I’m visiting my parents for a few weeks and I have my very high energy 1.5 year old, 50 lb Australian shepherd staying with me. He won’t leave my parents two 14 year old, <10 lb chihuahuas alone despite them growling at him and giving several other hints that they don’t want to play.

I go on long runs with my dog every morning, take him on a few 30 min walks throughout the day where I let him sniff a lot and work on training him to heel and other commands, he has several toys and treat puzzles that he plays with throughout the day.

This is normally enough. He is very well behaved at my house, in public, and at my friends’ houses, but he is obnoxiously restless around my parents’ dogs. He will pace, pant, and whine the whole time he’s in the same room and I regularly have to stop him from going up to them to sniff right in their face. They are old and not used to other dogs and have indicated several times that they don’t want to engage. My dog is not getting the hint.

Unfortunately, there weren’t many opportunities to socialize him with other dogs inside when he was a puppy because of the pandemic and group classes not being offered, so I’m 100% certain that’s a huge factor. He’s fine around dogs being very close when outside on walks and he usually quickly acclimates to new settings and people very well, but I’ve been here for two weeks and it has not gotten better with these dogs. He’s fine when they’re not in the room. The male chihuahua snapped at him one and he snapped back— it was the first time I’ve EVER seen my dog show his teeth.

I’ve tried exercising him more, giving him chew toys on his bed to relax him, keeping him on leash to make sure he can’t get near, but he’s not getting better and I’m at a loss for what to try next.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Any tips/tricks you could recommend?