Any strategies for introducing a visitor dog to the resident dogs?

In My Humble Opinion
1

We are planning to dogsit my stepson’s German shepherd for about a week, as we have done before. He’s a sweet, obedient dog, no trouble to look after on his own.

However, we have two rescue Dobies that we got a few months ago. The second day after they came to live with us, the German shepherd came to visit and the lads did not like him at all. Of course, that was a time of upheaval for them and they didn’t know us either.

Now they’re settled in, we’re planning to have Scout visit for a little while this weekend to see if it’s going to be possible for us to dogsit in future. Do you have any tips for reintroducing the dogs to each other that might help prevent bloodshed?

2

It may help to introduce dogs in neutral territory. Bringing another dog into your dogs’ established territory may initially alarm them. Even though they’ve already met it may still help to re-introduce them somewhere away from your property. Hopefully when their cousin comes to your house they’ll see him as a friend. But sometimes it just won’t work out well, dogs have their own personalities, likes, and dislikes.

3

That’s how I do it. I take my dog out to meet my friend walking their toward my place. We meet up about half way. The dogs sniff and dance as they do, then we all walk together to my place. It seems to work quite well.

For the first visit I remove my dog’s bowls and toys to avoid that territorial thing. And when we arrive I usually give them both a treat. Sometimes we then go out and let them run in the yard a bit. When we come back in, everybody is totally cool.

After a few goes with different dogs my dog is totally chill with new dogs coming in his house.

Give it a try! Wishing you Good Luck!

4

Definitely meet somewhere neutral if you can. Meeting on a walk is good, but meeting at a dog park where they can be off leash would be even better. This assumes that none of the dogs are dog aggressive and can be trusted at a dog park generally. Sometimes being on a leash can make the situation worse, because the dogs can’t move freely, and the constriction at the neck adds to the stress. A dog park is a good place for them to meet in a neutral environment where they don’t have that additional issue to work around.

Following the dog park get together, then follow Elbows’ protocol in the home.

5

My suggestion is to NEVER introduce strange dogs inside the home territory of one of them. Only two of the most amiable, boundary-lacking dogs in the world wouldn’t mind this. Neither of the breeds you are dealing with are those dogs.

You will need two people. Introduce strange dogs one at a time (do not gang up on a single dog), on leash, in a neutral (i.e. not the territory of either dog) environment in which you are going someplace. You should all take a long walk together without asking the two dogs to do anything other than walk properly on leash. Do not “introduce” them (leashes make dogs tense).

If this goes well, release the two dogs in a fenced, neutral area. Watch them every single second and stand close to them. Do not engage in conversation, stay totally focused. Educate yourself about dog body language – most people know zero about it. Watch for dominance postures and gestures, anxiety postures and gestures. Intervene BEFORE things escalate, which can be unbelievably rapid, but almost never without warning signs.

To the extent possible, let the dogs work things out with each other without trying to direct anything. Do not talk.

If this goes well, do the same thing with the other one of the pair of Dobes.

Next you can walk the GSD and one of Dobes by your house. Again, no talking, watch the dogs closely. Then around the back and front yards.

If it was me, even if all seems cool, I would never ever let all three dogs loose together even supervised, and I would keep them safely separated inside the house. Inside the house is not just territory, it is a den, a lair, to a dog, and permitting a strange dog to wander about it is too much to ask the majority of dogs, much less dogs actually bred to guard a territory like Dobes.

I own a guardian breed, and like everyone else who works with these in a serious way, I wouldn’t dream of bringing a strange dog home to my pack unless it was a puppy (adult dogs will not hurt puppies no matter how annoying they are, generally speaking). If I had to care for a strange dog, it would be crates and kennels for all. Just too dangerous.

Also watch for marking. Your perfectly housebroken Dobes may feel the need to lift their legs on the furniture with a strange male’s scent floating around there.

6

Oh, that is great. It seems so obvious now that you guys point it out, we’ve got to do this on neutral territory.

7

Echo what others have said about neutral territory, and elbows and Ulfreida’s additional details. I’d like to add emphasis to the suggestion to take them on a long walk together.

I’m part of a group that regularly brings shelter dogs out to walk with our own dogs. People in this groups are experienced in dealing with stressed dogs and reactive or dog-aggressive dogs, and we’re very careful when preparing to walk (that mostly means “we keep the dogs separated by significant distance” and “we watch their body language.”)

Once humans and dogs are walking together, however, a phenomenon I think of as “pack magic” takes effect. The dogs quickly seem to take it for granted we are all doing this thing together, and they seem much more interested in the walk and the smells than in sorting things out with each other. We still don’t let them get too close, but it’s remarkable how much posturing and snarfing and inter-dog nonsense seems to be forgotten.

After a long walk, all but the most distressed or broken dogs seem much more able to be comfortable around each other – it’s like they’re acquaintances now.

I definitely try do this when introducing dogs. I also second the advice on picking up toys and food bowls and other desirable resources.

Good luck – hopefully this is all a (necessary) overabundance of caution and everyone will settle down together eventually.