One of the happiest times for any dog owner is the day they bring their new dog home. It can be a time of great excitement & joy (not to mention a bit of chaos & turmoil thrown in for good measure). Your dogs are likely used to a daily routine and a certain level of attention from you and the other members of the family. The addition of a new dog can change these patterns and upset even the most even-tempered dogs. Often dogs will suddenly exhibit territorial behavior or separation anxiety after the introduction of a new dog. If you take the time to prepare yourself & your current pets you’ll have a smoother, less stressful transition for everyone involved.
Tough Question
First and foremost you need to make sure you are actually ready for another dog. Don’t fall into the trap of listening to your emotions over logic. You need to consider all of the space, time, financial & energy commitments that an additional dog will involve. Be sure to think about not only the immediate burdens but also the continued responsibility throughout the life of the dog. It’s all too easy to get carried away in the excitement of getting a new dog and forget the reality of the long term. There will be more vet bills, sacks of dog food to buy (and carry), hair to vacuum off the carpets & of course poop to scoop. If all of that sounds doable to you then it’s time to make sure your pack is as ready to accept a new companion into the fold as you are.
A Solid Pack Foundation
The experience of bringing home a new dog will go far smoother if you’ve taken the time to build your dogs into a solid pack foundation. If you aren’t already using NILIF start using it as far in advance of bringing home the new dog as possible. You’ll especially want to focus on walking, dinnertime & door/greeting behaviors. On your daily walks start limiting urine marking to a few select stops & if you already have more than one dog encourage combined stops. You should also enforce sits at all stops and down/stay at all extended stops. Dinnertime and guests at the door should also be a chance to run your dogs through any commands you choose. By applying a sit, down, rollover etc. (never use a begging posture as a dinnertime command) you are cementing in your dog that you are top dog and nothing comes to them without your say so. During this time you should also use the power of NILIF to uber-socialize your dogs. Enforce sits and polite behavior at any meet & sniffs with other dogs and calm behavior at dog parks. You are now taking full charge and filling the shoes of the alpha dog role, lessening the chance that there will be hierarchy struggles once a new dog arrives.
Build Up From There
With the proper preparation your dogs should now be following you in your new leadership role and be fully accepting of all friendly dogs and humans you present to them. All of the hard work you put in will now pay off with a well balanced dog that will be able to handle the stresses of a new dog’s arrival. Moving forward the key is get all the dogs active together. They should all be going on walks, playing, eating & sleeping together. Use the power you have as the pack leader to quell any puppy uprisings and help them form friendships.
I’ll be covering additional tips and techniques for introducing a new dog to the home in a future article. I would go on in more length now but I think I’ll go take a hike in the woods with G.O.D., Kilroy & their new packmate Yolanda.
17 responses so far ↓
1 Donna // Aug 26, 2007 at 1:52 pm
We recently introduced a new dog into our home. We have a 4 year old male and a 2 year old female. They get along great. The new dog is a 3 year old female. We are now having a issue with one of the females urinating in traffic areas on the carpet in various rooms. Not sure which one it is and don’t know what do do about it. Do you have any suggestions?
2 Seuss // Aug 31, 2007 at 12:42 am
Donna,
First and foremost you must devise a way to determine which dog is the culprit. A little extra supervision combined with some segregated confinement when you can’t be there to supervise should do the trick. In any event if both females were solidly housebroken before the introduction then whoever is marking is likely doing it as a result of stress. Usually introductions become stressful when the dog is confused as to their place in the pack hierarchy. I would tighten up your pack structure by fully utilizing the NILIF program as well as making sure you are treating all 3 dogs equally. You are the pack leader. Make sure you instill that.
Hope that helps, let me know if you have more questions. I’ll cover housebreaking issues and more on new dog introductions in future posts. Stay tuned in. :)
3 Mary Beth // Sep 8, 2007 at 11:46 pm
I am dog sitting an 18 month old golden female - Rosie. I have 2 mixes, 6 year old MN (Bruno)and 4 year FS (Cleo). Bruno & Rosie get on great but Cleo has some major aggression toward Rosie. Rosie will be with us for 2 weeks. what have I done? What can/should I do?
4 Seuss // Sep 11, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Mary Beth,
Take the 2 ladies for a walk. If you can’t handle them solo with Cleo being too focused on Rosie then enlist a helper. Through out the course of the walk slowly get them closer while keeping Cleo calm with vocal control/leash corrections as needed. Once you manage to get them walking right alongside each other Cleo should begin to warm up to Rosie (unless you failed to mention an underlying issue such as her being intact and in her heat cycle currently etc.)
Hope this helps. Keep in touch!
5 Teri // Oct 25, 2007 at 8:21 am
We have recently undergone great canine transition in our home. We have a 3 yr old male lab/hound mix that was raised with a LARGE aggresive male lab that was put down this past summer. After we put our lab down, I purchased (rescued) an australian cattle dog pup (male) from a mennonite farm (keeping and breeding dogs innappropriately) of all places who gets along well with our lab/hound mix…follow so far? 6 weeks max of integration between our 2 dogs, and lo and behold I rescue a badly neglected stray male plott hound who’s never been inside a house–he was in the road and another driver was playing with him but was reluctant to do anything so I took him and quarantined him from my other dogs until I got him to the vet. The plott is very smart and somewhat ignores the other dogs but is either friendly or neutral–sometimes even playful with the others. And he has to gain 15 pounds before I can get him neutered, the pup has 2 months to go before neutration, the hound/lab mix is neutered. My questions are these: At this point, the new dog, who is also the largest seemed more submissuve until this point, he now really growls at the puppy or dog if they are irritating him near food or being too playful. He also was not ‘licky’ but now as soon as we sit down, he comes over and is all licky and chompy–can that be stopped? Also, walking multiple dogs is tricky, is there a leash solution? Sorry this was so long!
