My dog Joey went after Max Questions

My 3 month old puppy Max and my 1 year old dog Joey get along really well, I’ve had Max since he was 6 weeks and they are the best of friends, play really well together and love each other. However last night my roommate and I were sitting on the couch,Max was sitting next to my roommate on the floor and Joey goes up to Max and starts licking his ear, Joey does this to my other dog too and I have to stop him cause it can cause ear infections. So I said No and went and gently pushed Joey back. Next thing I know Joey just goes after Max, Max falls over and Joeys on top of him, Max is screaming and is peeing himself and I grab Joey by the scruff and lift him up and away from Max and put him outside while I checked on Max, he wasn’t hurt just got really scared and Peed all over himself, Joey has never done anything like this before, and there was nothing that started it, no bones, toys, around. I’ve pushed Joey away from my other dog before when he was licking his ears and nothing happened. It was weird. Now they are totally fine and playing and running around.
After this happened last night I remembered something else that happened a week ago. The dogs were outside just sniffing around, none of them were playing, just walking around outside. All of a sudden I heard Max screaming and saw him under the coffee table outside, I thought he hit his head or something, so I go running to him to see what was going on and I use one hand to get him out from under the table because at that point since Max is still screaming the other dogs come to see what’s going on and I’m keeping them away so Joey is the first there so I push him back so I can get to Max and then Joey just gets aggressive all of a sudden. I had to pick Joey up by his scruff one handed so he wouldn’t get to Max and take Joey inside.
Any idea what’s with this random behavior? Joey has never done this before with any other dog, or puppies and they are the best of friends, we just had these two issues this last week. I’m wondering if since Max is getting bigger if it could be a dominant thing on Joeys end? Idk. They all eat together and Joey just sits next to Max while he is eating and waits, no aggression, plays all day everyday and no aggression but then these random two times. I’m stumped and I wanna figure out the issue cause I feel bad for Max and I don’t want this to happen again or escalate.
Sorry this is so long, thanks for any advice!

I’m wondering if it’s simply a puppy changing into adolescence, which in its self comes with many changes and not always good ones.
I can’t offer any advice I’m afraid, but, I’m sure someone will be along to help you.
You must be very stressed with the situation you are in and that is understandable
Philippa