Questions about puppies and introductions
 

Hey guys, I got a question. We have a dog and she's calm and friendly, although a "yappy" dog whenever she sees new people or animals. She's never once bit anyone, she's just insanely yappy for the first day the person is over or anytime someone leaves and comes back.

She's a cockapoo(a mutt) that was given to my mother 6 years ago.

My questions are, how do you introduce a puppy to an adult? Would it be a good idea for the first few days, to the first few weeks to keep them in separate sleeping rooms but each day introducing them (our dog in her leash and being held), with some security like a gate to keep them separate but enough to get them used to each others scent? Adding feeding stations close to the gates but a bit of distance to keep them calm.

Our dog has never really been aggressive, and there was a time where our neighbors dog actually dug into our yard(their dog being a pitbull) and attacked her, but she never bit back she just yelped, and still she's seen other dogs and nothing other than just barking/yapping.

Her personality is rather timid, submissive, friendly and sometimes nervous against strangers at the door but mostly calm and collected, and only ever hyper when we're eating (we never trained her not to do that and it didnt bother us).

Anything I should be concerned, anyway to still have another dog and be sure the two could eventually get along?

She's been in places with other dogs, like the vet, petstores, and there's been plenty of smaller dogs as well bigger dogs and she never really does anything other than yap and sniff them.

The house is pretty big enough to keep them separated and have their own owners by their sides for most of the times.

Our sasha is crate trained, house broken(she never does it inside), she knows the commands off, sit, stay, back, and a few others.

Main things in this type of intro/interaction:

-- Keep them separate when you're gone as puppy too small at present
-- Put them both on leashes and walk them near/by each other...
-- If sniffs/walk-by's going well...then let them linger by each other and interact - drop the leashes on the ground if body language of dogs is appropriate
-- If all going well, take off leashes, allow to play
-- Adult may need to put puppy in its place at times, when puppy gets obnoxious (that's okay)
-- If adult getting way too stressed over puppy, then put gate btwn them and give adult some space

By putting puppy in its place it doesn't involve biting right? or what does that entail?

Turns out our dog hasn't had much dog to dog interaction in quite a while so it's why I wanted to be very slow about it. I doubt she'd end up biting but you know you never know.

I always just brought the puppy in and put them down and just watched. I would definitely seperate them when being left alone. Growing up the adult dogs slept on their beds and the pup would sleep in the crate so they were kinda separated at night. We never had issues. I would make sure the puppy doesn't bite your other dog to much, puppy teeth hurt. My prescious Callie would just take what my pup would do to her so I had to occasionally have to tell him to stop. Still do sometimes but he is a year now and doesn't bite like he used to.

Im just afraid of my dog snapping- because while I currently know her personality. An animal is always unpredictable no matter how much you think you know it, just like children can be unpredictable at times. And those "at times" is what I am worried about.

Should I keep a water spray bottle as a deterrent in case fighting starts?

For our current dog when she was teething we would put this thing called sour apple wherever she would gnaw and we would keep frozen teeth-ers(obviously cleaned before stored) and we would let her gnaw on it under supervision it would calm her down for a while. She would however bite the sofa legs, the table, chairs you name it.

She was smart enough to not go near any cables or wires, although most were hidden there were often times one of us would goof up and leave a charger (cellphone) unattended..

I'm a huge fan of using the spray bottle because it doesn't hurt them. All that sounds good. Some dogs like the bitter apple spray so I think they make cherry or something now too. You can also always do a dog play pen hen you can't watch the puppy.

Yeah she might gotten used to the apple spray. But the puppy I am not sure. Is there any other really horrible tasting flavor that would discourage them?

Any other tips?

Just to add to the above suggestions...

I'd also make sure you introduce them to each other outside of your home, on some neutral grounds, like a park or something. And make sure both are leashed and both on the ground (i.e. don't introduce the puppy while you're holding him). If they're okay, take them for a walk. Maybe have two humans, each with one dog.

Once you're home, all the humans walk into the home first and let the two dogs walk in after you.

