Your younger dog is copying the adolescent one, and separate practice is where you start

The older one barks at the window, and now the younger one does too. The older one mugs the counter, and the small one is already trying.

This is not your younger dog being led astray by a difficult older sibling. Both dogs are practising what pays in your house.

What we think is going on

Our reading is that most of this is shared environment rather than imitation. Both dogs are standing in the same kitchen when the van arrives.

Some copying is probably real, and we will not pretend to have a citation for how much. What matters is that the rehearsal is happening at all.

Behaviour change is built with management plus reinforcement. With 2 dogs, management is usually the half that has been skipped.

Split the practice

Both dogs get reward-based practice, which is what is recommended for training and behaviour change. Survey work also associates it with higher reported responsiveness and fewer reported problem behaviours.

1. 1

   Train them separately for the next month. Same room, same skill, 5 minutes each, with the other dog behind a door.

2. 2

   Feed separately, and hand out chews separately, in different rooms or either side of a gate.

3. 3

   Walk them separately at least 3 times a week, so each dog gets a walk where your attention is undivided.

4. 4

   Put a gate at the window or the front door, so neither dog can run the barking routine with company.

Stop the shared rehearsal, then pay the alternative

1. 1

   Work out the 1 routine both dogs run together: the window, the door, the counter or the garden fence.

2. 2

   Manage that route first, with a gate, a closed door or a curtain, for 2 weeks.

3. 3

   Pay each dog separately for the alternative: a mat, a settle, or coming to find you when the van arrives.

4. 4

   Put them back together on that routine only once each dog can do it alone.

The older dog is not the problem

Adolescence is doing plenty of the work here. Nothing the older dog learned has been erased, and this part of the stage is temporary.

Worth saying plainly: your younger dog is not ruined by a few months of copying. Behaviour that has been rehearsed can be rehearsed differently.

Today's version, in one line: gate on the window, and 5 minutes with each dog separately tonight.