dominance/aggressive

Question
My husband and I agreed to take in a 6-7 month old German Shepard/lab mix(?) to prevent her from going back to a shelter.  She was found in downtown Chicago taken to Animal Welfare for adoption but the owner was found and she was not adopted.  The person that found her adopted her but could not keep her so now we have the her.  It's been about 2.5 months.  We also have 2 older Goldens, 10 and 11.5 years old.  The puppy will not leave them alone!!  She bites them, jumps on they're backs, barks if they don't pay attention.  They've disciplined her, we've tried separating them, we follow a pecking order with everything but she is relentless.  We've tried all the techniques we learned with the Goldens who are rescues but she isn't getting the idea.  She barks and/or snarls when you tell her no, although she backs up while she does it, and won't come when she's called. She just sits down and stares at you.  I don't know what she went through before we got her.  We think she dug out of her yard and ran away.  She's got scars on her front paws and tries to dig out of our yard.  Any suggestions!  Sorry this is so long but we're all so frustrated!! BTW, she is spayed.  Thanks for any help.

Answer
To be honest, I don't think your situation is something that can be easily remedied through email exchanges.  You may do better consulting a trainer to come and observe the behaviors to determine what is aggression, what is dominance, and what is normal acceptable dog/dog behavior.

My feeling is that the three dogs would be able to work out their relationship themselves, as long as no one is drawing blood.  Your relationship with the puppy, on the other hand, is where I feel a trainer's assistance would be helpful.

Here is some information that may be helpful as a start:
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/PEP.pdf
http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/nilif.pdf
http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/educated-dog.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/PreventingAggression.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/BreakingupDogFights.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/CanineConfrontations.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/MultipleDogs.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/CanMyDogPlay.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/DifficultDog.pdf





To find someone in your area, go to www.apdt.com and do a trainer search.