Hi everyone. This is my first visit to the board, but based on some of the advice given to other posts, I'm optimistic that someone will be able to help us out.
Here's our situation: we have a 10-year-old Beagle that was rescued and has always been anti-social with other dogs (not mean, she just never knew how to interact). About three months ago, we brought home a lab-husky-wolf mix who is now about 5 months old.
The Beagle never used to bark, and we weren't sure if she even knew how to play. Well, she does play with the puppy from time to time, and whines a little when they are separated. But the puppy wants to play all the time, and the Beagle doesn't, so the older dog has taken to barking and growling anytime the puppy even looks at her or walks by. There's no biting, just persistent barking. It's either as if she's not really sure how to tell the puppy she doesn't want to play, or else the puppy just doesn't understand.
We're basically forced to separate the dogs, either putting one upstairs and the other downstairs, or putting one in her crate, but these are less than ideal solutions.
We're hoping this will all pass when the puppy grows up. But is there something we should be doing now? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
-- Greg
PS I'm sorry; I just realized I accidentally posted this in the wrong part of the forum, but couldn't figure out how to move it, so I'll post again in the correct place if a moderator could erase this.
Here's our situation: we have a 10-year-old Beagle that was rescued and has always been anti-social with other dogs (not mean, she just never knew how to interact). About three months ago, we brought home a lab-husky-wolf mix who is now about 5 months old.
The Beagle never used to bark, and we weren't sure if she even knew how to play. Well, she does play with the puppy from time to time, and whines a little when they are separated. But the puppy wants to play all the time, and the Beagle doesn't, so the older dog has taken to barking and growling anytime the puppy even looks at her or walks by. There's no biting, just persistent barking. It's either as if she's not really sure how to tell the puppy she doesn't want to play, or else the puppy just doesn't understand.
We're basically forced to separate the dogs, either putting one upstairs and the other downstairs, or putting one in her crate, but these are less than ideal solutions.
We're hoping this will all pass when the puppy grows up. But is there something we should be doing now? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
-- Greg
PS I'm sorry; I just realized I accidentally posted this in the wrong part of the forum, but couldn't figure out how to move it, so I'll post again in the correct place if a moderator could erase this.