QuestionQUESTION: I recently brought home a female boxer pup (8 weeks old) to a 31/2 year old yorkie male. My question is how do I get them to get along? She wants to play and he wants nothing to do with her. He either jumps to a higher place to get away from her or snaps and growls I worry about it getting worse since she doesn't give up. Also how do i stop him from marking everything he walks by.
ANSWER: Maggie,
Unfortunately I wish you had asked me about this before you purchased another dog. Your male is not going to play with the boxer puppy right now for a couple of reasons. The first I suspect is because he has been used to having all the attention and now he has to share it with another dog. The other is because in all mammals including humans there is a pecking order. There is always an alpha male (even with all females) and the rest of the animals must learn what their position in the pack is.
What your male is doing is teaching the new puppy that in the pecking order she is on the bottom. That he is the alpha male and she better learn her place. What ever you do, do not scold him for jumping to a higher place or snapping at her. This is how he teaches her. It is also a defensive maneuver on his part so that he can protect himself. Think a couple of months ahead when she is all gangly legs and is much bigger than he is. If she has not learned that she must leave him alone then she could potentially hurt him.
I have a four pound female Yorkie and a Australian Shepherd mix. The Australian Shepherd is below the Yorkie in the pecking order. If the Yorkie wants to eat and the Aust. Shep. is eating all she has to do is walk up to the bowl and growl and the A.S. leaves. It is this way with everything and it is funny to see this little dog boss around a dog that easily weighs 70 pounds more than her.
They may eventually play together but I am leaning toward thinking they probably won't. If he was younger I would be more hopeful. As far as the marking his territory.....there is nothing you can do about it. My son is living with me right now and he has a male Yorkie. We have resorted to keeping a doggie diaper on him because he was ruining my house marking his territory. He has been spayed but that made absolutely no difference. The doggie diapers are really not that much of a hassle and it really saves your furniture and carpets. They come on and off with Velcro so it is fast and easy. You can purchase them at any pet store. We use the reusable ones.
I hope I covered everything and I wish I could have given you better news.
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QUESTION: Thank you for your reply. As far as the doggie diapers go. Did it take a while to train him to wear them? did he try tearing them off of him in the beginning?
Should i scold Lola for insisting and barking and pecking at him. She will do that until he looks at me like " ya see " and then finaly he will snap and i've heard her yelp acouple of times, but no blood so I suppose its a quick warning.
AnswerMaggie,
The doggie diaper I use is the reusable kind. The Velcro band on the diaper is impossible for the dog to rip or tear off. In fact if I don't line it up right and there is Velcro sticking out he will sometimes get stuck to the carpet and I have to rescue him.lol You don't have to train him to wear the diaper you just put it on him and he will eventually get used to it. My male actually stands still for me when I put it on him.
I would scold Lola if she doesn't stop bothering him within a reasonable amount of time. You are correct that if there is no breaking of the skin he is just letting her know that he does not want to be bothered. What you should do is get a toy that Lola likes and when she starts to bother your male redirect her attention to the toy and away from him. You can also do that with rawhide chews or something of that nature.
Remember, you need to make the new puppy mind you. I know she is cute and funny but if you don't take control now you are going to have problems later.
