Ok I have a 7-8 month old female (Shayla) that seems a little slow growing in the mind.
But to the beginning of the issue, we bred and kept one female and the mother (Shylo) it's now 7-8 months later and we bought a little female Pug she was about 5-6 weeks old and when we brought her in she started nursing on our Shylo and of course Shylo claimed her and got milk ect..

BUT our little 7 month old starting acting out!
She would not come to us or even look at us, she hates the little Pug and is mean to her, and she started sleeping with my mom and won't even come in the bedroom, and she has slept with us the whole 7-8 months lol..

The crazy thing is that she is now bullying her mother around and also trying to nurse on her but she's almost an adult herself and she won't let the little Pug anywhere near Shylo.
If we try to pet or play with Shylo the 7 moth old will attack her and try to stop us then she tries to nurse.

The Pug is not nursing anymore, so I don't understand the jealousy or understand what the issue is or what to do about it.

It seems very crazy to me, never heard of a 7-8 month old almost adult dog trying and wanting to nurse.
She will jump on her like attack her, then tries to get some milk which is not even there anymore.

Are we crazy or is the dog lol?
I've never seen a 7-8 month old try to nurse. She only does this to the mother if we are trying to play with her or the Pug is around.
She has been doing this for 2 months now..
I thought maybe she would give it up and stop but nope, still doing it.
Once she sees that Shylo has no milk she will stop and go lay down..

Any ideas or tips?

Amanda

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3 Chi mixes, all amazing girls!
Shylo/ 3 yrs in April 2012
Shayla/ 7 months old
Bella/ 12 weeks old

How have you been handling the behavior so far? A lot of time the reason things like this continue isn't because of the dogs action; but because of the human's response to it. Are you correcting them (either verbally, shaking can of pennies, etc.) any time one dog tries dominating/attacking the other? It really needs to 'get the point across' to them; as if you try correcting them and they don't pay attention to you, the excited voices can just be encouraging. Basically you need to step up and remind them you are in charge; as it sounds like with all of the chaos that they are all fighting to be on top. This kind of stuff happens when the dogs do not feel that there is a secure leader. Does that make sense? Try searching "Nothing in Life Is Free" training methods and that should help you establish your spot as pack leader.

And I feel so bad for the pug, why do you have her so young? Orphan I'm assuming?? In my state it's illegal to sell a pup under 8 weeks, thank goodness as some people were trying to get rid of them as early as 6 weeks. O_O That's a crucial time that they really should be with their littermates. Especially if she is still trying to nurse; she may have already been weaned to eating solid food but it almost sounds like she was rushed into it. =( Poor girl, what's her story??

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http://www.facebook.com/rescutopia

Hi! Your dog is NOT trying to take over the house. This is a case of resource guarding. For more info and what to do check out this sticky on another group. It will definitely explain it better than I can as well as tell you how best to handle it.

Resource Guarding, causes, prevention and modification

The bottom line is that she sees her mother and you as valuable resources and is trying to guard you from the new dog. Very common and very fixable.

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Michelle and..
Susu, Ginger, Cori, Cinna & Fen say Hi!

Having dogs is like having beautiful innocent children who never grow up.
All the best parts of childhood are right there with wagging tails.

Anyone who ever wondered if I was crazy lost all doubt once they saw me with 5 chihuahuas in clothes!!

We had gotten a kitten that was 7 wks old from the pound, and he would try and nurse off my male dog. Needless to say Frisco was NOT happy, but I called the vet and he said that for some its normal. Though it does sound like behavioral issues too. Maybe a little jealousy also.

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I playing!

Well to be honest it may partly be our fault cause she is our baby. She is very spoiled and babyfied, we always gave in to her and what ever she wanted in the end, we are BIG pushovers. We never ever leave home without her ect.. Then we brought in the Pug and she just totally disowned us!

The Pug only nursed for like 5-6 days then it was over and Shylo's milk dried back up that's when Shayla started acting out and starting fight's with her mother and trying to get milk from her, I laughed at first cause I found it so silly that she is that old and trying to do that but now it's passed funny. She needs to stop.

The last few days she seems to be doing some better at not getting on the new Pug BUT now she just acts all innocent and wags her tails as she sneaks in between us and the other 2 dogs, she kinda nicely moves them out of the way kinda scoots them right over and slips in there..

Also my mistake, I found her papers, we got the Pug/Chi at the pet shop when she was 7 weeks old.

Thanks, checking out that link now!

Oh and as for what we have been doing, well we don't ever hit our pets we just don't believe in it so we just pick Shayla up and set her down in another place, away from Shylo or the Pug.
It is so strange to see, I'll have to record it just make a video I guess. Of how she first jumps on her mother then tries to nurse lol.. I just pick her up shake my head and say (there's no milk for you there silly girl) and her poor mom just thinks she nuts, mom is playing back with her when Shayla is acting being mean I think!

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3 Chi mixes, all amazing girls!
Shylo/ 3 yrs in April 2012
Shayla/ 7 months old
Bella/ 12 weeks old

I agree this sounds like resource guarding to me. That link as well as a google search of "resource guarding" should give you a lot of ideas about how to correct your behavior.

We all love our dogs and like to baby them, unfortunately problems happen when we baby our dogs in a way that makes them think they own us. I agree though, never hit your dogs (yelling isn't much help either)! But correcting problem behavior isn't mean, it actually makes for a happier dog.

Good luck!

That link sounds a little bit like what she is doing, but it talks about the behavior with clothes, food dishes, toys, ect..
Does really talk about RG her mother or us lol..

She don't fight over food or toys, def. doesn't chew on objects she shouldn't.
She really doesn't try to claim or control anything but us petting her mother and her trying to nurse.. Humm..

Thank you..

Yeah I know we shouldn't give in to alot of stuff and need to stop babying her on the matter. maybe it's time to bring in the kennel..

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3 Chi mixes, all amazing girls!
Shylo/ 3 yrs in April 2012
Shayla/ 7 months old
Bella/ 12 weeks old

A dog can resource guard anything, people, places or things (I was the resource being guarded by a foster dog for a while at our house). Food motivated dogs would be more prone to guard food, "lap dogs" would be more prone to guard people etc... But I am sure all kinds of resource guarding can be seen with all kinds of dogs.

It sounds like you are on the right track though. Good luck making peace in your household- that seems to be a constant struggle with dog owners everywhere