| Jade:
Hang in there with your older dog and the new baby. I know from personal experience that introducing a very bossy-Queen Bee [spayed] bitch to a puppy (female in our case) can work.
Riga was 6 at the time we decided to have another Rottie join our home. We decided to work thru the rescue program, since we're interested in Rotties as friends & companions.
The three of us drove to see a male who was about 15 months old. As soon as Riga laid eyes on him, it was hate at first sight. Max came bounding over to play, all wiggly & happy, big smile on his face. Riga charged to the end of her leash, hackles up from the top of her head to the tip of her stubby tail. Her lips were curled completely back over her teeth & the growling sounds she was making were hideous. Max thought it was all a game, but I know Riga--she didn't think it was funny & for whatever reason, she didn't like Max.
End of that.
The next dog we met we took home with us. Tula was 5 or so months at the time. Riga took one or 2 sniffs and then pretended that the puppy didn't exist for the rest of our visit. Mo & I would try to coax her to come over to us & the puppy; Riga would come over to us for petting, but ignore the puppy. Figuring that it was better adopt a dog that she ignored than one she wanted to kill, puppy joined our family.
We've now had Tula about 17 months. During the first few months we were very careful not to let Riga bully the puppy nor roughly play with her. Tho we have 70 acres, when we walked the 2 of them, both were leashed, or puppy was off the leash while Riga was leashed. We used a baby gate to keep them apart for the first few months. We played with them separately & did things with them separately. When the four of us were together, we made sure that Riga didn't bully the baby. And we still keep an eye on this.
Riga bossing Tula was something we watched. Riga (aka Miss Bossy Boots & Queen Bee) made sure the puppy knew her place was as number two. We're still very careful to make sure that the bullying doesn't get out of hand.
From the start, we made sure that Riga felt secure as top dog. We fed her first, greeted her first, she got treats first, & so on. We still do these things.
Tula is very easy-going, the primary reason that it's been OK for us to have 2 females. When I was a kid, we had 2 bitches who hated each other. The savageness of their fights is nothing like I've seen in fighting males. Knowing how bad things can get between females, we're make sure that Riga understands, that while she's important to us, this doesn't mean she can do what she likes where Tula's concerned.
Our attitude from the get-go was that we wanted Tula to join the family and Riga was expected to straighten up and fly right, so to speak.  |