• If you're a past member of the board, but can't recall your password any more, you don't need to set up a new account (unless you wish to). As long as you recall your old login name, you can log in with that user name then select 'forgot password' and the board will email you at your registration email, to let you reset your password.

Questiona bout puppy playing with another dog

Battie4

Well-known member
Alright well Waffles has been home for only 3 days and already there are so many questions arising that I never would have though of beforehand. But here is a major question. When Waffles first came home she would sort of nip and jump and try to play with Sugar, but all Sugar would do is sniff her and kind of back away (she is not really that socialized with other dogs). Essentially Sugar just stood there and took it from Waffles.

But now I think the inital shock of Waffles has worn off of Sugar and when Waffles kind of nips at her ears or something Sugar will nip right back and give chase. She also growls when they are playing tug of war. Now this is all ok with me but the thing that worries me is that Sugar is SO MUCH bigger then Waffles. Sugar weighs 18-20 pounds and Waffles weighed in at a paltry 4.5 pounds today at the vets. So when Sugar kind of plays with Waffles she literally blows her over with her size. Its gotten to the point where I think she might be hurt, like Waffles will stop trying to play but sugar will want to keep playing. I dunno its kind of hard to explain but I was just wondering if there were any poeple/owners out there with a small puppy and a semi bigger dog and how they played together. Any info is greatly appreciated. THanks!

Jon Chang
 
Search for the posts by Arasara on when Faith came (look in members list second page of A's and click on "find threads"). She got Faith in Jan and also has a 1 yr old cavalier and talked about similar issues. Or just PM her and ask, she is great with animals and quite the friendly little gal willing to help! Hey Sara, just making sure your day at work is fulling!
 
I wouldn't let a larger dog play roughly with a baby cavalier. Too easy for an injury to happen. One of my cavaliers was injured as a puppy (I'm not even sure how it happened:confused: ) and she had a small tear in her knee cartilage that required patella surgery.

Maybe the best time to put them together is when they are both sleepy or in calm moods. Is Sugar young too? What breed is she?

Definitely pick your puppy up as soon as she is finished playing, as she is too young to set her own limits.
 
Last edited:
Sugar is a half poodle half maltese at least thats what we believe and is a little over a year old.
 
No wonder she is named Sugar - I really love both of those breeds. :luv:

Sounds like Waffles is going to have a best buddy when they get used to each other!
 
Yes, you do need to VERY carefully supervise the time they are together. I'm sure Waffles is just being a typical pesky puppy and wanting to play like puppies do. Sugar, on the other hand, is the "adult" and is just not used to having someone like Waffles around. So what you're probably seeing is both some playing and some correction on Sugar's part. The hard part for you is to keep a close eye on it and intervene when necessary so no one gets hurt.

The growling when the dogs play tug of war sounds very normal; all our dogs do it whether it's playing with each other or us.

We have to deal with the puppy/adult interaction all the time when our litters get older, on the order of 6 to 8 weeks old. Each of our adults reacts differently to the puppies when we bring them out to play with the adults and we know which adults we have to watch more carefully. And all the adults (including mom) will correct a puppy when the puppy gets a little too "pesky"; and the correction usually sounds a lot worse than it is. The advantage we have, though, is that we move a litter out to the living room in a puppy pen at about 3 to 4 weeks old, so the adults are used to seeing the puppies for quite a while before they can actually play with them.

Good luck with the two of them. There will definately be an adjustment period, but I'm sure they will become best friends.
 
Hi Jon

We have just gone through similar stuff with our (now) 17 week old Beau, who at 8 weeks was introduced to our two Boxers. Beau in typical puppy style was jumping up biting the Boxers on the jowels, getting under them, nipping their tummies & Sam's penis. The Boxers were/are so incredibly tolerant & gentle with him and would discipline him with deep throaty growls, but all the time with their tails wagging & being careful not to step on him, even when trying to protect their own private parts :eek:

As Bruce said, these interactiions must be very closely supervised because even the gentlest, most tolerant big dog can easily crush a little puppy with a misplaced foot, or in a moment of anxiety to get away from those needle sharp teeth. It is important that the big dogs have a place where they can get away from a little pesky puppy, because sometimes they don't know when enough if enough. At the same time though, interaction is important because this is how everyone learns & the sorts out the pack dynamics.

When we have to go out, we ensure that the Boxers are kept on one part of our large veranda, while the Cavaliers are on the other part. As confident as we are that the Boxers would never deliberately hurt the little ones, if something startles them or they run to "defend the territory" because a kangaroo bounced by, we don't want the littlies under foot. Even as adults, there is too much of a discrepancy in weight of a 8 kilo Cavalier, as opposed to a 40 kilo Boxer.

It is fun to watch the interactions, but yes we have to play it safe. :)
 
Jon,

When Scout first came to live with me I already had a dog a Newfoundland. She weighs around 140 lbs. Of course Scout only weighed around 7 lbs when I brought her home. Scout wanted to play right away, but Breeze would just get up and move away from her, giving her a look like...When are you going to your real home.

It was a little scary when Breeze decided that Scout was staying and she might as well make the best of it. You just have to keep a very close eye on both dogs. It depends on the older, larger dog, but Newfs are very, very gentle for their size. They will play, and play if I don't put a stop to it. It gets very loud in my house some days. Usually Breeze lays on the floor and Scout jumps on her and that's how they play. And sometimes they standed up.

Picture006.jpg



Picture013.jpg
 
I think my main concern with their playing is that since sugar hasnt really had all tha tmuch interaction with other dogs, so she essentially copies Waffles in how she plays. Which is jumping [awing nipping and so on, but I dont think she realizes that when she jumps she lands on waffles sometimes and when she paws at Waffles its basically knocking Waffles over
 
Back
Top