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Doggy Introductions
We currently have a 10 month old male lab named Morgan and are in the process of adopting another dog. The one we have our sights set on is a 4 year old female golden lab who is the sweetest thing ever! She was rescued from a kill shelter by our local lab rescue and is getting over kennel cough. She is not spayed yet (but will be before we take her home) and she is pretty shy. They're not sure what her history is, but I'm thinking she may have had some abuse. She seems a little weary of men.
Because of this I'm a little worried that Morgan, being a 10 month old puppy, might be a bit much for her right of the bat. He's a very well trained dog and he listens great, but he's still a puppy so he has his spaz moments. He does well with not jumping but he can be pretty in your face when it comes to new people/dogs/cats/whatever. lol Is there anything in particular I should do or watch for when the 2 meet?
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I just want to be the only girl, you love all your life.
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Re: Doggy Introductions
The lady at the rescue said that she's normally good with other dogs, but you never know when 2 are going to decide they just don't like each other. lol
We should be able to being Morgan to the rescue with us when we get to see her again which is in about 2 weeks. She's mostly over her kennel cough but they have to wait to spay her until after she's out of heat so it's longer than I would like to wait. I'm impatient.
I've heard mixed responses about keeping them on leash. Some people have told me it will make them nervous so it's best if they are off leash and some have said that it's better to have a little more control over the situation just in case something happens. We may be able to introduce them through the fence first...
1380 board posts
I don't want the whole world.
The sun and moon and all their light.
I just want to be the only girl, you love all your life.
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I know this isn't the same as a puppy and shy adult dog.
One of our greyhounds was extremely shy and nervous when we adopted him. Men freaked him out.He would tremble like he was going to pass out when someone would come over or just knock on the door. It took almost a year for him to take a treat from H. I adopted a really confident female greyhound. She had almost no adjustment problems when I brought her home. She really helped him with his confidence. He started greeting us with her when we would come home. I came home once and she was wearing a cami of mine from the laundry and my bra was in the living room and my shy guy was laying there with a sack of potatoes in front of him. I'm pretty sure she framed him. It wasn't fun coming home to stuff like that, but it meant to me that he wasn't scared to walking around in the home and not just stay in his corner.
I have had two rescues. Both took a little while to acclimate to the new place. I think I would just let the new girl get used to the little guy in small doses. I would definitely keep them separated when you aren't around for a while too.
Not only do you want to keep puppy safe, but you also don't want him to pick up any bad or nervous habits she might have for a while.
This really depends on the dog(s). If the dogs are good on leash, it's ideal to take them for a little walk before meeting. If it were me, I would start with them relatively far apart and gradually get closer until they're essentially walking side-by-side. Head on leash greetings are unnatural for dogs so I'd try not to do that. Once they're around each other and comfortable, you can move to letting them off leash.
Now for us, our dog is not usually a fan of dogs on leash. We've had to come up with an alternative method for introducing her to our fosters. In our case, we still walk both dogs prior to meeting, we just keep them further apart. So we'll be on the other side of the street, for example. We allow them to see each other a bit and then we go to a place that's safe to allow them off leash. We always let our dog go first and let her explore and meet the new dog (while new dog is on leash). After a couple of minutes, we drop the new dog's leash and let them run and play. We keep leashes on the dogs and just let them drag them for a while just in case there's a scuffle that needs to be broken up.
1380 board posts
I don't want the whole world.
The sun and moon and all their light.
I just want to be the only girl, you love all your life.
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