Dog behavior question.

[Raven]

And I don't want any dirty jokes or inuendos about this!

I have two dogs. One, Gypsy, is a 14 year old black lab/collie mix. She is a wonderful dog. The other is Tinker who is 4 months old. A yellow lab/ standard poodle mix. She is also a wonderful dog.

Gypsy and Tinker have bonded. Tinker follows Gypsy everywhere and does everything Gypsy does. They get along very well.

My question regards the fact the Tinker sits on Gypsy's head (no jokes here!). She backs right up and plunks herself down. Gypsy puts up with this and I can't figure out what the dynamic is here. Anybody know?

[sangh0]

1. My guess - Tinker wants to play

I've seen puppies deliberately annoy an older dog in an attempt to get it to play with him/her

[Langis]

2. My dog does the same thing

I have a 4 year old Pit bull and a 1 year old Mastiff/Lab mix.

The Mastiff started at about 3-4 months just backing up and sitting on the pitbull’s head! Sound like the same thing your Tinker does. I think it's just for attention.

[Blue-Jay]

3. Labs do that sometimes.

I used to have a lab that loved to park his ass on any body part that wasn't moving. My hand, feet, legs, the other dog's head, etc. I really don't know *why* he did it, though. He was kind of a dork.

[bahrbearian]

4. I would guess that Tinker is trying to establish dominance over

Gypsy. Dogs also do that by placing their paws on People and other Dogs.