old dog jealous of new!!!!!!!!!!

[hihi709]

my dog is old and i want to get a puppy 4 my birthday but..... i am afraid my dog will get jeolus and do mean things to my new dog do u hve any suggestions on wat i can do?

[Karen]

I moved this to Dog General, where it belongs! How old is the "old dog?" Is he or she an only pet?

[Canis-Lupess]

Dogs don't get jealous. Jealousy as an emotion is perculiar to humans. Other animals simply don't get it.

Obviously, there is the competing over resources which can look like jealousy but it is environmental unlike jealousy. For example, a dog might show these tendancies towards a small child that visits the home he lives in because he is used to being the one to get this and that and all the rest in his own home but if he visits the home of the child, he does not although if he moved into the childs home and the parents started letting the dog have too many privileges, he'd probably start doing the same thing there as well...... Jealousy doesn't work like that.
A human might get jealous of somebody else that gets something they have never had themselves. This doesn't happen with dogs. They only show this when they are used to having something and then that entitlement to have it is threatened by somebody else. Obviously, they don't want to lose what they are used to getting. If they never had it though, they wouldn't show these jealous like behaviours.

When you introduce a puppy to an adult dog, the adult dog might bully the pup somewhat for a couple of days. This might look mean to us but, generally, it is harmless to the pup and they settle down after a while too. The biggest mistake is when the older dog pins the pup down or snaps at it and the owners tell the older dog off. This is where the real problems begin. The older dog is simply establishing his/her rank over the pup and pinning the pup down, snapping at it, growling, snarling, are all ways that the dog gets this message over to the pup. If you stop this, the older dog won't have a chance to do this, will start seeing the pup as more of the threat and is more likely to become even more violent towards it in a desperate attempt to secure their own position in the pecking order.
First meetings should always be supervised closely in case of any serious problems but, otherwise, the humans should butt out and leave them to it.

Puppies are generally more accepted because adult dogs don't generally see them as an immediate threat and they are usually naturally submissive towards the older dog when they meet them.

I remember introducing our Mist to a couple of pups of my dads. I allowed her to bully the pup although she never hurt her. The other one retired to their bed so she left him alone. Still, the little female pup couldn't get enough of our Mist and kept pestering around her no matter how much Mist snapped at her. I stood close by and watched. My dad did go to shout at our Mist but I told him not to.
The next time she met the pups, she was fine and they went on to get along fine as the pups grew up also. In fact, she was the one who often became a mother figure for the pups and most protective over them.

The other main thing to remember is to treat the dogs with regards to their rank so the current dog would need to be treated as higher ranking than the pup by yourselves. Feeding first, fussing first, letting off and putting on lead first, things like that.

I'm sure somebody else will suggest other things I haven't thought of too, lol. :D