Jealous Cairn

Question
Hello, We have two Cairn Terriers, our oldest girl is 5 years old and our youngest is 2 years old.  When we play with the youngest, the oldest come to play, but growls at the youngest and is very jealous that we are playing and snaps at her.  We just can't play with both in the room.  If we start playing, throwing the ball with the oldest, the youngest...start barking like crazy.  I know it's because she wants to play also..but the oldest is never in the mood to play with her.  As the oldest, we played often with her when she was a pup and continued until the young one arrived.  We tried to play with both...but no game.  The oldest just gets angry and snaps and growls at the old one and want to do the dominance thing..by getting on top of her.  It may just be a losing battle...unsure...what we are doing wrong?

Answer
Pierre -

You're not doing anything wrong. Your older girl is trying to assert her position as "top dog" which she thinks gives her first option on all playing.

There's not really any way I can think of offhand to keep her from doing this other than separating her - like putting her in a crate or on a leash.  Perhaps playing with the younger dog while someone else walks the older dog.

You will need to make a concerted effort to make her feel loved though in order to lessen her need to boss the younger dog around. If she thinks you don't like to play with her anymore, it will make her more upset... so you will need to give her equal time or more.  

If you play with the young one for 10 minutes, you need to immediately spend 10 minutes of alone time with the older one - even if it's not playing. Either take her outside alone or crate the younger one so you can be alone with her.  She needs to feel just as important as she was before the second dog came along.

Good luck !

-Beth