2nd dog is trouble

You did a nice thing taking this second dog into your home and you are on the right track looking for ways to train it. That's great. There's a big difference between an 8 year old dog and a 1 year old dog, as you are seeing. One thing to keep in mindtime is on your sidethe one year old will mature.

One thing that I would recommend if you aren't doing it already, is be sure to get the new dog out for a long walk every day. Take her by herself so you can work on bonding and training on your walks. Walking will help her burn more energy and also give you time to exert some control over her. Let your kids help with the walks too.

Do you allow her in the house? If so, teach her to sit at the door before you open the door. Work on teaching her to sit for a treat, or sit for her food bowl before you put it down. When she gets good at "sit", teach her "down". Just like kids, dogs crave rules and need discipline. Some dogs more than others.

A squirt bottle is my favorite discipline method when my dogs get wild or are barking too much. Just give her a squirt when you say "no". It provides a nice way to get their attention.

Its good that you separated the dogs at meal time. It sounds like the new dog has no self-control. She sounds like the previous owner never did much with her and she is craving some discipline and attention. She really needs training. Could you take a training class in addition to reading sit/stay/fetch? Training classes are great to help you see how to do the exercises and teach the dog to control herself better.

Is she spayed? If not, by age 1 she needs to be fixed. This could help to calm her down a bit too.

My dog Maggie was a pretty wild puppy, but she is 16 months old now and after 2 training classes, she is a much calmer dog. I expect as she ages, she will calm down more and more as long as I keep up with her training and discipline.

Good Luck--Give her time, love and discipline and you'll end up with a great dog.

Hi paulab and Maggiesmom1;

In addition to all the good advice from Maggiesmom1, I would like to throw in my 2 cents:

Make sure your 8 yrs old lab gets everything first, meals, treats, walks, any attention, before the new dog. The new dog needs to respect the old one just because she is the one that was added to the already established family.

Some people say "Let the dogs figure out which is the Alpha" but I strongly feel that the respected owner can manupulate the pecking order and it would be the best for your older dog, especially if the new dog will grow into a bigger dog.

I have been doing this with my 5 dogs (2 of them already died so only 3 now) and I have been adding new dogs and foster dogs without any problems among the pack so far.

As Maggiesmom1 said taking the younger dog to a training class is a great idea for both discipline and bonding.

Good luck