Puppy Culture Potluck: Ep47 - Introducing Your New Puppy to Your Adult Dog: Looking at the Bigger Picture

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I'm Jane Messineo Lindquist,

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and this is a Puppy Culture
Potluck podcast.

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You bring the topics,

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we bring the conversation.

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Today I'm going to address

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the question that we get probably weekly,

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which is how do I introduce my puppy

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to my existing adult dog or dogs

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in my household?

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This question

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makes me a little nutty
because of the advice

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that's usually flung around in response
to the question.

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Things like - meet on a neutral territory,

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protected contact
through a fence, on leash, off leash.

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I mean, the number one problem
with all this advice is

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it may or may not be good,

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because the first thing you have to know
is who is the adult dog?

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Who is the puppy?

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What are they like?

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Has the adult dog ever played with puppies
before?

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Is the adult dog friendly
or is he reactive?

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Does the adult dog have any resource
guarding from other dogs?

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Does he resource guard food or objects?

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Space? People? You?

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Does the adult dog have barrier
frustration or on leash reactivity?

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If it's a young adult dog

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and that young adult does regularly

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play with other dogs,
what's their play style?

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Are they over the top or are they good at
gauging their interaction

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according to their playmate?

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I'm going to come back to that.

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But let me give you some overriding
principles first.

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We do cover this in Puppy
Culture: The Original Film,

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and also in the puppy course,
With Open Arms.

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But we cover it in the context

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of setting up good socialization sessions
and really,

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you, in intro to another dog, it's
a socialization session,

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so there are certain universals
that I can say, assuming

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that it's a stable, friendly adult dog

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and a stable, well socialized puppy.

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Number one, dogs regulate

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the temperature
of their interactions with space.

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So wherever you do this intro,

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make sure that there's plenty of space
for moving around and retreating.

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Right?

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So not in your living room
where maybe the two dogs

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might break out into play,

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but then one of them
sort of hits their back against the wall

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and then bounces back a little aggressive,
and then it's all spiraling downhill

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from there.

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So you want to do it in an open area,
either

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a big open building or a backyard,
or just someplace way open.

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That's number one.

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And number two, both the adult dog

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and the puppy should have a way to escape.

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So the adult dog
should have a high platform,

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table chair, something they can get up on
and get away from that puppy.

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And the puppy should have something low
or tight

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that they can crawl through
and get away from the adult.

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In Puppy Culture,
we used a, an agility paws

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table for our puppies
when they met the Newfoundland.

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That's our go to in our backyard.

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If you have puppy culture, it's
the chapter

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called running with the Big Dogs.

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But if you don't have puppy culture

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and you're interested in a video
example of this,

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I put up a video on the puppy culture
fan page on Facebook.

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It's also on our Vimeo
and YouTube channels, and I posted it on

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Instagram as well.

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So wherever you get
your social media videos, it's there.

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And it's a video

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of an intro of one of our puppies
to one of my friends, Newfoundlands,

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where I let the puppy out of my,

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sliding door.

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The Newfoundland was in the backyard,

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but I left
just a crack open in the sliding door

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so the puppy could go back through

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if she wanted to,
but the Newfoundland couldn't fit through.

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And then also there was an arrangement
of of large, flower,

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you know, planters
like terracotta planters in,

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in a circle that the puppy could squeeze
through and the dog couldn't get to.

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So those are just some ideas.

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You need space and retreat.

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Those are the two big things
that you have to set up for.

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Now, beyond that,

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we really do cover it in our courses

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and it is a course
level conversation. But.

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Let me just say

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that you have to do

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sort of a behavior
analysis of the two individuals involved.

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You know, meeting at

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home is better than meeting
outside of the home.

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If the adult dog in the house
is afraid of new places.

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Not only is

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the adult dog not going to be able to form
good associations with the puppy

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if they're terrified in public spaces,

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the puppy potentially
is going to be modeling that fear,

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and you don't want that.

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But if you have a dog
that's very territorial

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and protective of their home, then yeah,

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you want to meet in a neutral place,
do some nice parallel walking.

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But then that brings up the other point.

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If you have a dog
who has no on leash reactivity

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and no barrier frustration,

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protected contact, on leash
parallel walking.

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These are great intros with an adult

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dog that is not reactive in any way,
but it's deadly

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if your dog has on leash
reactivity or barrier frustration.

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You also have to consider the puppy.

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Does the puppy have some kind of
butting, barrier and leash?

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Frustration?

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In my observation,

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most pet owners

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who have not at one time or another,

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been through way
through a training process

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with a reactive dog and done
all the high level stuff.

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They're not going to be really good at

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doing leash walks
in such a way that they're not creating,

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unwittingly, some leash frustration.

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They're going to be tugging on that leash.

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There's going to be pressure.

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It, normally, I would say
it's it's a pretty high level thing

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to be able to do a good parallel walk
that truly is neutral.

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But again, sometimes
if you have a really neutral dog

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and a not very rambunctious puppy that has
had some leash training, this can work.

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At my house.

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We have a lot of puppies
coming in and out of here

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because my breeder friends and I
are always swapping, you know, bringing

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adults over to each other's houses,
bringing puppies

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over to each other's houses,
socializing puppies and introductions

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between my dogs and my breeder

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friends puppies
or a puppy that I bring home literally

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consists of putting the puppy
in the backyard with the household adults.

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But my dogs are very experienced
puppy raisers

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and I trust them implicitly
to do the right thing.

