A new puppy

[marineangel]

Hi all! We recently bought a German Shepherd and will be getting him hopefully next week when he'll be 8 weeks old. We already have a 16 months old Boxer, i was wondering if you have any advice on how to teach my Boxer to get alone with the new puppy, i'm very scared he will get jealous and tries to hurt the puppy, does anyone have any advice?:dogsmile:

 

[storm22]

introduce them on leads first but your dog is still young enough to love having a playmate, praise him if hes being good and anything you do (feeding, grooming etc) make sure you do it with niko first, he'll still have his alphaship then and not feel discarded

enjoy your doggys

 

[marineangel]

Thanks for the advice Storm22!

 

[splitz831]

We found that when we let them meet with a baby gate between them first they had a chance to calm down (the older dog) before meeting the probably scared puppy. We were told to try not to play with them as much as possible but to make sure you watch carefully. Also, I would suggest letting them have a little leeway on fighting. We originally wouldn't let them fight at all but it just created more tension in the long run. They need to sort out whos on top, even if it changes in a few months.

My puppies were litter mates so were very close when we brought home their brother which is a different breed so we had some pack issues but I'm sure you won't have that. Just remember to most dogs they feel there is only a limited amount of love in your heart and if you bring in another dog it is taking some of their love so give him lots of praise for the things he does that are good and try not to scold him and turn to the new dog with lots of love as if you are replacing him when he's bad. I know people say dogs have short memories but in my experience....they remember a lot!

 

[leema]

My Mac is dog agro on lead. He is generally good off lead - particularly with pups and girl dogs. Clover was a pup and a girl dog. So I thought we had a fighting chance.

Mac stayed with a friend for the week leading up to Clover arriving, so that he didn't associate this house with his territory. (We had just moved in so this was convenient.) We went to the park nearby and let them meet offlead there. Mac was like, "Yeah, whatever, I want to pee on stuff." Clover was like, "It's a border!!" (the only dog breed she had seen and I think the most 'known' thing since coming off a plane.

They've been fine. We didn't leave them unsupervised together for the first week or too, more so for Mac's sanity than anything else. Mac moped for the first week about it and now they play a lot. They are almost always seperated at least for sleep time. I think it's important for the dogs to understand they are individuals and have time apart from one another.

I made my decison based on how I know Mac is... I thought off lead, at park he doesn't know, being boring and not making a scene, was the best bet. No incidents so far!