Older Female with 9 month male

[coryrob]

Hello, my family currently has a 10yr female GSD, and we had to put her mother down about a year and a half ago. We have discussed getting another dog lately and said we would at the first of the year. Then all the sudden we found a break, a family in the local neighborhood has a 9 month old male GSD that needs a home. We decided to bring him home and see how they respond. We are noticing that the older female looks like she is depressed. She has dealt with other dogs coming over and even staying a few days with us. We are not sure if this will work out or not; does anyone have any suggestions on what to look for as far as warning signs that this isn't going to work? Or suggestions on making this work? There is no aggression towards each other, there is just indifference. Just doesn't want to have anything to do with him.

[Muneraven]

Hi Coryrob! I'm not a GSD expert but I have a good amount of dog experience. It's interesting to me how much dogs are like people in that they really do have friendships with other dogs that vary in intensity quite a lot. Sometimes they get very close, sometimes not so much. Our 13 year old female GSD mutt-mix has been very good with our new GSD pup and seems happy to have him around. However, our goldendoodle, Gus, was a lot less fond of him. We believe this is because we had a Belgian Malinois mix foster (Brunson) with us for several months and we had to rehome him because he wasn't a dog who was a good fit for us permanently. Gus was very close to that young dog . . .they were close buddies and Gus let him get away with murder, happily being the Belgian's chew toy! He was sad when Brunson left. I don't think he appreciated having a new pup come in.

BUT: He is getting more fond of Jaeger as Jaeger grows up. We just gave them time and made it clear to everyone that Jaeger is PACK and all dogs and cats were expected to jockey around and make room for the new guy.

It is no small thing to have a lifelong companion gone, and your older girl may well be depressed. If the younger dog isn't bullying her or causing trouble, I would suspect that she will adjust over time and may come to appreciate the company.

[coryrob]

Thank you so much for the response, we have decided to keep the puppy. So far it looks like they are getting along and we are hoping they grow on each other as time passes. Thank you again for your input.