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But again, I always do still do them
outdoors, where there's plenty of space

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for the dogs to regulate the temperature
of their interaction

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and I always do give both the adult
and the puppy an escape route

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low things for the puppy to hide under,
and I'm ready at the gate

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to let the adults back in the house
if they're done with the puppy.

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So if you have a good adult dog
that's good with puppies,

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experienced puppy raiser.

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It's not rocket science.

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You put them out in the backyard together
and give everyone an escape route.

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If you have a dog that in
any way is reactive,

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I mean, then you really have to treat

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this like you're
dealing with a reactive dog.

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And that's a whole thing in itself.

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I mean, there are things you can do,
but there's no magic

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that's going to make a reactive dog
not be reactive.

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When you bring a puppy home.

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Now there's a huge continuum

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between my dogs that basically
I could rent out to socialize.

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Puppies
and the reactive dog that hates puppies.

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There's dogs
that maybe are cranky with puppies,

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you know, would ignore puppies
if the puppies ignore them.

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There are dogs that like puppies

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up to a certain point,
but then have had enough.

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There are dogs
that are horrified by puppies,

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at least at first, but not aggressive.

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It is not unusual for your adult dog

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to want to hide
when a puppy comes into your house.

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It is not unusual for that dog to go

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upstairs and hide for two weeks
and not want to come down.

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They can really become, the adults

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that is, sullen
when you bring a puppy home.

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Those situations
usually have a pretty good prognosis

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because it's just an adjustment period.

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But again, we're not talking about
a dog that's truly reactive.

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Another universal

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that I can give you is

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always protect the interests
of both the puppy and the big dog.

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Okay, so

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in these interactions,
especially the first interactions,

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always let the big dog know
that you have their back, that

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you're not going to let them
be mauled by that puppy,

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that you're there to rescue them
if the puppy gets over the top.

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That way the adult dog won't feel that

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they have to resort
to correcting the puppy themselves.

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They're like, okay,
this puppy is out of control,

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I need help, I need to get out of here.

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You let them out
there, that becomes their behavior, okay?

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Their behavior becomes escape.

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If you leave them in the pit
with the puppy,

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they're like, well, I got no choice.

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I have to correct this puppy.
And you really don't want that.

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I know a lot of people think
that that's a natural part of the puppy

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adult relationship,
but you really don't want to put them

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in a position of conflict,
especially not with the initial,

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introductions.

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The final

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universal that I can give you

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is that nobody ever regretted

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taking it slowly,

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but many people have regretted

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pushing it too fast.

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You know, car rides together,

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dogs crated side by side to someplace fun,

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even if they're not together
when they get there.

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This is forming good associations
and giving them

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that sort of ability to obliquely
take each other in.

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This is really important.

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Being in the same house
but not in the same room, just existing,

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allowing them to take in each other

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at their own pace, whatever that is,

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is never a bad thing.

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I placed

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a puppy with a good friend

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who had an adult female, an adult male,
a biddy female, an old girl,

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and you know,
she really did not think that

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the old girl was ever going to be able
to get along with that puppy.

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Well, the old cranky

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bitch, who in fact was a little dog
reactive,

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just walked up to the crate
and banged on it and said, let her out,

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I want her
and they were best friends immediately,

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but her male, who
she didn't think would be a problem

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at all, who was soft and sweet,
hated the puppy, hated her.

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But you know, my friend had the patience

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to just keep them apart, you know?

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So they both knew the other one was there,
but there was no direct

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interaction
between those dogs for 18 months.

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And literally one day at 18 months,

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her adult male walked over to the crate
and said, Will you please let her out?

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I love her.

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You can never go wrong by taking it slow.

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I have had friends

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who brought a puppy home
and their adult dog went upstairs

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for two months and would not come down,

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would not look at the puppy, wouldn't
come down.

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But then, you know,
at the end of two months the dog said,

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oh, I guess I guess the puppy's here.

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Oh, well. And they were friends.

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It's not unusual.

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And if my friend had forced the issue

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and put her adult dog

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in proximity to that puppy,
if my friend had been like,

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no, no, I want them to meet the
if they got to meet, they got to meet.

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It is very likely
that there could have been an incident

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where the adult dog, snarked at the puppy.

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Then you know the puppy’s scared.

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The puppy doesn't like the adult dog.

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Now the adult dog
double doesn't like the puppy

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because they've been forced into this sort
of position of conflict with the puppy.

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And let me tell you something.

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Unfortunately, dogs

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tend to be one trial learners
when it comes to bad things.

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It's probably
some sort of evolutionary adaptation.

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But puppies in general
and adult dogs as well.

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If something bad happens between two dogs,
it can.

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It's really hard for them to unlearn that,
especially when it's

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in the initial phase of meeting

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before they have money in the relationship
bank.

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So again, just a really long way of saying

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whatever you do, whatever integration plan
you come up with

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based on the personality of your two dogs,
take it slow.

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00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:33,760
You'll never regret it.

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00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:37,600
If you like this podcast,
you'll love Puppy Culture:

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00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:40,960
The original film that started it all,

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00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:44,160
available at puppyculture.com.

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00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:48,240
And while you're there,
check out our puppy course With Open Arms

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00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:49,520
and a Level Head.

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00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:52,360
How to Welcome a Puppy into Your Life,

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00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:55,000
available at puppyculture.com.

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00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:56,760
Breeders.

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00:15:56,760 --> 00:15:59,760
Do you want to get your puppy
started out on the right foot?

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00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:05,400
Check out our breeder bulk discounts
for our puppy course at puppyculture.com.

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00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:08,640
Well, that's it for this time.

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Thanks for listening. Bye bye.