[mudhound]

I have a 15 pound Border Terrier who thinks she is a Rottweiler.

I have a 60 pound German Sheppard who thinks she is a Chihuahua.

How can I make the German Sheppard grow a backbone? She lets the little dog chew her up! It’s a bit funny but the little dog has started to bring blood! YEAKS!!!!!

 

[wvasko]

I have a 15 pound Border Terrier who thinks she is a Rottweiler.

I have a 60 pound German Sheppard who thinks she is a Chihuahua.

How can I make the German Sheppard grow a backbone? She lets the little dog chew her up! It’s a bit funny but the little dog has started to bring blood! YEAKS!!!!!

Sounds like you have a nice German Shepherd, how old is the terrier, if not a puppy would be working on changing terrier's attitude, not the Shepherd.

 

[mudhound]

The little dog is about 1 and half years old. The big dog is about 10-11 months old. The little dog was #2 when our much older GS was here. Sadly, he passed away when she was about 7-8 months old. Hence, this is why we have basically two puppies. Gosh, I miss that older dog!

 

[Abbylynn]

My Dobie/Rot is soft like that and allows the little dogs to chew on her and tell her what to do. I just made the little dogs stop doing what they were doing ... it isn't fair to allow them to pick on the other dog or each other for that matter.

It is good that the big dog allows this ... but as your GSD pup gets older the nice attitude may change and the little dog may become lunch.

I too love older settled down dogs vs puppy adolescence! Lol! :/

 

[wvasko]

Well the young, larger dog may change as he gets older. When I was young I was small of size and got my butt whipped a few times in grade school and 12 yrs later at 6 ft (5-11 3'4s actually) met the gentleman that enjoyed the whipping on me. Poor guy, he had reached full growth a few inches shorter and weight was not proper. It was cool cause payback on him was very enjoyable. It was old school and it was fist city not guns etc as seems to be popular methods used nowadays.

Point Is:

With a dog it can mean some possible serious injury to your small dog, a 15 lb dog can also be killed quickly. Not saying this is a foregone conclusion, just a possibility.

 

[groomerwantabe]

I had a 2yr shih tzu and got a 3 month old German Shepherd. The shih tzu did the same thing for a Then about a month later the German shepherd puppy realized he was actually bigger. It was pretty funny then. I watched them, but when the bigger dog got tire of the little one he would just step on her. he didn't ever hurt her but pretty soon they got use to each other and played good.

 

[Amaryllis]

Control the small dog. Before it gets killed.

The GSD doesn't need to grow a backbone, you do. You are in control of the situation, you need to make it clear that drawing blood on the GSD is not acceptable. They should never be left alone together unsupervised, and they may need to be permanently separated.

It is not at all uncommon for large dogs to be submissive as puppies and then burst out into full blown dog aggression as adults. If you don't get a handle on this now, your GSD could end up killing your little dog and it will be your fault.

 

[HollowHeaven]

Control the small dog. Before it gets killed.

The GSD doesn't need to grow a backbone, you do. You are in control of the situation, you need to make it clear that drawing blood on the GSD is not acceptable. They should never be left alone together unsupervised, and they may need to be permanently separated.

It is not at all uncommon for large dogs to be submissive as puppies and then burst out into full blown dog aggression as adults. If you don't get a handle on this now, your GSD could end up killing your little dog and it will be your fault.

Agreed.

Manage your little dog. Your GSD won't "grow a backbone", she'll have a snack. Better to make the little one stop before the GSD has to make it stop.

 

[wvasko]

Manage your little dog. Your GSD won't "grow a backbone", she'll have a snack. Better to make the little one stop before the GSD has to make it stop.

Oh My!!

Absolutely words of truth.