Redirecting Excitement On Other BC

[MistyMae]

Hey all, 

I added a 1 year old male BC to my home back in August. He is from a rescue and before that was dropped off into a shelter for the classic reasons. 

He is a very friendly guy and pretty much a blank slate with much of his behavior. 

He has, however, been very controlling of my older girl at times. He will shove her with his body and bite her rear end and back legs to get her to play with him or to get her to do what he wants. 

Likewise, the excitement from people walking into the door causes him to redirect onto my older girl and tug on her hind legs/bite her rump. 

Outside, he has run full speed at her and rammed into her in addition to the other things mentioned above. 

Sometimes my girl will just go ahead and play with him. When she does not want to play, she will growl at him, but this entices him to try even harder. And she will simply not reprimand him for this at all. She just looks helplessly at me and waits for me to intervene. 

This behavior is unacceptable, but I have never dealt with anything like this. 

He gets mental and physical stimulation and we have been working on impulse control games. 

Any ideas of what I can do to stop this behavior? I do not like herdy behaviors directed onto other dogs. 

So far, I verbally interrupt him and redirect him to do something else when he does this. I give him down time in a crate away from my girl and I let them outside separately. Sometimes I will tether him to me. These work for management, but I don't know if anyone here has better advice! 

Thank you! 

Edit: He also gives her eye and will stalk if given the opportunity. 

These are not aggression or fear based behaviors. I feel like it is more over-arousal and control based. 

[Shandula]

I personally would just keep doing what you're doing. It sounds like he has a lack of self-control and your girl is too patient to do anything. Our new puppy was a holy terror to our Aussie. She would bite his face, make him yelp, but I've NEVER even heard him growl, so she knew she could push his buttons. We would interrupt her, put her in a crate/ex-pen if she wouldn't leave him alone. Now she is much more respectful of him and other dogs in general. 

Our female BC gave her some very appropriate corrections, so they've never had an issue.... 

[GentleLake]

^^ Yeah, if the other dog won't tell him off, then it's up to you to let him know what the boundaries are. Like anything else, you'll need to be watchful and not let him get away with harassing the older dog. Like any other undesirable behavior, each time he gets away with it it's self rewarding.

I do love the older dogs who will correct this kind of behavior without going overboard, but not all dogs are like that. I firmly believe that if we bring another dog into a dynamic where it's creating stress for the resident dog and basically inappropriately making it an underdog, it's our responsibility to give the established dog some relief. If we don't, the younger bratty dog might well get too big for his britches and get his comeuppance at another time with another dog who won't be so diplomatic.