Breed behavior or Territorial?

I hoped I asked that right for this..

So Rudi is turning out to be an excelent dog. The only problem that keeps cropping up is when I call Mary over to me Rudi get "Jealous" and come to stand in infront of me. If I start petting Mary she will "mouth" at her..
I dont want to say bite or nip because its not anything like that, she just kinda wraps her mouth around her..

To correct this I have been making Rudi sit while I pet Mary. If she is good and doesnt start "mouthing" or being pushy I will tell her good girl and pet her. She seems to be getting better about it, but I am not sure if I am correcting it properly. Or is this just a trait of the breed?

Also, I dont think she sleeps. lol
She use to sleep in a crate at night but I just put her a bed beside me. She lays down but is awake when I go to sleep, and when I get up in the middle of the night shes awake, in the same spot just awake. I never see this dog sleep! I give her plenty exersize. She plays with Mary some.
Again is it just a trait of the breed? Being "loyal" or w/e.


She is at my heels where ever I go. I dont mind. I think its cute actually. Is she just like that because shes new and getting to know the house? Or is it the way of the GSD?

One more question..
Why is she so ready to be loyal to someone else? I feel like if someone were to steal her shed just be like ok, well your my new master..
The GSD I previously had someone stole from us. We didnt see him for 3 days. When I found him on our back pourch one morning before I had left for school he was all cut up. He looked so bad we had to take him to the vet where he stayed for a few days. We figured he had to escape something horrible to end up like that..

Another thing I just noticed...

Whenever Mary enters a room or is walking around Rudi will lick her face..
Mary just kinda stands there and lifts her nose up..

it sounds like rudi is either the more dominant dog or establishing it.

i do not like to see the dogs exercise dominance in front of me (since I am the alpha, not the dog, I should be issuing any corrections... also, they do still get away with a lot LOL) so the sit is probably a good way to combat that "jealous" behavior.

as far as the awake thing, GSD are highly responsive, no doubt rudi hears you waking up and is instantly alert.

i can't answer the "loyalty" question, as I don't know Rudi's history. did you rescue her, or what? My dad's dog would die for him, never goes out of eyesight and is instantly responsive to his commands, even at a distance. He rescued her from the pound, she was a stray.

Anyhoo, those are my opinions, for what they are worth.

Thanks!
Ya I got her from a guy off craigslist this past sunday...
He said he was an excop. and was going to use her for protection but hadnt really started in on the training..

What about the face licking>

Annd Ijust noticed shes rubbing on her when she walks by..

the face licking was what i was referring to as the dominant behavior (that and the pushing, although sometimes that is just dogs being overly excited). My most dominant dog has progressed to the point where he cleans the other dogs' ears.

some dogs naturally follow - perhaps rudi has already accepted that you're the boss! Or she's just making sure she knows where you are (she thinks she lost her last owner?).

If she's used to sleeping in the crate, I would continue to do that. Some dogs won't have an off-switch unless they're crated. She may also just be waking up when you wake up.

Face licking is more often seen as a submissive behavior, not a dominant one. Ear cleaning is a sign of affection.

I wouldn't necessarily push her away when Mary comes over, just turn your back on Rudi if Rudi is getting jealous while you pet Mary. Then if she comes over and calmly stands there, then pet and praise for being good. I wouldn't allow the mouthing at all, that's just rude. Mary is top dog because she was there first, at least for now. Once things get settled down, they may switch spots and be ok with it, but DO NOT allow any fighting for position. You are "top dog" here, they don't need to fight. Having two females is always kind of tricky; bitch fights are MEAN and they hold grudges.

Being at your heels is a shepherd/herding dog trait. They're very in-tune to their people and like to see what's going on with you at all times. You've also only had her a few days. It takes at least 2 weeks for any initial bonding to happen and then 4 weeks after that (for a total of 6 weeks) before they really key into the fact that you're the owner/food provider.

I wouldn't say she's being dominate really because of the face licking. That's a submissive gesture. She simply wants the attention and knows she can get some if he gets in your other dog's way. So what i would do is as soon as she starts with the mouthing get up and leave. Go back in a few minutes later. If Rudi does not mouth for say, 5 seconds of you petting Mary then give her attention, repeat. Slowly increase the time she has to be good for before she gets petted. If she starts mouthing at any point you should leave for 30 seconds and then come back. If that does happen after you've been working on it for a bit it may mean you've increased her "be polite for this length of time" too quickly and she's gotten frustrated. So next time don't make her wait so long.
Also work on making Mary's presence positive. If you are in a room with Rudi and Mary walks in start petting Rudi. You can actually practice this if Rudi seems to be too jealous by having someone outside the door with Mary. have you inside with Rudi ignoring him, have the person bring in Mary and start paying a ton of attention to Rudi, then have the person leave with Mary and you stop petting Rudi. Soon he'll learn that Mary is a good thing. If you are not having any problems you might not need to do that though, it's usually for more extreme jealousy.

Great! Thanks guys!

Actually face licking is appeasement behavior. That makes the dog doing the face licking the submissive dog, not the dominate one.

Oooh, great advice Maxy!

And I agree about the submissive licking, I get really really excited when my dog (who used to be terribly dog reactive and still isn't crazy about other dogs) licks another dog's face. I had a trainer friend who taught her dogs to lick her mouth, because that helps establish her "dominance" - I just don't want my dog licking my mouth, gross.

Is it the same with cats LOL?? My cat licks my face all the time, it's annoying sometimes.