[Help] Current Dog (9 months) obsessing over new Puppy (2.5 months) (x-post from /r/pets)

[daisy3ohio]

Hello reddit,
Recently my fiancee and I got a new puppy (2.5 month old pure bred female Rottweiler, not fixed (yet?)) to be a companion to our current dog (9 month old male pitbull/lab mix, neutered). We've spent the last week and a half keeping them separate by having the young one sleeping in a crate in a closed room while the older dog sleeps in the living room. We also haven't let them play / meet too much, until now. Currently they've had probably a solid day (broken up over a few days) to play and get to know each other. However the older dog keeps following the young puppy around and when we try to separate them he always stares at her. Getting his attention is a challenge and my fiancee is losing patience with him and she believes this isn't normal or healthy. We don't want to have to get rid of one of the dogs but I was wondering if others here experienced something similar? What should we do?
As a note: the older dog has not been aggressive to the puppy at all. He even lets her get near his toys / food bowl without incident. But he can't seem to let her do her own thing.
Thanks for any feedback!

 

[karmel]

@daisy3ohio by getting a new puppy before your first one was an adult, you've set yourself up for littermate syndrome. you need to keep these puppies completely separated most of the time so it doesn't get worse. meals, walks, play time, training sessions, everything must be done separately. they can have supervised time together, which is when you should work on breaking his focus and drawing his attention away from her as much as possible.

 

[larrygeraty]

@karmel Not sure that is the biggest issue here - 6.5 months difference is pretty huge for dogs at this age.

 

[karmel]

@larrygeraty they're both puppies under one year old. littermate syndrome is definitely a concern. puppies don't have to be the same exact age to develop this problem.

 

[larrygeraty]

@karmel I have to disagree here. You may see some things which are similar to what we call littermate syndrome (them getting too close to each other), however it is not the same and certainly wouldn't happen to any extreme like that. There is a reason it is called littermate syndrome, they should be closer than 6.5 months apart for it to occur, this is for sure.

 

[karmel]

@larrygeraty it's called littermate syndrome because it's, obviously, most common with actual littermates. but it can happen between any unrelated puppies, even if they're a few months apart.

 

[larrygeraty]

@karmel I think this is really unlikely to happen, in this case. There is a huge difference in 6.5 months at this age, and so I really do not believe that you'd see littermate syndrome in this case, all things equal. "Same age" is not the same as "both puppies" in this instance. But this is just my opinion from my experience and knowledge about the topic.

 

[justicef]

@larrygeraty I agree with ataraxia that it is a concern. I worry about it with any two dogs that are not out of adolescence yet, 18-22 months depending on the dog.

I do think that the two dogs should get a ton of time together. Why get two dogs that can't play and love each other. I feed, walk, and train separately. The rest of the time they are out together.

 

[daisy3ohio]

@karmel I do plan on keeping them separate for most of the time as they get older until they can both be trusted alone together. I know about littermate syndrome and I want to avoid it. Appreciate the feedback.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@daisy3ohio Well your older dog is still a puppy, new things are exciting, and impulse control is hard. You are not more exciting then a brand new puppy. Do you have an issue with the older puppy wanting to be near the younger one? because that seems like the opposite of a problem. If the issue is the older puppy isn't listening then that is a training issue, and should be pretty easy to fix.