Need advice on reducing reactiveness between our puppy and older dog

[denabrooks70]

Hey, everyone!

My SO and I need some help with socializing our two dogs.

About the dogs:

1. A: a 7 year old 40lbs, 20kg, shelter mutt dog, with me since she was 4 years old.
2. F: a new 9 month puppy 9lbs, 4kg , mix between german spitz and shitzuh, with my SO since she was 50 days old.

• Both dogs are female and both have been spayed.
• A had a puppy litter once, F never did. No idea if this is relevant
• A is very chill and rarely barks. She barks mainly when we are walking and other mutt dogs kind-of surprise her (but sometimes they don't have to surprise her);
• F is more alert and prone to be more reactive;
• When we walk around the house, A sometimes follows (specially when going to the kitchen). F follows pretty much everyone, always curious as to what we are doing.
• F has some separation anxiety with my SO, and will almost always lay by the door and whine when my SO leaves the room during the day. This does not happen at night when we go to sleep in our bedroom and they stay in the living room. We think she has learned it is bed time.

What behavior we are trying to curb and need help with?

1. When dog A moves around the house, F follows A, gets reactive and starts barking at her. It almost seems like a "little sibling" reaction of wanting to be nearby the big sister and claiming for attention.
2. Usually, A does not care much, and they never fight, however the barking gets to be a bit too much for both me and my SO. When this happens, A usually lays down and gets her legs up. Sometimes, however (more rare), when F gets too close, A "bites the air" near F. We guess it is her's "I need space".
3. For a while now, this has also started to happen as a kind of jealousy barking. For example: recently A underwent surgery, so we had to give her special care: cleaning wounds, changing bandages, putting on surgical clothes. When we do this, F always follows pretty closely and wants our attention / barks. Even if we pick A up or just call her name, F will come running and almost always the barking follows.
4. F has also started to become a bit more car reactive recently, seeming to be really anxious when we are driving with her in the back seat and barking when she sees another dog through the window or when whe stop the car and she believes we are parking and will soon get her out (like she's impatient and wants to be let out ASAP).

We are aware barking is expected, and that F will grow be more alert, specially due to her breed. We don't mind some of it, however, we are trying to keep it to a minimum.

What we are currently trying to do?

We have implemented some reactiveness reduction training using positive-reinforcement (using treats or sometimes only some special petting). For example:

1. one of us stays with F in her bed, while the other calls for A. If F does not bark, she gets a treat;
2. When feeding, my SO is trying to give separate attention for each. She gets both of them to sit, calls A by name, gives a treat. If B barks, A gets another treat and a F gets a bit of a shush. If F stops barking (or is called by her name), she gets a treat as well. We have been doing this for 5-10min daily for the past week or so.

Any specific advice for us? Even some video recommendation handling these issues, but really focused on the F reacting to dog A is welcome!

Thanks in advance!