My dog hates my best friend's puppy!

My best friend recently purchased a ruby Cavalier from my dog Bailey's (1.5 yo) breeder. She is a wonderful pup, and is now 13 weeks old. We introduced them to each other last week at the park, and he was quite nervous. Bailey is a bit timid around other dogs, and Meg (the puppy) is VERY outgoing. To say they are opposites is an understatement lol. He was getting somewhat irritated at the park because she was getting so much attention, but for the most part they seemed okay around each other.

Today my friend needed me to petsit for the evening, and Bailey seems to hate her! He goes up to her acting curious if she is sitting on my lap, or my boyfriend's, but when she runs up to play with him, he barks/growls in a way that worries me...I was almost worried he would bite her, so I separated them. He has never acted like this before. Should I be concerned? We had hoped to get another dog in a year or two at most, but his discomfort around her concerns us. Is this normal? I am assuming most of it is pure jealousy, as he is used to being the only dog. Is there anything we could do so that he may feel more comfortable around her, or could he just not like her because she is so playful and jumping on him? My best friend and I had looked forward to them being playmates, but I am now wondering if that is even a possibility.

Any advice would be great, thanks!

Here is a picture of them at the park (you can see he's a bit irritated as she's VERY playful):

Some dogs just do not like puppies, especially, I think male adults. I know of a breeder, whose pet, castrated male, always climbs up out of th way of any puppies.

Also, like people, some dogs don't get on. Izzy disliked Joly, as a pup and would growl him off, even if Joly only went to sniff him. Gradually, he got to tolerate him, but they were never friends. This wasn't a puppy thing, as izzy got on well with Teddy, who was a very rough puppy.

I would set up an x-pen to put the puppy in so that Bailey can get used to her at his own pace. He is probably curious about her and would like to sniff her without getting jumped on and grabbed at by her.

He does look very upset in the photo - about one step away from snapping at her, so definitely try an x-pen. It will reduce his stress considerably!

He does look very upset in the photo - about one step away from snapping at her,

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Agree completely; I wouldn't force them to be together as that body language and expression would be worrying. Many dogs are more aggressive on leads too so don't let them mix like this on leads where he may indeed feel more pressured and hurt her.

If he hasn't spent a lot of time with other dogs in his first year he may need work in this area -- a good training class would be the first step. Generally if dogs don't get lots of social mixing with other dogs very early on they fail to learn how to interact with other dogs and may be better as singleton dogs.

A lot of adults simply dislike puppies (likewise some adult cats detest kittens -- my two female cats do, while the two adult boys love them).

An x pen is really a necessity if you want them to be in the same room, s this allows some limited interaction but no contact and everyone is safe. It may be that over time Bailey will relax and as the puppy gets older, he will be more comfortable and even friendly-- but never put a puppy at risk with an adult dog. A serious accident could happen in a microsecond.

Thank you for all of the advice! We definitely do not plan on taking them to the park again together until he is comfortable with her. As you all mentioned, he does clearly look uncomfortable, and I've never seen him act like that. That was right after they very first met, and I did my best to separate them after that. The playpen is a great idea, thank you. I noticed when she was in her crate last night he would go up to sniff her, and was very calm and nice, but I think the interactions need to be on his terms. Last night my boyfriend fell asleep, and each fell asleep on either arm of his lol, it was very cute. I am hoping that once she matures a bit, he will grow fonder of her also. She is very aggressively playful. I do try to socialize him as much as possible at the park, but I am hoping to enroll him in an obedience course soon too, and hopefully that will help. Thanks!

My first puppy, Lucky, acted quite the same when my boyfriend and I brought in our new puppy, Brett. To me it just seemed like she was very very jealous of Brett. I think there is some of that going on between your cavalier and your friend's pup.

After a day or two my pups became the bestest of friends.

Annie was pretty much the same way the first time she met her little "cousin," Fenway. Check out the photo below. She backed away and looked at him as if he were some kind of little alien, and of course all he wanted to do was play. She was still a puppy too at that point.



Now they're best buddies:



I'd say just take it slow and give it time, and he'll come around eventually.

boy vs boy or boy vs girl

does gender play any part when it comes to dogs getting along? ive heard girl/girl usually doesnt work so well. what about boy vs boy? i can only assume boy vs girl works out the best? or does it?

It just takes a lot of time to let them get used to it on their own. I went through the same when I first brought my cav home. My aunt had a 6 year old male unneutered golden who has always been the only dog in the house, and in my family's house as well (we are neighbors).

He hated my pup since day 1 and it was really quite essential that they got along since we always take care of the golden while aunt is at work so we started going out on walks with both of them and keeping them in separate rooms in the house. My dog is now about 10 months and it's just now that the golden tolerates being in the same room without growling at him for short periods of time. I guess it's once my pup calmed down and stopped being so hyper, he is more tolerable and less frightening. It took over 6 months before we noticed any progress at all but it is getting better.

Thanks for all of the advice! Bailey has seemed a bit depressed the last two days, and I am not sure why. He is eating fine, and still playing some...he seems completely healthy.

I introduced him to a Shih Tzu I plan to dog walk a few days ago, and she was very tame, and sweet, and would lay on her belly whenever he seemed nervous. He really is just unbelievably timid, but I guess I will just keep socializing him.