Younger shih tzu bullying older Shih Tzu

[Ella31]

Hi all we have a 2 year old female shih tzu (very gentle) and 8 month old shih tzu also female. We've had the 8th month old since she was 8 weeks old.

The 8 month old is tormenting the 2 year old. Jumping on top of her all the time, biting her ears. The 2 year old is quite placid, she does pin her down to discipline her but never shows any aggression.

However tonight the 8 month old jumped on top of her on the couch while she was asleep and I think the 2 year old nipped her as she was terrified, taken unaware.

I isolated the 8 month old straight away and gave out to her. I'm stressed with the 8 month old behaviour. Can anyone give me any advise how to stop the younger dogs behaviour, I'm also heavilly pregnant so struggling a bit.

We have a 2.5 year old and my dad has a 6 month old. On his visits they play for hours jumping on eachother, nipping eachothers ears and tail. But our dog absolutely puts the pup in its place when she needs to.
The pup is just being a playful pup and the quiet dog is just doing its thing.

How did you think your quiet dog would react to a bouncy pup ?

It's not playing. We know what playing is. Our older dog is trying to get away from her. We knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into, but obviously I want proper behavior between them and not for my older dog to become anxious around her.

You need to stop the younger dog doing this by separation if necessary.
If you don't the older dog could end up really disliking your younger dog and then you will have a bigger problem

We're really doubling down now. We give out and put her in time out room if she starts up. Is this right to do?

No, you need to prevent the behaviour in the first place, using stair gates etc as necessary. Spend time with both dogs alone and feed separately.

You need to stop the puppy from behaving like this in the first place - it's really bad manners and if she did it to a dog while out on a walk she could end up with a nasty bite.

If puppy can't behave then she needs to go on a house line or tether to keep her under control. Don't rely on your older dog to tell her off or wait until she's irritated to intervene.

My mum's puppy does this to my dog (2.5 years). She has calmed down a bit now but in the first few weeks or months, she was constantly jumping up and nipping at her ears and mouth/ cheeks. My dog is incredibly patient but it was obviously wearing thin. I ended up either not bringing my dog around as it felt unfair to put her in that situation or popping the puppy on a lead to physically separate them, then lots of praise and treats for doing a sit, down, stay, settle etc - pretty much praising anything that wasn't annoying behaviour. In your position I would focus hard on training not to jump up at the older dog by rewarding positive behaviour and separating them when the little one is too giddy and tired.