Mini-poodles

Question
Hi, I have two miniature poodles, one is 4 years old and the other is 6 months old.  We cannot get the two of them together as the 4 year old would love nothing more than to chew the pup.  He is being very aggressive and I fear for the pup's safety.  At the moment, the 4 year old is at my neighbor's and they are spoiling the heck out of him.  He basically runs the show.  My pup is very friendly, and loves other dogs.  We got a female as a second dog thinking that there would be no competition but so far, that is not working out.  Also, my 6 month old is black but lately, (after her last grooming) I noticed that her hair is changing to white in some areas (her legs, tail, but)  Her mother was white and her father was brown, where the black comes from I don't know but I am wondering if her hair will continue changing or will it stop eventually?

Answer
Hello Louise,
What you are going to need to do with your 4 yr old is to dominate him to show him you are boss, NOT him and then do this everytime he tries to chew on your girl.  
To dominate your dog, you need to lay him down on the floor with his head down and hold him there until he will submit to you.  He may growl, whine, bark or even try to bite, but you have to hold your ground until he will lay still and submit.  You can even look him in the face and make him look away.  Once he submits, you can remove your hand from him, stand up and walk away from him without saying anything to him.  When he is with your female and he starts playing rough or being mean to her, hold him down in the submissive position and let your female come up to him and sniff him.  If he growls or acts mean, reinforce that he needs to lay still with his head on the floor and not move.  Get loud and rough with him if need be.  You can even growl at him if you want.  (this is what the dominate dog would do in a pack situation to a lesser dog if that lesser dog is misbehaving, and since you are the dominate leader in your "pack", then its up to you to let your dog know who's BOSS and who's not)
See if he will be a bit more accepting with your female after doing this with him.  

As far as your dog changing color, she could actually be a Blue or Silver rather than a Black.  Both the Brown and White colors can have Blue or Silver in the background and though both Blue and Silver pups are born black, they don't change to their Silver or Blue color until around a year or so.  If you would like to send me a picture of your girl, I can take a look at her and see what I think.  Sometimes Browns that have White in their background will get a dusting of white hairs throughout their coat, and since White is a fading color (and Brown also for that matter), Browns with a White background will fade as they age.  If your dog IS a Black dog with White hairs showing through, this would be because Black is a Dominate color and will show up if both dogs have Black in their background.  She will most likely continue to have the white hairs throughout her coat, and she will most likely fade also, because of the Fading gene linked to the White and Brown dogs.

If this is becoming confussing, its because color genetics are almost impossible to figure out even if you know the colors of the dogs in your dogs background.
You can send me a pic to my e-mail:  MsTopkdog@yahoo.com  

If you have other questions for me, please feel free to ask me.  

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim