Introducing your adult dog to a puppy

I think I read somewhere that you should introduce them at first with both dogs in their creates and then let the established dog out to investigate while the new dog stays in the create. We did this for probably 3 weeks because Marsha arrived in heat so there was NO CONTACT. Normally I think they suggest only a week or two.

After 3 weeks we tried to introduce them on leash, but still had problems. The male Ozzy (a small dominant Sheba) immediately tried to attack Marsha, a lg. GSD. She was fine... He was an ass. He has always had little big dog syndrome.

Since that didn't go so well, we leashed Ozzy to the coach and let Marsha check him out while on a drag leash. If we had done it the other way Ozzy would have just gone after her. Since she had more manners we gave her more leeway. That seemed to work pretty well. She would casually check him out and over time they did the butt sniffing and now they get along great. It took time… but both my dogs were adults. I suspect Cujo will have better manners with a puppy.

I think you need to be cautious but every dog is different so there is no absolute correct way to do it. The only thing I would be super concerned with is that Lyka is still in the imprinting stage... so you want every encounter she has with another dog to be a positive experience. One mess up could scare her for life.

Ozzy was attacked as a puppy and I think that is why he is dog aggressive to this day.

PS... I soon realized the real problem with Ozzy was a ranking issue. We had to do a lot of work to drill it into his little head that he was not the pack leader. He is a much better dog today.

I'm not too worried about any territorial issues or so, but picture this situation:

2 year old dog in crate for 2+ hours, bored, wants out, hears daddy's car pull up, hears door open, gets up and sits in his crate waiting for the same thing that always happens, daddy walking into the room.... but nope, suddenly daddy walks in with a puppy on a leash! Startled 2 year old goes crazy in the crate barking at the puppy.

So the alternative is put Cujo somewhere else, sneak puppy into the room and put in her own crate, then let Cujo come in... but same as before, dog is startled at the unexpected presence of a new dog so, about 70% chance he's gonna go crazy barking.

However, Al's way of putting the pup on the driveway in the crate n bringing Cujo out to where it's not unusual for there to be other dogs, then letting him sniff the dog that \"just happens to be there\" is a great way to make him realize \"hey this pup exists\", then moving the pup to the bedroom won't be a big deal because he's already seen the pup so he won't go crazy barking, he'll just wanna go sniff the pup.

Cujo's a very social dog friendly dog as long as the other dog doesn't have a penis :lol: :lol: The only thing I am trying to avoid is the very first interaction to be one that involved barking and hysteria, since my dog will already be worked up as it is from being stuck in a crate for multiple hours. I have no doubt that Cujo will be fine with the new addition, I just want the very first interaction to be as positive as possible, not a barking dog scratching to get out of his crate :lol: Al's way sounds very appropriate for the type of dog he is, so I'll go with that. Not too concerned about territorialism, he's territorial, but not aggressively so, he marks his spot and barks at people who walk by the house if he feels like it, but he's not balls to the wall \"get the f**k outta my house!\" kinda dog.