Hi everyone! I joined here because I really need some advice. We have a 5 year old boxer and just brought home a few weeks ago a 5 month old Belgian Malinois/Dutch Shepherd mix. They play pretty well together, it looks so rough and worries me but I can tell it isn't a fight or anything. The problem is the puppy is puncturing the boxers skin. He is pretty much her height but she has a good 30lbs heavier than him. Unfortunately with her short muzzle she can't grab him like he does her. My poor girl has scabs all over her neck from the puppy constantly nipping/grabbing/holding on to her neck and her floppy cheek skin. She hasn't cried out at all when he does it and she does encourage playtime so I'm assuming it isn't bothering her? It just looks so bad and I feel like I should intervene but I don't want to cause problems. I really want this to work out and I'm not sure how much we should intervene or if we need to leave it to the boxer tell the puppy when she has had enough.
On a side note, the puppy is displaying A LOT of resource guarding behavior but only towards the boxer. Whenever she goes near a toy, the food bowls or a spot he wants he runs ahead of her and cuts her off. He watches her every move when she is in an area with something he guards. Last night (I told my husband to stop and it was a horrible idea but he didn't listen to me) he used one of the toys to get the dogs to play tug of war. I told him it was going to start a fight with how the belgian acts with resources and sure enough within less than a minute the Belgian attacked the Boxer. This morning when we let them back together they were fine, he was licking her face and they started playing again and she had blood spots all over her neck, ears and one on her back from his sharp teeth.
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
On a side note, the puppy is displaying A LOT of resource guarding behavior but only towards the boxer. Whenever she goes near a toy, the food bowls or a spot he wants he runs ahead of her and cuts her off. He watches her every move when she is in an area with something he guards. Last night (I told my husband to stop and it was a horrible idea but he didn't listen to me) he used one of the toys to get the dogs to play tug of war. I told him it was going to start a fight with how the belgian acts with resources and sure enough within less than a minute the Belgian attacked the Boxer. This morning when we let them back together they were fine, he was licking her face and they started playing again and she had blood spots all over her neck, ears and one on her back from his sharp teeth.
Any thoughts would be appreciated!