[Bobbiesocks]

Hello

Does anyone have any advice on how to help an older lab get over her jealousy with a new puppy?

Bobbie is my parent’s lab and is 4 and a half years old. I moved out of home 3 years ago and have recently got my own lab, Maggie. Maggie is now 4 months old.

Bobbie has never shown any aggressive tendencies yet with when Maggie is playing or fussing with either me, my partner or my parents she gets very growly and snarly and basically does not like Maggie being around us.

When they are playing in the garden together they are great or the odd time they’ll lie together and play but then as soon as Bobbie has had enough she will growl and snarl at Mags. She hasn’t gone for her – yet.

Me and my Mom try to get them together as often as we can to get used to each other but we’ve had Maggie since before Christmas and Bobbie’s jealously just seems to be getting worse.

It isn’t as if Bobbie is being nasty but she was always the baby and it just seems like she hates the attention being on the puppy. We always fuss Bobbie just as much but she doesn’t like ANY attention on Mags.

Any advice? It breaks my heart that Bobbie doesn’t love her!!

Thanks, Rachel.

 

[AngusFangus]

It's kind of hard to give advice without seeing what is going on...is it actually because of jealousy, or is the puppy doing the typical goofy puppy antics that the older dog is correcting the puppy for? I think you'd have to see everything in context to know for sure, but it may be something to keep in mind. Try to pay attention to exactly what the circumstances are, and especially what the puppy is doing, when Bobbie gets upset. It is very typical for an older dog to "correct" a puppy who is stepping out of line. And this can be a very good thing...it is impossible for a human to teach doggie manners to a puppy. The only lessons in manners they can understand come from other dogs.