Integrating 8 month old puppy into household?

[jacki3785]

Hi all. I am hoping again, that you more experienced folks can give me some advice. I do not post often, but read the boards pretty much daily and have learned a lot from ya’ll. Some of you may remember that I posted a few months ago about issues between by SO’s male Doberman and my male GSD. I am pleased to say that they are doing better together – not perfect, but they are much better. We have been working on the obedience and issues of both dogs and I believe we will be asking the trainer that I worked with previously to come work with us in January to help us solve what I believe to be (in my limited experience) some resource guarding (Jas is also going back to class for some more exposure to other dogs). As I’ve mentioned before, Jas is dominant with other dogs and doesn’t have the best manners. I can control him pretty well but there is always room for improvement.

Which leads us to this post…. a change has taken place in my house. My previous posts mentioned my roommate’s older female Golden Retriever. Unfortunately, in early November she was unexpectedly put to sleep- cancer that no on caught in time. I still expect her to be lying in “her” spot, but she’s not. This is the dog Jas came home with from the rescue, the dog who was his best buddy for almost 2 years - he has never had to acclimate to having another dog in our house (that he’s never met before) without her. Bailey was alpah of the house and Jas really followed her.

A couple of weeks ago, my roommate mentioned getting another dog. I, of course, said I had no problem with that, provided that it got along with Jas, as he is the older resident dog now. Well, over the Christmas holiday she called to tell me she found an 8 month old puppy off of Craigslist and had emailed the lady and was probably picking up the puppy yesterday.

So last night about 8:00 my roommate and the new puppy get home. I have Jas on leash in the backyard, as I thought it would be better for them to be in the backyard, rather than the confines of the house for the first meeting. Jas hackled a bit (as he always does when meeting a new dog – I think it’s more of an excitement/arousal sign, not true aggression) but he and the puppy sniffed each other and Jas wagged his tail the whole time – the good wag – slow and low. A couple of times though he kind of lunged and almost ended up on top of the puppy. But I quickly pulled him away and firmly told him “No!” Then I let him go back and sniff the puppy, but pulled him away when it looked like she was getting a little scared (she is so tiny and he looks HUGE next to her). At one point, Jas sniffed her and he just wagged his tail and walked way – like “ok, Mom you put my leash on, I thought we were going for a walk, not to the backyard”. He seemed kind of bored with the whole situation. Then we took them inside, still on leash, and Jas was VERY aware of where she was in the house. He tried to lunge at her when she came up to me to get attention, but I quickly again told him “No!” and the made him sit/stay while I gave her attention. I have to admit, I was very proud of my boy – he held his sit/stay while I was giving this new strange dog attention. Of course, after I gave her attention, I walked back to him and gave him more attention and released him from his stay. Then he went up to her again and tried to nip her ear…tail wagging the whole time…and she shrank away from him. I think he was trying to play with her, but doesn’t know what/how to do and she doesn’t understand that he’s not going to hurt her. (He used to nip Bailey in the ear and that would instantly make her play with him – lively games of chase & wrestling were instigated by this). Puppy understandably was very excited with the new people, but very intimidated and scared of Jas – though a couple of times she did appear to want to play with him, but then because of his size got scared. My roommate told me that she wasn’t exposed to many other dogs.

My questions- I have no idea what his lunging behavior is? It’s almost like he’s trying to pounce on the puppy. He did land on her once but she never yelped but he never got a chance to do anything more. He never growled or showed his teeth. Is he trying to “guard” me? It almost seemed like he was bullying puppy, as much as he was being friendly there was still an “I’m in charge this is my house” attitude – he would sniff her and she would lay down (submissively) and he would continue to stand with his head over her neck – I would pull him away with a firm “No!”.

Any suggestions on the best way to integrate puppy into our house? I want both dogs to be comfortable and I want Jas (as the resident dog) to feel secure in his home and not worry about this new dog, on the other hand I want the puppy to be happy and not scared to death nor have any issues with other dogs b/c of Jas. I have called my trainer to see if she is could come out and help us with the introductions, but I wanted to see if you all could offer any advice in the meantime.

So sorry for the length

[MaggieRoseLee]

I'd say management and vigiliance, the way you are doing is key.

I'd make SUPER sure I was giving both dogs an extreme amount of exercise each day. That way both will be more tired and will be less likely to pester or be irritated. Step in if it looks like it's getting out of hand, but calm and happy behavior is great. Most of the time they can work out most of the stuff on their own. But it's a learning curve that can take time, so you need to be around to make sure it's all safe.

Crates are a great way to have dogs with each other but safe.