Introducing New Puppy To Your Older Dog.

[suziwong66]

In Four weeks time we bring home our second puppy; a female chocolate labrador retriever. She comes from an established breeder of registered chocolate labbies and is the half sibling of our current boy Wilbur; a 3 year old desexed chocolate labby.

I've been doing a lot of reading about the best way to introduce the two dogs and how to raise them together - Wilbur is an over-friend doggy and i've had to do an enormous amount of work trying to neutralise him in public places as I just followed along the advice that is 'out there' about socialising your dog. As it turned out a very friendly pup with both people and other dogs is better off following neutralisation process while out and about. After the first year of him having a great deal of difficulty self-regulating in public we decided that he would no longer socialise with other dogs and people in public - it's taken a great deal of time and effort but he's pretty good now unless another person or dog approaches into our personal space and then he finds self regulating difficult.

I'd like to hear your experiences on how you've introduced a second puppy to the original dog and how you went about training and developing focus so that both dogs keep focussing on you the handler.

My thoughts are to have puppy in an ex pen with miss21 while she treats puppy for focus. I will at the same time, put Wilbur on-lead and try and desensitise him to puppy by walking him past the ex pen getting closer and closer with each passing - treating him frequently with a very high value treat for eye contact and focus with me.

When both dogs are not centred on each other, I will allow puppy and Wilbur to greet each other through the wire of the ex pen and when/if things are kept calm I will allow them to meet without the wire barrier between them but both of them on leashes. I will be bringing them in and out of the greeting circle and treating them both good behaviour when meeting each other and engaging with their handler (me and miss21).

Have you got any thoughts, suggestions, ideas about my plan. Puppy has been raised in a large litter of chocolate labs and the breeder has about 10 bitches of various ages that puppies have contact with so I don't think she'll be overwhelmed with meeting Wilbur, but i know without some direction, distraction and structure, he will be very very excited to meet her.

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

Sorry, I found your post to be rather confusing. Are you saying that you haven't taken your dog out to meet other people and dogs for a year because he's too difficult to handle?

If that is the case then he's going to be very excited by having another dog around.

I think you need a behaviouralist or training for your first dog before you take on another.

You don't say the reason you are buying a puppy - is it to keep your first dog company because you don't socialise him any more or is it for you?

Edited September 5, 2014 by Her Majesty Dogmad

[Rebanne]

I have always just bought the puppy/s home and took them out to the back yard and then let the adult dog/s outside. Your pup is not going to know Miss 21 or about focusing so I can't see that working. If Wilbur is going to be so excited by having another dog around then I think you need to to have a very good plan, and fences, in place for a long time to keep puppy safe.

Recently I bought home 4, 7 week old pups and did exactly the same. Pups out in back yard, adults let out as well.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Rebanne

[BarbedWire]

When I brought home a puppy, a female and my resident dog was also female, I first introduced them to each other in the street with both on lead. I then brought the puppy into my yard and made a fuss of the older dog who was still on lead, but the pup was now loose. I then took the older dog inside and left the pup alone for about ten minutes. I then let the older dog outside and let them meet while I stayed around. Everything was okay.

Over the following days I made sure I fed them separately always feeding the older dog first and I gave the older dog time with me by herself. I also made sure she could escape the pup when it was hassling her too much by having a high place where the pup could not reach her.

They became best mates.

[tdierikx]

Like Rebanne says, just put pup down in back yard and then let Wilbur out (on lead if you prefer some extra control of him).

Puppies are a hell of a lot more robust than you think... they can take a fair amount of rough play... and you'll probably find that once Wilbur has worn puppy as an ear or face ornament for a while, he won't be as excited about the prospect of playing with puppy all the time.

I wouldn't separate them at all while you are there - start out as you intend for them to live together. Puppy will need to be contained somewhere safe when you can't supervise - if only to stop her eating stuff she shouldn't...

T.

[Rebanne]

Wilbur could be like my Warrior, sh!t scared of the pup though Warrior had 4 to contend with at once. Now he plays beautifully with them and is ever so careful to not put a foot wrong and hurt them accidently.

[Rozzie]

Same as Rebanne.

[Airedaler]

I too agree with Rebanne and others that basically just put them together. I guess in most cases for me it has been a little different as I have usually bred the puppy and so it has just progressed to being one of the pack. This time however, I will be buying a puppy in. My current dog will be 12 when the pup arrives and I am confident that he will be no threat or danger to the pup. I will be introducing them in the yard to get on with their own introductions albeit under supervision. They will not be left alone for a while although will possibly sleep together.

In my experience the longer you take to introduce the two the more issues you are likely to have.

[persephone]

I think you would be better off getting a trainer in to help , if it is going to be a big deal - What you are proposing sounds awfully complicated to me , sorry . Some experienced person who can see Wilbur's behaviour could help you more..

