Tips for introducing a pup to an older dog?

[purser place]

I'll be picking up Brittany pup in about a month and will need to introduce her to another older dog that I already own. Any tips for making the introduction as stress free as possible to the dogs (and me too)? Both are females. I was told to do the introduction away from the house to eliminate the territorial protection instinct of the older dog. Is that true? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[BigShooter]

Take the older dog with you when you pick up the pup. Let them play & get to know one another before you bring the pup home, or have them meet on neutral turf.

Maintain control, you are the pack leader. Feed them separately. Do not leave them alone unsupervised.

Do an advanced search on this website for "introducing new dog" and review some of the old threads on this subject.

Here is some reference material: http://leerburg.com/pdf/introducingdogs.pdf

Mark

[purser place]

Take the older dog with you when you pick up the pup. Let them play & get to know one another before you bring the pup home, or have them meet on neutral turf.

Maintain control, you are the pack leader. Feed them separately. Do not leave them alone unsupervised.

Do an advanced search on this website for "introducing new dog" and review some of the old threads on this subject.

Here is some reference material: http://leerburg.com/pdf/introducingdogs.pdf

Mark

Thanks Mark. Jeff

[rockllews]

While that Leerburg article provides sound advice, introduction can be as simple as letting the pup settle into the house, be it a day or a week, and keeping them separated. Then, with both on a leash, a helper with the old dog, you with pup, let them greet. Don't correct the older dog if he seems to be overwhelming the pup- they'll figure it out. No biting, though- pay close attention to your older dog's body language and if he starts to get tense, have the helper take him away for a while. If the dog has seen the pup in the house and with you, it will be curious and will want to get the pup a full inspection.

I haven't had problems doing this on our property. You don't want to take pup to a public place like a city park for the introduciton because of the higher parasite/disease risk. If you think your dog will be too terretorial, then go to a friend or family member's house that doesn't have dogs or whose pets are all up to date and healthy.

After they meet, even if it seems okay, don't turn them out together right off the get go. Always supervise them, and if the older one is an inside dog, let them spend time crated near each other, or just on leashes in the house/same room.

Good luck. Hope you post pics.

[ceadmin]

Funny...I am in this situation too. I have a 6 YO Brit female that has the run of the house. I just picked up a new brit female, 8 weeks old last weekend. I went up to the breeders and picked up the pup with the older dog to see how it would go. They seemed to ingnore each other there and in the car ride home to my parents. However, at home, the older one jumps on the furniture or leaves the room when the pup is getting annoying to her (read: all the time). The older female has growled and snapped at the pup when the pup is incisstant the older one play with her but I have never witnessed any biting. It has been approx. a little over a week now and I witnessed the older one playing tug of war with the pup while growling away at her like she didn't want her there, but when the pup released the toy, the older one would just stand around until the pup grabbed it again. Funny! Anyways, I give it another week or so and the two should be good friends, I'm hoping. But I have definately witnessed progress.

[purser place]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm probably going to take the older dog to the breeder's location when I pick up the pup and let them get acquainted there. Not only will it be on neutral ground, the breeder will be there to help if things don't go well. And once I get them home, I'll probably put the pup in a crate and let the older dog walk around the crate. I will of course keep a close eye on them when I eventually let them run free together (which won't be for a while). I could never feed my Vizsla (now passed) and the other dog together, although it was the Vizsla that caused the problems, so I'll be careful about that. It will be about a month before this intro occurs, but I'll give an update when it happens. Hopefully it will be a good report.