Socialising new puppy with or without existing dog?
These are the situations I envisage : a) leave Inca at home while taking Saxon around to meet people for the first time and feel really bad that Inca gets left at home, b) take Inca with us and Saxon gets all of the attention, meaning Inca gets ignored, or c) take Inca with us and her behaviour when meeting people (which isn't always great  ) will influence how he behaves when meeting peopleI know I'm probably totally over-thinking these situations (its a hobby of mine  ) but I'd really like to know how other people cope with a new puppy and an existing dog in initial introductions/socialisation.. |
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| I can't say for puppies, since my dogs were older when they met for the first time. Asterisk was JUST about to turn a year old when she met Wendel who was 3.5 years old. We were testing to see if Asterisk would accept Wendel into our home. Asterisk was great! She LOVED Wendel immediately. She play bowed and instigated play. Wendel played for all of two minutes and then dumped her for us. Your dogs are going to be cohabitating, I think it would be a good idea to get them used to one another in public. |
| When I got Heart, at 8 weeks old,I was thinking about the same thing. Pearl is very socialized and she loves getting pets from anyone!! MY fear was that Heart would begin to 'depend' on Pearl, ((since she is the alpha and so confident)), that when I finally took Heart by herself, she would be unsure of how to act without taking Pearl's lead, so to speak. Before Heart was 'safe' to go in public, I would take her to friends and relatives houses, just to get her out. After all her shots, I did begin to take both Pearl and Heart together for Heart's moral support. After a couple of times, I did begin to take Heart alone and I did see a change when Pearl wasn't with us. Heart was more alert and somewhat fearful of things, such as trash cans and flower pots, benches and fire plugs... , but with treats and encouragement from me, she was able to overcome her fears.Just my own experience..I am sure you will get many suggestions~~~~  Good luck...can't wait to see baby pictures~~~~ |
| Id recommend trying both ways. He should get used to socializing both with his big brother, and without. It is a good idea to give your new pup some time away from your older dog, so that he doesn't come to relie on Inca too much for his confidence in new situations. We had this happen early on with Bert. Any time something frightened him, or was unfamiliar, he would hide behind (or under ) Abby. So, we started giving him daily one-on one time with one of us, and no Abby. Abby seemed to appreciate to "no puppy" time as well  which she got to spend with the other human . |
| Thanks for the suggestions - I thought second time around would be so much easier.. turns out, not so much ravenmoonart wrote: Any time something frightened him, or was unfamiliar, he would hide behind (or under ) Abby. We've already seen this happen.. but not with Inca (think he's got her sussed as the most submissive dog in the world already) but he does hide behind me or my boyfriend when he's scared or things get a bit too much for him - I don't remember Inca doing that  sheepieshake wrote: When I got Heart, at 8 weeks old,I was thinking about the same thing. Glad I'm not the only one! I hadn't really even thought about it from a confidence point of view, I was just thinking of him not picking up her bad habits * Capt. Obvious Danger wrote: Wendel played for all of two minutes and then dumped her for us.  that's great! It has worked pretty much the same way with us.. Inca appears to love him and will not stop trying to play with him, but he's far more interested in us.. I'd really like to keep it that way!!I think we're going to take him over to someones house on his own this afternoon and see how that goes - I will feel bad for leaving Inca behind but think it will be for the best initially - she really won't leave him alone (I expected it would be the other way around ) so don't think he would get much of a chance to figure things out for himself with her there. |
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