shelties - old and new

Question
I also posted this for another expert but just found that you are a expert sheltie person!  

We have been a two sheltie dog family for 10 years -  lost our beloved 15
year old sheltie 6 months ago (female spayed) and have a remaining 10 year old
sheltie (male neutered rescue obtained at 7 months).   We recently added a male
sheltie, 11 weeks old.   It has been almost two weeks, and I have observed that
the puppy sometimes doesn't know when to back off and the older dog snarls and snaps lightly and
turns on him by chasing him off -- he has not bitten.  We watch carefully as we have read that you need to let the older one subordinate, but a couple times the puppy just would not let up.  When this happens we
take the puppy out of the situation with time out.  The older dog is not the
most sociable in the world with people other than his close family, but does not
start fights.  He and the dog that died got along very well.  he only aggression he shows is to my grad school son who is not home often; when he does come home, the older sheltie becomes territorial in the house. The new puppy and
the older dog will sit together waiting for a snack when I am training a little
bit (commands like "sit), and the older dog has accepted the new dog sleeping
close by but not touching.   I keep them separated when we are out of the house.  
 We both work all day, however, we have my mother in law coming in for an hour or so each day to let them out, etc.
What do I watch for to make sure things are going okay?


Answer
Hi Norma!

Thank you for your kind words.

What I would do is to make sure that the older dog is first in everything-especially attention- as we want the puppy to be in the bottom of the pack order.  The food, toys and sleeping areas need to be separated.  Your older dog will feel secure in his position if you do this, and the younger dog will be more readily acceptable to him.

While training the puppy I would suggest one person taking the older dog for a walk while the other works on basic commands with the puppy.  You can leash train together and the older dog will be a good example for the younger dog.

With regard to the biting and growling: give the older dog "a long leash" on his handling of the pup.  You have already noticed that while it sounds vicious, he really isn't hurting the pup.  He's just trying to put the new puppy in his place.  Time outs are a very good idea on occasion as "grandpa" Sheltie doesn't have the energy of the puppy.  If you see the older dog really get out of hand do jump in.

It sounds to me like you have a good handle on the situation and I'm just confirming it.  Keep up the good work!

'sneezes
Dave