Introducing Puppies To Other Family Dogs

[poodlesrule]

Just wondering how others manage introducing other family dogs to a new litter of puppies? Do you keep them all seperated for the first couple of weeks or longer? I would be interested to know, as I have another neutered bitch and neutered dog at home and they all sleep together in my room. I plan to set up the whelping box in there and will keep the other two away from her, but am not sure if this will make it harder when they then have to deal with a heap of puppies.

This will be the first litter for this bitch and I don't want to stress her any more than is necessary. My desexed bitch has had a litter previously, but there there were only two legged kids around to annoy her.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Paptacular!]

For the first week I kept mum, pups and other adult dogs separate (like yours, a neutered dog and bitch).

For the next week and a bit the pen was moved to the lounge with towels and sheets covering for privacy. At around 3ish weeks of age I would hold a puppy and show the adult dogs when they were calm. They had a little sniff and that was pretty much it.

When the pups were more mobile the adult dogs were a little freaked out by them.

[Christina]

I keep all other dogs away from pups until they are about 5 weeks old & eating some food. Mums are usually really protective when nursing. I do hold pups & take them, one at a time, to see the other dogs in a seperate room at about 4 weeks just so they know what is there, what the little noises are & why the girls are not mixing with them. Do it with the cats too.

Then they are allowed to be near outside the puppy pen at the 5 weeks or so. If they are not good, get over excited etc, no nastiness in mine,I take them away. I also don't let adult dogs that are not mums run with the pups. My breed is small & its so easy to have an accident just playing, so mixing is done but is supervised.

Running a pup on or getting a new one in I also do not leave unsupervised until they are at least 6 months old.

May sound over cautious but too late after an accident.

[Miss Danni]

We keep the other dogs away from the pups for the first 3 weeks, although when Mum is on a toilet break, they may get a quick sneak peek into the whelping box before that.

At about 3 weeks, the pups join us at night in the TV room in a puppy pen. Adult dogs can come in a couple at a time, see the pups but not touch them, and they usually have a sniff and then go and lay down.

When we are weaning pups, we have an adult male that is fabulous with the babies and he becomes their "nanny", looking after them when Mum is separated from them and later on, when they start their outside adventures.

Because they see the pups all the time in the puppy pen, the adults get used to them and most of them aren't that interested when they are allowed to interact directly from about 6 weeks. We do have one bitch that isn't too fussed about getting mobbed, so she doesn't interact with the pups until we only have the ones left that we are keeping.

Our pups are now 12 weeks and pretty much have the run of the house, the adult dogs are fine with them and let them get away with blue murder!

I think that a gradual introduction to your adult dogs, bearing in mind that the happiness of your bitch is paramount, should work well with nice adult dogs.

Good luck with your litter :D

[poodlesrule]

Thanks for the replies. I think it will be a gradual introduction between puppies and other dogs. I don't think I will have any problems. More that I don't want the expectant mum to freak out and leave them for me to look after!

Thanks for the kind wishes for the litter.