Hello! I am brand new to this site and I'm looking for some guidance on getting my lovely Basil to accept our new puppy Pico.
Here's some background....
We got our Yorkie Basil 1.5 years ago at age 7, she was rescued from a puppy mill. She is an amazingly sweet dog and bonded to me instantly. Not super fond of our 8 year old son or my husband, but tolerates them. She has made amazing progress in the time we have had her. She went from being super shy and incredibly hesitant of males, to willingly going up to neighbors and friends (although she prefers blonde females
). I cannot even express how much I adore her and how good of a dog she is. However, because she bonded to me and she's still hesitant around males, my husband and son were a little bummed, my son most of all. He was really excited about getting a dog and he is so respectful of her, but she doesn't play. I'm guessing it's a combination of age and growing up in a cage. She sits with him on the couch sometimes, but that's about the extent of their interaction.
So because of that, my husband has been talking about getting another dog for a while and because Basil is such a good dog he wanted to get another Yorkie. We've been talking about it for a while, but I wanted to wait until our son was older and could take on more responsibility and I also wanted Basil to be with us a few more years to really adjust to life with a family who cares about her.
Well two weeks ago my husband was at the feed store and saw a little male puppy (3 months old). While talking to the owner he learned that she rescued the puppy from a not so great home with three kids under the age of three, that were very rough with the puppy. This woman was looking for a good home for this pup and my husband was an easy target. That day I came home from work with a surprise puppy! Now I will say that I watch those FB videos where boyfriends surprise their girlfriends with puppies and I've always thought "How sweet, what a wonderful surprise" and my husband knows this, so he was very proud! At first I was like WTF how could you not at least call me first, but then he came over and sat in my lap with those sweet eyes and my heart melted. But of course I was instantly concerned about Basil's reaction (plus I didn't have time to research how to best introduce them, etc - it was a lot to take in).
The first three days went great. It was the weekend so we were able to spend lots of time with them both. Basil seemed to be OK with him. She would play a little and then walk away and he would move onto something else. The following Monday we went to work and that night when I came home everything had changed! [[Side note - we do not kennel Basil, after working with our vet and seeing her distress when kenneled we decided to let her have run of the house while we are gone and that has worked wonderfully for us. She's 8 now and sleeps the 5 hours she's home alone. Now of course we could not do this with the puppy. He has his kennel inside a little play pen with a potty pad and our neighbor comes over midday to let them out.]] When I got home my husband informed me that Basil would not come downstairs, he even had to carry her outside to go potty and she would immediately run back to her bed once inside.
Since then, this is what's going on. Anytime Pico sees Basil and is able to get to her, he is all over her. He clearly wants to play and because he's a puppy he doesn't understand that she's not interested and she is not telling him that either. He bites at her ears, legs, and even pulls on her fur. She does nothing but either run back upstairs or jump up on the couch to get away from him, or look to me to "save". She does not growl, nip, yelp, or anything to show him his behavior is not ok. So he keeps at it. I don't think he's being aggressive, his tail is always wagging, but he's clearly winning the "turf war" right now. She does everything possible to get away from him. She wont even come when I call her. I have intervened when he's biting at her, I've also tried letting her figure out, neither of which is working. He just keeps on going until she gets to a location that he cannot reach her. Basil is so withdrawn, she wont even sit by me if he's near me.
Last night we blocked off the kitchen with both of them and my husband and I in there, it's the only place in the house where there's nothing for Basil to jump up on. With nowhere to go Basil finally showed him all her teeth and made a low groan a few times and Pico seemed to understand that he'd gone too far. After about 10 minutes things got a little better. Pico seemed less interested in terrorizing Basil and they both even ate. We did this for two hours and it seemed to work. My husband and I gave both dogs affection, everyone seemed to relax. The rest of the evening even went better than it had been. I was hopeful for this morning but I woke up this morning and back to the same. Basil refused to leave her bed, making me carry her out to potty. She refuses to eat. And I've noticed she wont even look at him. Anytime he's around her, being a pain or not, she doesn't look at him. She will just turn her head and close her eyes.
Any suggestions? Do I need to wait it out? Is Basil just pissed at me? I really don't know what to do. What are we doing wrong?