[Aleksandra 157]

I do as Sarsaparilla and introduce on neutral ground,this has always worked for me.Could somebody please tell me the meaning of neutralizing training,I've come across it before,but don't know what it is.Thanks... :)

[The Spotted Devil]

As far as introductions go, it does depend on the dog, pup and circumstances. I just picked up a pup in SA. I had both my dogs with me (we were trialling) so their minds were elsewhere and the pup is pretty bold. In that case I had pup on leash and my dogs off leash so the dogs could get away. Back home now and my adults are more interested in sleeping or going training and pup is pretty full on so times together are limited and supervised and pup alternates between that, outside on her own and inside in the play pen or crate.

In terms of focus, I'm not a fan of focus exercises as a stand alone. I'd rather start on recall games when pup is distracted or teach little tricks, heel position, shaping etc. If I'm not asking the dog to be engaged I'm happy for them to be relaxed or playing. I don't want them to be staring at me all the time. If they won't recall from that situation or engage with me then I would work on building more value for me.

[Maddy]

When we brought the Shitty Whippet home, we had the Idiot Dog to consider and he's very rough and also very excitable. We put him in our bedroom until Shitty Whippet had had a few minutes to sniff around the house and then let the Idiot Dog out. Despite how worried I was that he'd mow her down with his enthusiasm (because he really is an idiot and she was tiny), he was actually gentle and more careful with her than he is with us. In the six months she's been with us, we've had no problems. If anything, Idiot Dog has actually calmed down a lot.

Having a lot of foster dogs, I guess we're kind of used to introducing new dogs (of varying ages) to the ones we already have so that part of things has never been a big deal

Shitty Whippet and her minion, Idiot Dog

[Kajirin]

When I brought Sarge home a couple of months ago, Scout was inside. I brought the pup in, let Scout sniff his butt then put him down. Scout got a bit excited, so put him on a lead. After an hour I let him off and they were fine. I was worried as well that Scout would be a bit rough as he plays hard, but no he was very gentle and didn't even do his 'dooshing' [two front paws together pushing].

The other thing was to let Scout tell the pup off if he did something to him and not tell the older dog off for growling, I'd let Sarge know he was in the wrong instead. Rather the pup learn from warning growls than to suppress and let it fester to where teeth get used to make a point. Pup learnt quickly what he could and couldn't do with no dramas.

[BC Crazy]

Sorry I'm another that found your post very confusing. If you are having trouble controlling Wilbur now I would be getting a trainer in to teach you to help Wilbur learn how to behave himself before bringing No.2 puppy into the mix.

Otherwise all you will end up with is double trouble IMHO.

But is you don't have issues with Wilbur I introduced Stella to Sonny on neutral turf at our local park. I was there with Stella & my OH brought Sonny down to the park. I put 12 week old Stella on leash on the ground, then Sonny introduced himself to her. He was fine with her so we went home & I let Sonny into the backyard first then brought Stella out & put her on the ground. They have been Bf's ever since. Sonny is the boss & Stel is fine with that :)

Edited September 6, 2014 by BC Crazy

[Dave73]

What I did with our 9mth old male Ridgeback, bringing in a 8 week old Female GSD I took the GSD to the park my wife walked the RR up and they met there. The RR initially scared the gsd as he was excited but they settled quickly then we walked them back together and once inside she took over as boss and its been that way for the past 6 yrs.

[twodoggies2001]

Is it a good idea to bring such a young pup to the park when it is frequented by so many other dogs?

When we brought our pup home, my older boy was outside and I just put the pup down on the back lawn for the older boy to sniff. Perhaps we were very lucky, but they hit it off from the word go and are still the best of buddies.

[dotdashdot]

Oh I had such a good plan when I had planned Nala's homecoming. Then we didnt get back from Brisbane until 1am and the plan went to s**t. Lol. Put her in her pen, she met Cleo straight away in the house and then we slept for 5 hours. We kept Nala inside for that day, with Cleo on lead the rest of thr time.

Nala was such an outgoing girl that it should have been HER on lead! Lol 8 week old pup terrorising a 2 year old....we kept them seperate for a while!

I'd be having your older dog on lead and let pup go to him. That's what I have done in the past when plans did work! Or through an ex pen....thats how Nala met our other dog.

[Ranga]

I can't say I've ever had a problem introducing a new puppy to any of the dogs I've had over the years. Older dogs, yes, be cautious. But any well socialised adult dog will normally accept a puppy without issue :)

[*kirty*]

I just bring them home, have a big intro and that's it. I even do that with adult foster dogs.

[Simply Grand]

SW, I don't think you need to worry too much about Wilbur's excitement with the puppy, he won't need to be neutralized to her as he does with other dogs because they'll be living together so there will naturally be some neutralization/pack mate relationship developing. She'll be super exciting at first of course and they may well love playing together but because they are together all the tome it won't be like seeing a new dog out and about.

I too have just brought each of mine in as a new pup and let them meet the others and it's been fine. With mine size difference wasn't an issue as the older ones are small dogs but with Sneezy foster puppy I still just let her meet Quinn, who was bigger, and there were no issues. Maybe do have Wilbur on lead at first but I suspect a Lab puppy raised around that many other Labs will cope fine :laugh:

As far as focus on you guys rather than just each other, I've had no problem with just doing separate training sessions with each of them (both casually and actual obedience training) and using NILIF all the time with all of them and while they are definitely a strong pack they will still each switch attention back to me when asked.