6 Mary Beth // Jan 4, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Thank you to everyone. The dogs got on great. My niece brought her 3 for Thanksgiving and all 5 had a good time. I am now thinking of fostering on occasion as well as dog sitting Rosie. Thanks for your advice.
7 Rhys // Feb 5, 2008 at 10:14 am
We have a 16 month female Lab, and are looking to introduce another female lab at 10 weeks to our household. What advice could you give me when introducing them together and sleeping arrangements.
Also at the moment we feed our dog 2 large meals a day, and when the new pup arrives we will be feeding her 4 times a day, how do we handle meal times?
8 joshua // Feb 19, 2008 at 12:30 am
i have a 5 year old black lab and he is the most loving, loveable dog. i just recently brought home a 9 week old yellow lab. my black lab is a little resntful and has become aggressive during feeding time which is a brand new emotion from him. how do i get a harmoneous pack?
9 Joy // Mar 2, 2008 at 10:16 pm
We just brought a 14-mo. spayed female Sheltie into our home to live with our 2-yr spayed female Sheltie. Our older Sheltie has always been friendly and playful with other dogs but will not play with our new dog. The only time they are ok together is when I walk them. I am having to keep them seperated because Abby will attack Skye (new dog) with no provocation (that I can see). I am keeping them apart unless I am with them, and using leashes to maintain control. I feed them separately, and am trying to give them plenty of attention one-on-one. What else should I do? Thanks.
10 danielle // Apr 27, 2008 at 5:44 pm
hi, i’m looking into rehoming a akita who is 3 years old. I already have one who is 14 months old and for the breed is very well behaved and socialises well with others. today i took her to meet the new dog… but on arrival i was prepared for him not to like her…. more like the other way round. after sometime she started to calm down. i wanting your advise on the next meetings at the animal home ( doing introductions to each other first) on how to get them to know each other without them wanting to kill each other..also if everything does go well how do i introduce him to the new home.. i was thinking of putting them in the back yard together when he first comes home so they can walk in at the same time? Thank you very much
11 Samantha // May 26, 2008 at 11:41 am
Hi, i already have 2 dalmations one called Nikki she is 5 and the other called Jay he is 4, my parents have said yes to me getting my own puppy but they are worried that our other 2 dogs will attack iot as they are not really dog friendly Nikki took to Jay when we got him as a puppy but know they are older i dont know how they are going to react. I do not know what to do as i do not wont to get a puppy if its only going to get hurt but i have been thinking about this for many years know.
how would i go about getting my dogs know to get along with a little puppy?
how would i get them ready for a new member of our house joining them?
Please could you email me back letting me know how i would go about this
Thank you vary much
Samantha
12 Leslie // Jun 25, 2008 at 9:27 pm
We have a docile 8 year old female Brittany. 4 years ago we began caring for our next door neighbors male brittany. He was neutered at 6 months old. He has been aggressive with other dogs since he was a puppy and especially agressive to puppies although he has never shown aggression to our female. We are now day caring for a friends female Brittany. We’ve had to muzzle Jake when he visits because he has taken the puppy down twice and doesn’t stop until we pull him off. He continues to growl at the pup whenever he is approached by her. We are walking them all together and spending time with them all together. Is there something more that we can do to make Jake a better yard mate?
13 Jess // Jul 2, 2008 at 7:06 pm
We have a 15 week old Labradoodle pup (male). I was recently offered a Yorkie pup (female) of about the same age. Can this size difference really work? It would work perfectly for us humans, but I want to be sure that the dogs will be ok together. They are both of the same temperament, but of course they are both still babies, so it’s hard to tell. Could this work?
14 Clare Rice // Jul 18, 2008 at 9:12 am
Hey there!
just introduced a new dog - about 2 years old, x collie, ijto a home with an 8 year old lab!
she aint impressed, and will growl/bark about most things! - expecially when the new dog comes within a certain distant.
What to do??
thnk ya xxx
15 Ashley // Aug 4, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Hi i just brought home a 2 month pomeranian. my room mate has a boston terrier. my little one is almost house trained and will go on his pads. but one day i was getting ready for work and the boston terrier lifted his leg and went to the bathroom right in front of me in my room. he has also gone on the pad. i have tried to give both same attention and have punished to boston terrier as much as i can since he is not my dog but he just wont seem to stop peeing only in my room what do i do??
16 Jill // Aug 7, 2008 at 7:01 pm
I have a 4 year old Shih Tzu-Lhasa mix boy (10lbs). I recently brought home a 1 and 1/2 year old (4lb) Maltese boy. My Shi is so mad. He hasn’t lunged or growled or bitten…but he is very stand off-ish and suddenly has a twitch type thing he is doing with his mouth. He is totally housebroken…but now refuses to go “potty outside” now. Any suggestions? He is depressed. He’s my baby. I give him a ton of attention. Why is he so mad?!
17 loren // Aug 11, 2008 at 8:16 pm
The exact thing is happening at my house as with Ashley’s house. I have a two-year old lab and she has been doing really well with both of my roommates. Just last month, one of my roommates got a new dog (7-year old American Eskimo) and now my dog is peeing in my roommate’s room. Only in her room. How do my roommate and I fix this?
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