First here’s our 4 1/2 year old Miniature Aussie, Augie.
Sunday we are bringing home this 8 week old Border Collie Mini Aussie mix, to be named Jersey (my wife a New Jersey Girl).
Breaking news: puppies are cute!
Established dog is contained in kitchen when we are not home. Not currently crated. New pup will start off with getting crate trained both at night of course and when we are not able to closely supervise until housetrained and we are sure about how the dogs do together.
Question 1 - I have a smaller crate for nighttime in our bedroom. Established dog already sleeps in our bedroom, usually in a preferred space under my wife’s nightstand but sometimes on the foot of the bed. Jersey will grow out of that crate within a few months; it is really for housetraining purposes in the first several weeks. But during the day? Should his day crate be in the kitchen with Augie, or in a different space. I think being near another dog while crated might help with any separation anxiety, but I could see the older dog pawing at the crate for the two or so hours no one is home.
Question 2 - We will be getting home Sunday late, well after dark. Advice has been to introduce on neutral ground and a friend has offered his fenced yard for the first introduction. Not sure though about staying long at 9:30 or so at night in the dark. How long for that first introduction on neutral ground? After the initial meet, maybe a relatively neutral area of the house? (Augie is not generally in our basement.) My worries are based mostly on our older dog’s resource guarding aggressiveness (no blood drawn but scary to see) when we attempted dog park.
The current dog is older and bigger, so shouldn’t feel seriously threatened by the new dog, a little jealous maybe like any older sibling might be when the new baby comes home. New dog should act respectfully to an older and bigger dog and should learn their lesson from just one failure in that regard. If that’s not the way they behave you have to keep a close eye on them. Spoil Augie sick with extra treats and everything should work out just fine.
Bringing a puppy home to an adult dog should work out fine, but be prepared for the time when the puppy will want to play with the older dog, and the older dog wants no part of it. The older dog may snap at or chase the puppy, or worse until the puppy learns that the older dog doesn’t want to play 24X7.
The best neutral way for two dogs to meet is on a walk with the whole family. You may not have a place to do this, but if you can find one, do it. To a dog, it is saying “the whole pack is on the move together, and this new guy is part of it.” Smoothens everything.
I was surprised and gratified when when my weird little social misfit Aussie (nine years old) immediately took to my new English Shepherd puppy. They wear each other out playing.
After imagining what I might do under the circumstances you describe, I would opt to take your friend up on having the dogs meet in your friend’s yard, with both dogs leased at first. Their interaction will set the stage but let’s say all goes well. Take them off leash and continue to observe. If no issues, upon returning home, I would bring both dogs in at the same time - leashed. Unleash them - observe - the new dog may want to explore and that’s fine.
For bedtime, I would allow the older dog to sleep wherever it usually does and crate the new dog in the same room. If it’s placed in another room, it will probably whine and cry far longer then you would like and crating it with you may help but be prepared for for a sleepless night.
Whenever I bring a new dog home, I always have a plan and like clockwork, it always changes because every dog has it’s own personality.
We took Duke down to the shelter to meet Sami. They looked at each other, ate dog biscuits, and otherwise ignored each other. Duke was busy nosing around some grass and weeds that were new to him and Sami showed us how he washed his feet in a water bucket. They weren’t fighting so the next day we picked up Sami and brought him home. Duke was immediately alarmed about sharing his house and his yard with Sami, but over the past 2 years they’ve worked out a reasonable arrangement.
The difference here is that Duke was a 2 year old young adult dog we’ve had since he was 6 months old while Sami was already 6 years old and had a bad time for the past several months. Augie at 4-1/2 is a more mature dog and Jersey is a puppy who shouldn’t have accumulated any baggage so it looks like a good situation.
It’s Augie I’m scared about. We get the puppy tonight. Won’t be home until around 9:30.
I was just mowing our front lawn and a couple walked by with a 3 month old mini Aussie pup. I asked if I could bring Augie out to meet it. Augie was so excited it was very hard to get him to do a command before going to say hi (I had to walk farther away first), he wouldn’t stop barking, and as he get close, tail wagging, he snapped at the puppy. Poor pup, not hurt, but scared.
I don’t think having him bark for half an hour in my friend’s yard is either going to work or be a good idea at 10 pm.
This may be a long week of him getting used to the pup and lots of barking until then as they are kept separated and he gets over the novelty. Glad I took some time off work.
Our vet’s welcome new puppy packet sent by email advises a very slow introduction, far enough way to not have much reaction with plenty of positive reinforcers, then inching closer with rewards for calming behaviors immediately.
Then feed in same room at a distance. They advise weeks of a slow patient process as the expectation.
I’m afraid they may know their stuff. They usually do.
I’m sure Augie was filled with all sorts of emotions, some strange dog that was potentially dangerous and in the territory he is responsible for defending and he really, really wants to play with that miniature dog. So that snap is not unusual when dogs meet in that circumstance. You probably feed Augie very healthy dog food so go get some bacon. Dogs love bacon. If you have some weird dog that cares more about some other dog than he does about eating bacon then get some dried beef lung. Dried beef lung is crack for dogs so don’t overdo it. When dogs get delicious treats whenever they are together they will soon become inseparable.
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