Adding a 2nd dog/puppy Qs

(Because Cleo, the old lady miniature poodle 'family dog', does not count as a dog).

So, what with adding zepuppeh to the mix this late August/early September, this is the first time we'll actually have two dogs, or dogs that interact anyway (see above fine print). Wesley is nuts about most all other dogs, and especially loves puppies, and does not mind new dogs coming into his house at all, so that's not a problem I don't think (you never know). But I worry that he'll be too rambunctious for a 7-8 week old puppy and be overwhelming when said baby BC first gets home, did you guys keep them apart until the puppy was not as breakable? How did you go about introductions/getting them used to being with each other? How old should puppy be before they can be left alone together? Should I be concerned about the puppy forming attachments with dogs over people? *insert other paranoid questions here*?

Will Wesley develop a complex from not being the baby anymore? :rofl1:

Ahhhhh, this is the one area of puppydom I am actually dorking out about. First-time-dog-owneritis, what can I say.
I JUST WANT THEM TO FALL IN LOVE (but not too much lol), and the puppy to not break a leg/get the shiz scared out of it thanks to Marmalade Moonpie, king of puppy squishing. Cleo and Wesley were just kind of thrown together, and that turned out great; As in she snarks at him every time he walks past. So basically tell me all your soothing stories about adding a puppy and it all turning out fine and dandy, thank you.

And yes, I know this thread is useless without pictures, but you must wait.

I have an almost-19yr old Yorkie mix ..he has to live with my parents or else Penny the puppy would have played him to an (well, I would say early but considering his advanced age...) untimely death.

I have no advice other than if one isn't decrepit, you're probably alright

YAY Puppy. P.S is puppy born yet?

Ok I will just tell you what I plan on doing. I plan on introducing my puppy and Teagan on neutral ground, say outside of our cul-de-sac or in the park, then walking to the house.

I know my two will never be left along together, but you probably will have no issues. So my guess is you can start leaving them alone together once puppy is fully potty trained and does not try and destroy all things. Aka: He has to be 100% trusted to be left alone when you are gone.

When it comes to playing, when things get too rough. I automatically cut in and tell puppy or adult dog that is enough and re-direct them, and if they keep going back for more they get a time out, until they get the point. This worked excellent when we had Mitsu, who was crazy. She learned very fast what was acceptable play and what was not.

Oh and about a complex, they get over it!

Honestly I did very little in the way of managing them when together. I mean, I pretty much said "Well Traveler, here's your sister. Don't bite her head off."

He looked at her with absolute disgust, I played tug with her, he tried to take the tug and leave then discovered that there was a dog at the other end that wasn't coming unattached.

But, Didgie has a very in your face attitude and wasn't intimidated at all by any snark he showed and I know Traveler well enough to know that an snark is pure noise and really he just wanted to crawl into my pocket and get away from the thing.

Overall I don't remember having to manage their play too bad. There were times I would step in but only if I felt it was needed and Traveler is very sensitive to me so he would stop if I asked. Didgie on the other hand thought his face was great for hanging off of and I think the words "DIDGIE! Let go of Traveler! Stop trying to hamstring him! Just LEAVE him alone!" came out of my mouth more than anything else.

But they both slept with me on the bed from the first not on and I didn't do any formal keeping them apart. Just one on one time sometimes throughout the day.
At this point they have the annoying little sister/long suffering but patient older brother act down to a T.

My biggest regret is letting Didgie focus on Traveler when he was playing. It really fed her motion fixation issues and I think I wouldn't have had near as much issue with it had I caught it early on and not allowed for it to be reinforced as much as it was.

I also wish I had done more single dog outings from early on but it was hard for me because I felt guilty leaving Traveler behind but it wasn't fair to Didgie (or Traveler). Still do sometimes but we've got a good system of back and forth going now.

But really it was fine adding Didgie. I had to adjust, Traveler have to learn he couldn't always be the center of my attention but it's been a blast. But boy did I worry, and angst, and fret. It might take awhile but you'll get the right rhythm!

And just because it never fails to crack me up: What Traveler thought of a new puppy in the house.

