new puppy problem

[lulu]

 Ive had my new great dane/lab puppy home for a couple days now and for the most part he is doing great (pics are on the way, i promise!). he hasnt had any accidents in the house, and hes as sweet as can be. him and my golden retriever seem to be fine together. cooper, my golden, overwhelms him, i think, but he just wants to play and play. my collie mix, sophie seems to be more the problem. she has always gotten along fine with other dogs and has been around a puppy once and was fine. but with the new puppy - i named him Dasher, by the way - sophie seems to be trying to dominate him and Dasher isnt wanting to put up with it. sophie tries to pin him down and she puts her mouth around his neck (not hard enough to make him cry) and Dasher barks and growls at her. sophie is more dominate than my golden but still i wouldnt say she is a very dominate dog. she'll be submissive to other dogs often. so, im not quite sure what is going on. hubby seems totally unconcerned about it but i just want to make sure things start out in a positive way, and that they will grow and be great friends. like cooper and sophie.
so, what do you guys think? does it sound like a problem? should i just let them work it out themself? right now i am scolding both dogs when i feel like they arent acting very nice, but im not sure what i should do. any suggestions would be great.

[lulu]

 Thanks for all the great advice. I will continue to monitor them when they are together to make sure things dont get out of hand, but i will try to let them work things out themselves. i am just hoping that Dasher will not end up trying to be the most dominant and wont try to take sophies place in rank.
I'll let you guys know how things go, thanks again.
Leah

[Lyn]

We had the same thing happen when we brought Lola home. *Pic attached* Bubba was constantly pinning her down by the throat. At first I would step in because I thought he was hurting her. Lola would litterally scream like Bubba was killing her. It sounds and looks horrible, but it's all drama. She was determined not to give in. But If Bubba was a little too harsh then I would step in and seperate them. At first it looked like Bubba was pinning her down for no reason.. but when I watched closly Lola's body language would change and she would stare Bubba down and he in essence took that as a challenge and 'corrected' her.

They still do it to this day and Lola is now almost 10 months old. She is still determined to be alpha over him but his correction are too soft. If he gave her one good snarl that would be the end of that. But he's too much of a pushover.

[enuffpaws]

My female doberman is dominent over every other dog in the house, no matter what size they are. We allowed her to establish herself when the danes were young, and smaller than her, as it was 1. what she wanted and 2. keeps her from getting hurt now that they are twice her size and she is older and more fragile. She will occaisoinally get into the wrestling matches that ensue as play, but when she has had enough a curled lip and curt growl are enough to settle the big boys down. During the process no one was ever really hurt, just a few minor scratches if the boys were slow on the uptake and they now live in comparative harmony.
Stella

[schelmischekitty]

i agree with everyone to let things work themselves out.  we have 5 dogs and each time we've done it the same way.  we want axle to be dominant, so we make sure to feed him first, then everyone else, just like a pack of wolves would do.  also, as long as there is no blood shed we let him "discipline" other dogs that came into our household.  axle is very mature and has never seriously hurt any other dog in his life.  he does however like to lay down on them to assert himself. it will usually work itself out very quickly, i think the longest it took them to straighten things out was 2 weeks.  on another note, though, we do make sure that axle knows that *skin people* are higher than him on the chain of command.  the finished result is we have a very tight dog family, with few problems occasionally, but typically things go very smoothly, and 4 out of 5 dogs can be walked by my 3 y/o son with no hesitation from them on who is in charge.

[lulu]

  Thanks again for everyone's great advice. The last couple days have gone pretty well. All 3 dogs have been playing pretty good together. sophie is still trying to dominate him a lot but as long as she is not hurting him, than i do not intervene. you can tell Dasher loves to play with the big dogs, lol. its so cute to watch them all play. potty training is going EXCELLENT. no accidents in the house. and he is sleeping until 7 am. before he starts whining to go out, then i put him out to potty and then we usually go back to bed for a couple hours. so, yeah, i cant complain too much about that. he is soooo smart. hes doing great with "sit". hes pretty calm most of the time and is such a love.
i know im slow in getting the pics, sorry. but you have to blame my hubby for that because he is the one that has to do it for me, as i am clueless about that kind of stuff, and hes been busy. but i have taken lots of pics of the new pup and all 3 dogs together, so i will try to nag hubby to upload the pics tonight,
 Leah