behavioral issues

Question
I have two dogs:  Cosmo is a 4 year old black lab mix that we obtained from doggie jail when he was 2.  Buster is a pit/chow mix who showed up at our house this past April and never left.  (we did everything we could to find his parents before we decided to keep him).  Cosmo is a sweet, loving big ole baby.  Buster is an agressive player who likes to bite on Cosmo.  I think they are having fun or at least it seems that way.  The problem is that since Buster came to live with us, Cosmo seems depressed at times.  Buster does not like Cosmo to have any of our attention.  He gets in between Cosmo and myself or my husband.  We push him away, but he litterally sighs heavily after we've done that.  We cannot throw sticks to chase anymore as Buster waits for Cosmo to get the stick and then attacks him.  Not in a violent way.  He just won't let him play or have fun.  Buster is also a digger and a runner.   We cannot take them swimming anymore as Buster looks for the perfect opportunity to run.  We have called his name when we do catch him and he just looks at us and keeps running... faster.  He always comes back, but I'm afraid he'll get killed or scare someone half to death.  Buster has dug holes under our fence and has chewed the bottom of a metal fence to squeeze under.

We are not having fun as a family anymore.  We don't raise our voice to Buster when he becomes jealous and we give him all the love we can.  Buster needs constant monitoring and we have to separate the two of them to give them each quality time with ma and pa.

Any suggestions of any kind would be appreciated.

Jenny

Answer
Hi Jenny-

I think it would be a good idea to separate the two for now. Cosmo needs some alone time to remember that he is your baby, and that you love him just the same. When I adopted my new two puppies, I made sure that every day I spent at least an hour of alone time with my three year old who was used to having the house by himself. The puppies would attack him as well whenever he would fetch a stick or ball, and steal it out of his mouth, so I started making sure to play fetch with him away from the puppies.

As for Buster, its time for the "Nothing In Life is Free" program. (This is a little in depth for discussion here. Google search "NILF dog training program" to learn more) He needs some serious obedience training to learn his place in the pack. Once he starts learning where he needs to be with you guys, then you can start introducing him again to Cosmo, and re-establishing the pack order.

It's a hard and annoying process, but if you are consistent and remain driven, it will certainly resolve the issues.

Good luck, and thanks for adopting!