I didn't really stress or think about it either, and that's with a dog who *doesn't* like dogs coming into her house (although she adores puppies and tolerates a lot from them). I left him in the car while I went into the house to get Meg, we all went for a walk and ran on the green a bit, and came home. Gusto was maybe 6 or 7 weeks at that point; teeny. I never felt the need to manage their interactions or play time at all. They played together great, and when Meg needed to correct him, she did it appropriately.

Now I'm stressed that I should have been more stressed! Ah well, they made it out alive.

In honor of Trav's picture, what Meg thought of having a puppy in the house:

Mia and Summer meshed right away. The biggest thing I remember was that Summer would tattle on Mia when Mia was doing something bad.

I'm a bit more nervous about Nextdog seeing as Nextdog will be bigger (how much bigger to be decided). I figure it won't be much different than the terrier foster though in introducing them and it will just take time. Hopefully it will be a little better because terrier foster was always trying to start stuff. My two don't immediately like bigger dogs but learn to trust them and like them over time. So I imagine the initial meetings will be very supervised but over time I think we can achieve peaceful cohabitation.

I think you just have to get an idea of how they will all interact. When Squash came home, Maisy was a doormat and Pip was an over-correcter. So sometimes I had to run a some interference. But I didn't feel like I was micro-managing, either.

Squashies has always adored her:

I know it's not very good quality, real old photo, but here's a picture of what happened the last time I added a pup to the household who wasn't born here:



Keep an eye to make sure that everything is appropriate, but they should be fine.

When I added Recon I had no troubles. Walked into the house and sat him down and Frag had the look of disgust again and Sir was SOOOO happy to finally have a play mate.

I did and still do limit interactions with each other because I don't allow much playing in my house (because it's so tiny) and I think it definitely helped Recon not to form more of an attachment to Sir (which I would worry about and prevent as much as possible). Lots of crating and rotating until about 6 months.

Whether or not you can leave them alone together totally depends on the dogs. I can leave Recon and Frag along together, Frag and Bella alone together, Sir and Bella alone together... But I can't leave Sir with Frag or Recon and I can't leave Bella with Recon. It's just because of how their personalities mesh together. You'll be able to pick up on that as the pup starts to get a personality.

This is pretty much what I do with all of my foster puppies as well.

This was Lizzie's reaction to Blaze. Omg, she was NOT happy with me that I brought a puppy in the house and no way in hell was she touching that puppy. :rofl1:

Fast forward about eh, a week, and she's zooming around the yard with him and never looked back. They're best friends now and they both get SO happy to see each other when Blaze and I come home from college on weekends.

I, too, didn't do much in the way of managing them. Dogs are really good about sorting things out their own when it comes to current dog/new puppy dynamics. We did alot of management when Lizzie was a puppy and our old Poodle and that relationship was never 100% fine between those two.

You'll all be fine. And I don't see new pup becoming attached to Wesley over you. BC pups desire relationships with people. Don't worry about that.

Now, on to more interesting topics. Let's see. Late August you say? So... PICTURES?!?!?

Welp, when I brought Payton home, I walked into the house carrying Payton in my arms and said "Auggie... I bought you something."

I let Auggie out of his crate and put Payton down and they sniffed each other, then I opened the door and let them both outside.







They ran around together like total terrors and immediately were bros.

Honestly a BC pup will likely not be teeny tiny, or dainty, so I don't think you need to worry that much about size difference and the puppy being breakable. Payton and Auggie were fairly close in size, but they played with toys a lot the first several weeks and lots of chasing, but no wrestling until Payton got bigger. It was not a rule I enforced - it was their game and they chose the method of play. I never had to worry that Auggie was getting too rough and Auggie never got annoyed with Payton and told him to knock it off. It was blissfully perfect. They loved each other. There were some big-brother little-brother antics, but it was funny stuff, nothing serious.

I think most dogs give puppies a Puppy License and it goes off without a hitch, really. I agree that most dogs are quite good at adjusting to things amongst themselves.

Thanks for all the thoughts on it. Probably just fixating on it cause I need to be stressed about something . And Linds, thanks for reminding me about motion reactivity/obsessing, will definitely take preventative measures. The picture of Traveler and Didgie is a riot. Actually, I love all the adorable new puppy w/other dogs photos, haha. Really shows a wide array of reactions.