[matese]

Originally Posted by calismama

Hi everyone!

We brought a new yorkie puppy home a few days before Christmas. She was 8 weeks old at the time. She is healthy, growing like a weed, and very feisty! The problem is Cali (our first yorkie, 4 years old) has still not accepted her. For the first week or two Cali avoided her completely, would not go near anything she had touched, and was standoffish to us as well. She has gotten better in that regard.

Now she will mess with her but it's a lot of jumping at her, barking, biting, etc. Luna (the puppy) of course refuses to let Cali have space most of the time. We take them outside separately because otherwise Cali cannot use the bathroom because Luna jumps all over her, bites her tail as shes pooping, all that fun stuff. Being a puppy the rare times Cali lets her close she gets excited and all in her face so Cali gets fed up and then the growling and barking starts. There is also a lot of jealousy going on that seems similar to human siblings (lol) where when one is getting attention the other is driven mad by it.

The vet assured us this is all normal as older dogs do not appreciate the behaviors of puppies and will get better with time.

Is there anything we can do to help them bond or is this an issue that just works out as the puppy calms down like the vet says? It is quite stressful with all of the constant yapping and growling and snapping. We live in a small place so there is not a lot we can do to separate them, so currently Cali's only solace is being held or jumping up on the furniture where Luna cannot reach but Luna is currently making it her mission in life to figure out how to get up there too!

My puppies finally grew enough to be able to jump up on the sofa, that's when the older one / ones had no choice but to be friends.