kiraloren

Thank you!! That is very helpful. I agree I need to work on making sure they're calm and polite before I greet them. The puppy is especially excited and will throw her weight around to get in close to me. I am going to try letting them outside before petting pup and the couch tips you mentioned. Thank you again

I have a 3 year old Border Collie/German Shepard mix who's very sweet, but is reacting increasingly dominant to our 10 month old Black Lab/German Shepard mix puppy. They're both females, and they generally get along great. They play together and share food, water, toys, and sleeping areas without any issues. We've had the new puppy since she was 8 weeks old, and introduced them in a positive way. We raised the Border Collie since she was 4-5 months old. They are both spayed. However, the issue primarily arises when either I or my boyfriend arrives home or shortly thereafter (within an hour if not at the time of arrival). They're excited to see us, and the Border Collie will nip and dominate and bring down the Black Lab to assert dominance (note that the Black Lab is nearly double her size and weight, but is very submissive to her and doesn't have an aggressive/defensive bone in her body). I will usually try to greet the BC first since she is the older, first dog we had. But even when I give her plenty of attention and then move onto the younger pup, she gets very jealous and will attack her. It's never very severe (no bloodshed or injuries), and whenever I call her name and tell her to stop, she does. But then she'll just try to do it again. On a lesser level, if I'm cuddling on the couch with the Lab puppy and giving her lots of pets and hugs, the BC will notice and get jealous and come over and try to push the Lab out of my lab and get in herself. No aggression here, but very consistent every time I'm giving the Lab attention. Or, she'll "punish" the Lab later after I cuddle her and nip her and bring her down again. I realize that my BC is feeling insecure or threatened, but how can I reassure her?