Help me, he's so dominant!


sadie727

New Member
I just rescued an 8 week old lab pit mix, she's now 10 weeks, but I started fostering her at 4 weeks so I've had her almost 3 months. She's catching up to my mini dachshund mix fast, but he is so dominant! It makes me nervous. He's not going to be her size much longer, and I know I can train her to be gentle but I also don't want him being such a bossy butt.

He's sweet, and he loves her and loves to play with her, but he refuses to share toys or bones. She'll let him grab them right out of her mouth (thank goodness she's so sweet haha) but I think he's just down right mean.

Plus he's a barker. A crazy, neurotic absolutely nothing is there but he'll bark endlessly anyway kind of barker. It's maddening. He's my baby, but I seriously need some tips on how to make him listen to me. He's the only dog that I'm a push over with and he knows it.

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Nell

Member
Hi Sadie, you don't say how old your dachshund mix is but I am presuming he was there first. You were very brave fostering a puppy at four weeks, I am presuming it had been abandoned as this is far too young to leave its mother as it will have missed out a lot of the early socialisation.

Even without those important lessons learnt from her mother at ten weeks you pup is naturally going to be a push over with any older dog. The older dog will also naturally let the puppy know who is in charge, its all part of establishing the pecking order.

If they play together and otherwise seem to get on I am sure they will work it out. I am not surprised your dachshund mix doesn't want to "share" his bone or toys though as he sees these as his and many dogs just don't get the "sharing" concept.

As for the barking, this is probably a bit of a habit he has got into. There is plenty of good advice on the internet to help with dogs that bark too much but its best to start by teaching him the quiet command first. One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people make is to shout at their dog when they bark. This really doesn't help at all because as far as the dog is concerned if you are shouting then you are "barking" as well. This just heightens the tension and reinforces to the dog that there really is something that needs to be barked at.

Good luck and I hope things calm down a bit soon.
 
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