getting big puppy to be more gentle with older small dog

[hapixbuni]

it seems as if my pit puppy ozzie who is 13 weeks only gets along with my 10 year old maltese sammy only when theyr alone outside. if i put them inside ozzie is forever tormenting sam. they snarl at each other constantly but never really bite. its almost as if ozzies doing this just to pick on sam cuz hes so much smaller than him. if sam snaps at him he'll back off but come right back. and if we try to interfere it makes things worse. it gets really bad though if sammy starts to run around (he may be 10 but has the hyperness of a puppy), ozzie will grab sams tail while hes running and pull him to a stop. which really hurts sam! im worry he'll unintentionally hurt sammy since hes already twice his weight and bigger than him.

is there any chance as ozzie gets older he'll realize to be more gentle with sam or not? when theyr alone they get along just fine. they share a giant doghouse with no issues. i try not to assert any kind of nervous energy when theyr around and plan to take them both to a trainer soon to take with them about the issues. but is there anything i can do before that?

thanx!

[Nancy]

He sounds like a puppy who wants to play. I had to deal with the same thing. It's probably the age difference. They got along fine but the older dog doesn't "play" anymore so it was annoying her. I ended up getting another younger dog for a playmate. But I've had some in the past who outgrew it.

As you train the puppy, you can set some limits.

[canadianfreespirit]

it's very important never to leave them alone. a rambunctious puppy that outweighs a slower, older dog can do a great deal of damage.
there is also the matter of the 2 of them trying to decide the "pack" heirarchy. you cannot have any effect on that one, I know because I've tried, but it's an instinct, and the dogs will "fight it out" bascially until one is clearly the winner. terriers by nature are dominant dogs, and you have both a maltese (tiny) and pit (very large). I think you can see how this is going to go. I would suggest that you accept it, and try to keep the smaller dog safe. if that means keeping them apart, which it almost certainly will, then you have decisions to make about how you're going to do that. you can barricade rooms, or use crates. just remember that an older maltese is no match for a younger pit, and it will be up to you to prevent tradegy. if you take the pit to obedience training, you might get some very good help from the instructor for your siuation.
I'm not urging you to abuse the pit, I want to make that very clear, but I think that it's important that you handle it with a very firm hand. not all pits are dangerous, everyone knows that, but they don't have that reputation for no reason. let us know how things go, okay?