bullying bichon

Question
We recently adopted a 10 month old male bichon(alfie) whos had a hard time so far.We will be his 3rd owners already.His first owner sadly died. The second home he was in he was unfortunately bullied by the other dogs in the household.Despite this he is the most good natured dog ever. The problem is however, our other 6 month bichon pup Chico. I caught chico biting his tail and ear the other day and also any toy or chews we give alfie, chico takes. Afterwards alfie becomes withdrawn. We've only had Alfie 4 days. Is this normal behaviour by chico.Is this just the alphamale syndrome happening and is there anything we can do to stop it?  We dont alfie to feel bullied again.

Answer
Ok you hit the nail right on the head, what you must do is to help build Alfies confidence up by not supporting the alpha dog (the bully)
When Alfie gets attacked, bitten, growled at what you need to do is crate the other dog and spend time with ALfie , showing the other dog that 1) youare alpha
2) As alpha you set the boundaries not him
3) when chico has seen you do this a few times he will back off.
This is purely natural, the only problem is that if a dog has been bullied a lot, they display fear in te pack this just encourages more bullying , so confidence boost him and send signals to all other dogs that hey this is not how your home pack behave

www.eurobichons.com