How To Introduce A Puppy To An 8-year Old 'first' Dog?

[oceanaussi]

Hi there,

if everything works out I'm getting my Weimaraner puppy (a little boy) in about 3 months time. I've already got an 8-year old Kelpie X GSD bitch (desexed). She was my first dog and is pretty independent - meaning when we go for walks and there're other dogs she needs a lot of encouragement to go and greet them, she rather just has a sniff or fetch the ball. She's well behaved but she doesn't like body contact.

When I'm getting the pup I will pick it up from the airport, take the pup to the vet and while he's examining it, I will get the old girl and then introduce them at the vet's. I had second dogs most of the time, she always got along fine with them but now it's a puppy and things might be different. I have a few weeks off when the pup comes and will work from home most of the time until school holiday finishes, therefore I've got quite a lot of time to be with them.

My plan is the following: I don't want to leave the 2 of them alone unsupervised at all for the first ?? months/weeks. The pup will be crate trained, so I can put it there when required. I would like to do one-on-one time with them as the pup and the old girl have different requirements and I also want to give them the opportunity to have some time for themselves. Ok, that's all a bit hard to explain in writing but I mean it like this:

Walk the puppy and my girl seperatly (different requirements), will teach the puppy to stay home alone as well. Take the puppy to puppy school while leaving the old girl home, therefore taking the old girl to the dog park leaving the puppy home. Once the puppy is older and we will start 'serious' things like obedience/agility ect, I will take the old girl with us so she doesn't feel left out. I don't want them to get jealous of each other, so I'm not sure yet how I do things like feeding ect. Normally I always had older dogs, so I feed them first to show Hera she's below in the pack order. But the Weim pup won't stay a pup forever and I don't want him to nag my old girl either, so maybe then I have to change the pack order?

Maybe it works all better than I imagine (probably depends on the pup to) but I just would like to ask for recommendations and advice as long as I still have time to think about it and prepare everything properly. We have a good routine and we (Hera and I) both like it that way but a litte pup has a big impact on both of us and I would like to do this as smoothly as possible. So thanks for helping us!

[krystle_chino_tira]

Hi,

Oooh a Weimaraner how exciting! Sounds like you've really thought this through and im sure it'll go fine.

i read that when introducing a new puppy to an older one its best to do this away from the home where the existing dog lives. so i think u have the right idea.

we have a chihuahua and had him for about a year when we got ur new puppy who is a staffy, when we introduced them (im naughty) we did it at home (i read that helpful info above too late) chino the chihuahua was really stand offish and didnt know how to take this new 'intruder'. after a while he came around but hes pretty friendly so depends on your older dog i guess. anyways in the first few days we couldnt stay home with them and kept them seperate for a few days (wouldve been longer but the pup screamed so much i thought i was going to have rspca come to my door) so we sorta just left them together but my chihuahua and staffy were about the same size then. they get along great now we have had our staffy for about 3 mnths and now shes 3 times the size of chino.

i try not to influence who is the pack leader and i take turns with them to treat them the same like when patting them i might pat chino first when i come home and other days i'll pat tira (staffy) first, same with feeding and giving them treats when training i just try to alernate and not show favourtisim.

to be honest i havent really noticed any domenering behaviour in either of them and if i do see signs of it i try to interupt it, since tira will be so much bigger i try to keep them on the same level.

Things like walking they do together actully pretty much everything is done together. they seem happy pups so hope ive done a good job.

Hope this helps

Krystle, Chino & Tira