Help, is this normal? - Page 1

Hi, I have an 8 yr old entire male Shepherd and a 9 mth old male Shepherd who get along fine, but in the last few weeks my older boy has started bothering the younger one by sniffing around his rear end, and following around after him crying and acting like he wants to mount him! The younger one lets him do this but kind of playfully bites him but never tells him off. Our older dog hasnt been neutered as we ve never had any kind of problem with him before, even though hes lived with other dogs all of his life, in fact hes always been the underdog until now. Before we got the younger dog he lived with another male who was very dominant to him but unfortunately we lost him through illness and we got this dog as a puppy of 8 weeks and we ve had no problems up to now. Will our younger boy eventually tell him off, he seems very submissive, he hasnt started to bark if  anyone knocks at the door or if he hears any noises outside, in fact he seems frightened by  strange people, hes been to classes which he still attends, but still seems nervous. He is from a German show type line with most of his pedigree holding Sch. 11 and 111 qualifications so I thought he d be pretty stable. He s been very well socialised from a puppy, at local stores, precincts and schools and we get lots of visitors to our house. Will he eventually start to feel more protective towards strangers, and put our older dog in his place when he tries it on sexually! Any advice would be welcome please! Lissa.

The older dog is showing he is alpha in my opinion.

Seperate the young dog from the older dog...never raise a young male with an older one...he needs to build confidence and cant become his own dog with this one hovering over him.....headed for big trouble in the dominance issue in another few months.....

sounds like he has a nerve issue....he should have come back on the older dog and ought to be a pup full of untold grabbing, barking and actually starting a fight should have already been done.'S

So he needs his own place and not under this dogs rule.

All the class in the world will not correct this...he comes home to   number 2 and has no desire to shine in his own temperament and in fact will be cowered by this older male.....as is shown by his behaviour to date..