[shadow mum]

Hi all,

I have a two year old shep named Shadow. I have only had large dogs for the past 13 yrs or so, and have forgotten how to deal with small breeds.

I am currently dog/house sitting for my neighbors who have a cute Jack Russell girl who is 13 years old. She is a real sweetie. I am going over to the house 2-3 times a day to feed her, let her out and basically give her some companionship for the next two weeks.

Her owners left me her collar and leash so I could take her for a walk if I wanted to. I took her with us when I walked to kids to school today, and she started shaking. It was about -8 C outside. I'm not sure if she was shaking because she was cold or excited.

My questions are these:
1) How cold is too cold for this kind of a dog? (Shadow goes out in all weather and loves it!)

2) Shadow and Jambo have never met each other. It would be much easier for me to go for a walk with my DD holding Jambo and me with Shadow, but I'm not sure how to go about it. If it's not doable, then oh well, guess I'll be getting alot of excersize the next few weeks.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Zoeys mom]

Little dogs especially jack russels with very little hair do get cold easier...thats why you see so many little dogs with their foo foo sweaters on- does jambo have one by any chance? I wouldn't keep him out for more than 15 minutes since I think -8 Celcius is like 18 degrees Fahrenheit which is below freezing? As far as the dogs meeting how is shadow with small dogs, and more importantly how is the jack russel with other dogs. If you don't know I wouldn't chance a meet with someone else's dog just in case. Old dogs don't usually tolerate playful puppies well anyway,lol

You could however, walk with shadow and have someone else walk jambo leashed safely

 

[shadow mum]

Thanks. They left me a collar and leash, but no sweater / coat. I'll have to see if any of my DD's doll clothes will fit, if not, guess I'm off to the store to see what I can find.

Shadow is very excited when he meets new dogs, and the owner's said that Jambo had never really been around any other dogs. Maybe I'll try having my 10yr old DD walk half a block ahead of us on the weekend and see how it goes. If it doesn't work, oh well. Gotta work of that holiday food somehow.

Thanks Zoeys' Mom.

 

[elisabeth_00117]

When Stark's half sister Roxy came to stay with us for 2 weeks this is how we introduced them and honestly, everything was AMAZING from the start.

Copied from another thread I wrote:

I have though long and hard about how I will introduce the two dogs, as they have yet to meet. I plan on having both on leads, in a neutral location (park or bush trail) and having the Roxy walk ahead of us. We will walk like this for a good 10-15 minutes and then I will bring Stark closer and closer so he can get a good smell of her. Then we will pass by and do the same thing with Stark in the lead and Roxy behind us. I then plan on having both dogs walk side by side (one on either side of me but handled by different people) for a good half hour to an hour. After the introduction walk I will circle around to our neutral location and allow them to sniff one another. If all goes well, we will all go back to my apartment. I will walk both dogs into the house keeping a lead on each (but letting it drag - Stark has a traffic tab I can use).

This photo is from an hour after the two met for the first time.

 

[shadow mum]

Thanks Elizabeth. I think that's what I'm going to try, once the weather clears up a bit. It's snowing again. Shadow is going to love it when I get home from work and he gets to go for his middle of the night walk.. I think he's feeling like I'm cheating on him or something because I run out of the house, he can't come, and then I come home smelling of some other woman...LOL

 

[elisabeth_00117]

Hahaha!

 

[shadow mum]

Well, we took both Shadow and Jambo for a walk last night. I had the kids walk about 20ft in front of me with Jambo, while I walked behind with Shadow. All in all it didn't go too badly. Shadow tried to pull alot to get to Jambo, and whined the entire walk. I didn't want to try to get the two of them too close together as I was apprehensive of something going wrong.

I don't think they'll ever be buds, but at least we've found a way to walk both of them so that I don't end up having to go out 4 times a day.

Thanks for all of the advise.