new puppy bites older dog

Question
QUESTION: Hello,

My wife and I have a westie (male - 4 years old) and we take him to the lake
almost every weekend - he loves it.

My sister and her husband just got a springer (male 13 weeks).  They also
bring it to the lake almost every weekend - - and he loves it.

Here's the problem, the springer will bit/nip our westie until the point that
the westie will growl back and tackle it.  Our westie is trained not to bite,
however, it will hold the springer down with it's front paws and bark at it.  
This weekend, it started nipping back at the puppy.  

The puppy will nip and bit our dog in the rear end (especially the tail) and
then our dog reacts.

How can we stop this behavior? or should we let them "work it out"?  

Our westie loves other dogs and plays with puppies/adult dogs/children/
people and never acts out ... but we're afraid that he will learn that it's ok to
bite if we don't fix this issue with the springer ASAP.

Any suggestions?

ANSWER: Hi Nicholas;
The puppy needs to be trained not to aggressively bite your dog.
When he starts to bit and play too rough, he should be scolded and told not to, and restrained.
at home, I put my dogs in time out if they do such a thing.
It works, they only had to be put in time out once, except Max, my little Lhasa. My male Australian shepherd mix took over that puppy when we got him, and raised it like he was it's mother. He wiould take the puppy away and protect it if I even said, no no to the little brat, so the Lhasa learned to do as he pleased woth Rowdy. He didn't try it with the other dogs, but they are 8 and 9 years old now, and Max still bosses Rowdy, so he occasionally needs to go to time out.
I put them in the small bathroom for half an hour, after a real good chewing out.
It is never wise to let them work it out, when one is obviously not learning.
He wants to play, and when he learns that playing too rough and biting will get him restrained so he can't play, he will see the advantage of behaving himself.
Petsmart and Petco and Man's Best Friend have puppy classes.
It would benefit the puppy and it's owners to take him through it.
A badly behaved dog is not a good family comp[anion.
You can't allow a child to hit or bite other children and expect them to work it out. Bad behavior needs to be corrected.
If your dog has started to snap back, and do more then hold the puppy down, then he is getting tired of this stuff, and he may really attack the puppy to put an end to it.
It could turn your dog into a biter, if he has to put up wiuith this out of another dog.
Besides, that puppy needs to learn the proper way to play before he tries that with a dog that will turn on him and possibly kill him.
Charlotte
Charloptte

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION:
Hi Charlotte,  

Thanks for the suggestion.  We'll give that a try this weekend.

I have another question.  Whenever it storms, our westie barks and barks and
barks.  We can't get him to stop and end up putting him in his kennel with a
blanket over it.  This seems to work, but we would really like him to be able
to be out whenever there is thunder.

Any suggestions?

Also, he is obsessed with chipmunks - he goes nuts over them (barking and
barking).  Any suggestions over that one?

Thanks again,
Nicholas

Answer
Hi again Nicholas;
Fear of thunderstorms is very common.
The way I cure it is with massage.
I have been using the Tellington-Touch method of animal massage for years, with great success.
It is very good for a lot of situations esides curing fears.
Go to this site, and read what you can accomplish with these massages, and you can order a video from there to learn to do them properly to get successful results.

  www.lindatellington-jones.com

My English Setter, at 1 year old, and my son's Lab/Boxer mix was terrified by an exceptionally violent thunderstorm.
I massages one and my grand daughter massaged the other. The massage you will learn that starts on the face and you work out to the tips of the ears. We massaged each dog for 5 minutes, and they lay down at our feet and slept through the rest of the storm.
Silky was never afraid of a thunder storm again for her 13 years of life.
It took a couple to a few of massages for some dogs I have used it on.
Massaging also gives them a lot of relief from paiun of Arthritis, post surgery recovery etc, without as much medications.
these massages are fantastic in what you can do with thm.
It will even help you calm that nipping puppy.
Charlotte