Influence of older dogs in the household?

[lengel]

We're raising our pup with our three adult labradors who are very maternal/paternal. I would say that they are attentive to the point of being supernannies. Zooey follows their lead and imitates them to a fascinating degree. I can't help but think that this is a response to some extent to their constant attention to Zooey's every move, and need.

I read an article about a woman who raised her standard poodles with huskies so that they would learn the appropriate skills to qualify as sled dogs for the Iditarod and it got me thinking - to what extent do the other dogs in our households affect the personality of our puppies? Is my rottie/aussie going to be a lab on some level?

[brunie's mom]

Is the puppy getting time alone? Is she getting one on one time with you? Time for playing and training alone?
The problem is when your puppy spends most of it's time with your adult dogs, the puppy may bond with the dogs instead of you.

Try to spend time alone with your puppy.

As far as learning from your dogs? For sure they do. They can be a good influence, or they can also teach her bad things too.

Gina

[poohbearsmom]

Originally Posted by lengel

We're raising our pup with our three adult labradors who are very maternal/paternal. I would say that they are attentive to the point of being supernannies. Zooey follows their lead and imitates them to a fascinating degree. I can't help but think that this is a response to some extent to their constant attention to Zooey's every move, and need.

I read an article about a woman who raised her standard poodles with huskies so that they would learn the appropriate skills to qualify as sled dogs for the Iditarod and it got me thinking - to what extent do the other dogs in our households affect the personality of our puppies? Is my rottie/aussie going to be a lab on some level?

One must remember that a DOG is a DOG FIRST, and it's BREED SECOND.

Your little one will certainly learn from the elders, and as Gina mentioned, both "good" and "bad" behaviors.

She also mentions spending a lot of one on one time with the pup. I concur wholeheartedly. The innate temperament of your pup (whether she is geared more towards bonding with dogs or people; this is a hardwired tendency) will really determine how much this ultimately affects who your pup truly bonds with, but it's best to put the odds in your favor.

It's especially important during this critical time that your pup be bonding with you. Zooey already knows how to be a dog, and since they already speak the same language, you are handicapped, so to speak. Young pups in my house get minimal socialization with the older dogs.

Please read the sticky entitled: Critical Periods of Canine Development in the Puppy Development Forum here.

[lengel]

I spend one and one time with each of our dogs every day and each has their own particular activity (agility, obedience training, puppy kindergarten). All training is one and one. Almost all of our walks are one on one etc. I love though that our adult dogs teach Zooey how to interact appropriately with her own species and allow time for them to interact every day.

I think that what I am trying to explore is how the interaction with our adult labs will affect her behaviors ultimately. I've been told on this board that she is "soft" but she was by far the most dominant puppy in the litter. When we brought her home she could be an absolute brat :) and I think it was the combined efforts of the entire household that helped her integrate so successfully. I have a home office but pretty much abandoned the business for her first two weeks with us. She is now a very social, attentive puppy. I was told by one of the people who helped with the litter that Zooey was "in a world of her own" when it came to her littermates and it was always "her way or the highway". This is the perception of just one person but I can see where that may have been true. There is a definite change in Zooey's basic assumptions in interacting with both people and dogs now and I wonder how much of that has to do with what the adult dogs of a different breed might have taught her. I also actively use them to teach her sometimes. One example is that I walked Zooey with our Nikki after Zooey was spooked by a truck and refused to return to the sidewalk. It was just the fastest way to get her past that particular fear so that we could get on with it. It took exactly two walks with Nikki and Zooey hasn't shown fear or hesitation again. Now we can work on walking on lead without slogging through our (now) very muddy field out back.

Anyway, just babbling on here. I spend a lot of time thinking about my dogs, the influences on them and what they might need in their lives and the topic of this thread occurred to me. I'm fascinated by what does it for my dogs . . .