| ANIMALHOUSE:
It is not at all unusual for one dog to correct or teach the other. This usually occurs in exactly your situation: the older dog corrects the younger, and the resident dog corrects and teaches the new dog what's up. This occurs very often between an older dog and puppies.
I have a 54 lb, 5 year old female Heinz 57 mix who was very polite and subdued and took her place as a submissive and peacemaking dog in our household of three. (One 4 year old female Rottie included, and a shepherd mix.)
Then we acquired first a Rottweiler pup at age 8 months and about two months later, a besenji of 3+ months. Immediately, the laid back female, who had always been somewhat of an outsider with my other two, became chief protector, surrogate mother, and steadfast playmate and teacher to both pup. She has continued this role up to the present, and although the tiny basenji who will max out at about 24 lbs in another month or two is 1/4 her size, and the Rottie pup of course has been doubling in size every month or two until she is now larger than her mother and protector, both pups, at 22 lbs, and 46 lbs. get along great and continue to defer to their "mother."
She taught the pups everything a mother would teach, from proper play habits to bite discrimination. She also served as a watchdog and protector when our older Rottie started to express his dissatisfaction with the presence of the two pups by growling and lurching at them when they would approach her. Our surrogate mom took no guff grom the Rottie who outweighes her by a good 20 lbs. In the early days, she sat in front of the pups' crates for hours, just staring at them. When the Rottie would try to stir up trouble, she body blocked him and held him off without fear.
I got to watch a mild-mannered dog come out of herself and find a meaningful job in her life when these two pups arrived. When the going got rough a number of months ago, she faced off with our Rottie and they had a couple brief dog fights that made it clear that no one was going to harm her pups and proteges!
To this day, with the pups around 8 months and the Rottie pup now larger than "mom" and every other dog in the house except the adult Rottie, the sub-pack of three spend all their time together. The 5 year old female has taught the pups how to become dogs, and the pups have reawakened the playfulness and pup inside the 5 year old.
As the Rottie pup has grown in size, the Rottie adult has now accepted her, but not the basenji. I think the size is what is bothering the adult Rottie. Raised in a kennel for the first year of her life, I don't think she knows what to make a a small dog or puppy.
However, within a month or two, the Rottie pup is going to tower over everyone, including the female adult Rottie, and at that time it is going to be two against one if the adult wants to make trouble for the basenji.
The most amazing part is how well the different breeds and sizes have learned to adjust to one another. When the Rottie pup plays with the basenji, she is as gentle as can be and uses a soft mouth. But when she runs with her surrogate mom, an energetic and larger dog, they playfight at full volume! Every one of these three have learned to discriminate in their mouthing and play strategies to compensate for and create a safe and equal playing field for all.
As someone suggested above, the best human trainer in the world cannot teach a dog like a dog! We humans are just not fast enough or sensitive enough to teach the many skills that are taught by one dog to another.
So I'd say you have a wonderfully lucky situation, and I would suggest you let the two play and interact to the fullest, and see if in the end the older dog not only trains the puppy, but the puppy creates positive changes in the 2 year old!
As a Clicker Trainer and advisor on dog behavior, I have seen this phenomenon a number of times before,
and one plus is that the "master" and "student" will inevitably grow up with a strong and positive bond between them. They will be friend forever!
Your situation is not one to worry about or complain about, but it does not relieve you of the responsibility to assert yourself as the ultimate master of both dogs and to train them in a time-honored but probably relatively bumbling human manner. ;)  |