new dog in the family need some advice

Question
We have a 9 month old golden retriever who is still in the process of training.  We have recently adopted a puppy who is 5 weeks old and is a lab mixed with a white terrie/bull dog which we belive.  I have heard that it is not good to seperate the babies form their mom before 8 weeks.  Are there actual behaviorl problems when they are taken too young?  Our golden is dealing with the change pretty alright.  She tries to be gentle but the little one , who is a male, is nipping too much at her which i think it is normal if i am not wrong.  We had adopted our golden at 8 weeks  she has been alot of work with training her wich we are still doing so.  She has a tendency of jumping too much and grabbing peoples arms.  She will bite hard enough to make it hurt but not too hard to make you bleed.. I am afraid that she might hurt the little one.  What can i do to make it easear for her to adjust and what can i expect form the lab since he is so young and doesnt have his mom.  Another quick question is that the puppy likes sleeping in my bed, he will cry if i put him down Should i stop this know before he gets use to it?

Answer
Hey, Monica,

You're right; it's not a good idea to separate a pup from its mother and littermates before 8 wks. That's why you're having these problems. Puppies need time with their families to develop bite inhibition.

The behavior of of the golden -- jumping up and grabbing someone's arm -- basically comes from a positive social impulse. But it usually involves a certain elevated level of nervous tension, which indicates to me that she's not getting enough fetch and tug-of-war, and might be getting too many corrections. Go easy on scolding and correcting her, and give her lots of play time where she gets to bite a toy. And when you play tug, always let her win and praise her enthusiastically for winning.

There's an exercise on my website, called "How to Stop Puppy Bites" which might help with the little one. It works very well on puppies who've been kept with their mothers and littermates till 8 wks.+ But it's very hard to get the idea of using the mouth gently through to a puppy who's been taken from its mother too young. It's actually better for the older dog to teach him what's okay and what's too much, though you can't just let her go nuts on him! You have to supervise. But she'll probably be his best teacher (if she wants to).

In my opinion you have to be very strict about how much physical affection and attention you give a new puppy. And you mustn't let him sleep in the bed with you or you'll have a whole host of behavioral problems later on. Give him his own pen or gated area, with a warm bed, and (if you can afford it) a heartbeat simulator (available at some pet stores and online). And give him lots and lots of exercise before you put him to bed at night.

Expect lots of crying, and lots of hard nibbles and nips (and bruises and bite marks) and such from the little one. But remember, it's not his fault he's in this position. He's doing the best he can under the circumstances.

And so are you! Bravo for taking on this challenge!

LCK
www.LeeCharlesKelley.com