Visiting dog

[loverocksalot]

So I have to ask about a few things. I babysit my moms dog at leas once a week. She stays home but on nice days I bring her to my house for a couple of hours.

Rocky is learning to play with her. He likes to play chase and keep away but does not like bitey play with dogs. He also will shy away from a bossy dog.
Well Aura basically has kicked him off his own deck. She barks at him alot he rarely barks.
He finally tried barking at her when she is on the deck. I know this bark and it is more directed at me or my mom when she is here. It says Im stuck I want her off the deck.
When it does not work he gets her to chase him which ultimately gets her off the deck.
Last week though he seemed to have learned to try what she does. He pathetically showed his teeth more like a smile and tried to get out a scary bark.
So my question is do I let him tell her you cant talk to me like that at my house?
This is the closest I have ever seen him stick up for him self.
He has though body slammed her off of me when she was jumping and nipping and he has done the same for my son.
I really know nothing about multi dog behavior other than my dads dogs who allow Rocky to take his frisbee and keep the Frisbee away to a point but they are so bossy over him he does not even try to snark. He will go off and be alone. Where Aura will go back at him when he is laying down. However last week he also realized if I just lay here and pretend to be sleeping she goes away. Where before he would lay there and if she got close he would take off and get chased. He is excellent at this game avoiding her every mouthy snap. It is actually most interesting to watch he spins in all directions turns the other way when least expected. I will try to get it on video today. Sorry for running on, its just that I am not sure if they are always playing. Should I be letting him tell her off? He seems to be doing it very respectfully and honestly I think she deserves to be told off. She is too in your face for me. I tell you it is nice to send her home when I have had enough of her. today I am bringing her crate up this way I can put her in while I need to turn my back. This way if I am busy I don't have to bring her right home.

[tank]

When Gauge first came home to our house we had the same problem with him and Lucy. He was younger and a SUPER bossy dog. She was not at all. We let her defend herself and show him that this is her space and he couldn't boss her around. Well now Lucy is an extremely bossy dog and I really regret doing this. Not like I think that will necessarily happen to Rocky. I just wanted to give you a similar situation where it went wrong. If I could go back in time I would have probably been putting Gauge in time out when he started acting bossy instead of just letting them deal with it the way they did. They never fought but we would praise Lucy for sticking up for herself and tell Gauge no when he was pushing her around. We were just really scared of Gauge becoming even MORE bossy than he already was. I think things turned out this way because Lucy was still pretty young (about one) and impressionable when we were dealing with this issue and Gauge was owned by my roommate who knew nothing about dogs and I was pretty upset about my dog always getting picked on by a newcomer.

If he doesn't seem to be picking up any negative behaviors I might let him keep letting her know he's boss. But if he does or they seem like they are clashing too much I would put your moms dog in time out when she starts acting a fool towards him. Good luck.

[bluetrees]

I agree that putting her in "time out" for being obnoxious is a good thing. By that, I mean, maybe make her leave the deck if she starts excessively barking at Rocky or put her inside so she realized that type of behavior is not positively enforced.

Good luck! She sounds like a handful!