept much and I want my older dogs to not start to hate the puppy and avoid potential for fights in future so I'm also keeping the puppy occupied quite a lot especially for his crazy hour morning and evening when he's most busy, so that his focus is on me and not the other dogs. And we've been heavily heavily reinforcing recall so that I can call him away from the other dogs (or away from the kids) quite easily. He's basically getting the majority of his food at the moment as either random rewards for being settled on his mat, or rewards for recalling to his name through the day.

 

[Hemlock]

Absolutely the best way of managing - so good to read - you deserve every success for your thoughtful empathetic forward planning.