I think your idea of giving them a slow transition to each other is great. I also kept them separated when I brought home baby Casie.

It's very likely that the first dog will not be happy with the new puppy. There may be some initial jealousy issues, but that will eventually subside, as long as you treat your first dog the same way and always give him more attention.

Then, eventually take them for daily walks together. Train them together. And then separate them when you're away from home.

From my own experience, Scottie took weeks before he was comfortable with Casie being around. He was pretty jealous the first day and refused to even let me touch him! I went through thoughts about whether it was a bad idea to get a second dog, but eventually with consistent training and walks together, they started bonding, and now, they have a routine playtime every night before going to bed.

You really can't take the puppy to a park to introduce them or take them for a walk because the pup wont have all their shots so your looking at picking up things that could make the puppy really sick.

This is true depending on the age of the puppy (so yes, make sure they have all their shots before taking them outside for a walk). In which case, I would consider the OP's backyard, or somewhere else considered as a neutral ground, outside of the home. Perhaps at the location where they are picking up the puppy.

To be honest, I wanted a new addition not just to give the first dog company but also to train it to be my personal "emotional support".. mainly because there are times I have anxiety and I feel it would help a lot.

I would do that with the first dog, but she's super attached to my mother. Yeah she's loyal, but she's kind of like a cat just friendlier than a cat. She comes and goes and sometimes doesn't like to be held.

I thought I could start with my own, while still giving attention to the other one. Because I could personally train it to be more tolerant than the first dog, less yappy, etc.

The dog we have is quite tolerant for a dog, but not enough to be a support dog. She's calm, friendly and submissive- she's never bitten anyone. But she herself has issues I've been trying to work through. She doesn't like being in cars that much. Gets really anxious. She has separation anxiety -- but it's strictly with my mother. If my mother goes out to do errands she always waits by the front door and refuses to do anything else. We have been working on that and made some headway, but we sort of dont push too much on it because she's home 90% of the time.

She's been to several areas and she's never aggressive or anything. She just likes to alert her people whenever someone or something comes by us.

We had originally socialized her as well, but because when we take her out there's almost never anyone else or anyone with a dog she probably hasn't gotten much socializing in recent years.

Where we live it's a ghost town during week days work hours.

Weekends there's tons of little kids which I try to avoid because our little cousin likes to torment her so I figured other kids his age might be like that...

By torment I mean, he stomps on the ground near her to spook her, he chases her, he tugs on her tail. She never bites him but she's clearly stressed when he does so for her sake we never let them meet, and my issue is if we take her out when other children are active they maybe too rough on her.


I was hoping I could make a big change in her life by re-socializing her but finding a way to deter anyone from bothering her like that. He's a lot older now but, he still hasn't changed much since he's still a kid.

As for introducing them in a neutral area. Do you mean when I first bring her home or what?

Probably the backyard would be good. It's fenced and all.... Though that's where sasha has marked so not sure if its 100% neutral. So maybe the front yard but obviously with leashes on.

I honestly don't think its a big deal to just bring the pup in the house and put them down and just watch. I don't honestly really know anyone that does it the other way. Heck we don't even do that when family comes for a week and bring there dogs.

Yeah that makes sense

That's wonderful that you'll be training your puppy to be your emotional support animal. Dogs can be so supportive and loving, and 100% always there for you.

Introducing a puppy to your adult dog can be done in many ways. There are a lot of recommendations out there. After reading enough articles, you'll see recurring suggestions. Introducing them on neutral grounds is one of them. Here are a few references regarding neutral grounds (and other helpful tips):
Bringing home a second dog - Dogtime
https://www.thespruce.com/train-pupp...y-down-2805078
Introducing A New Puppy To Your Resident Dog

Of course, these are only recommendations, which means not everyone chooses to follow them. I tend to err on the side of caution and always do whatever it takes to prevent issues before they happen. You can do what is comfortable for you and what you see fit to your situation. Good luck! Let us know how everything goes. :)