In America over 38% of households have more than one dog (sourced from finances online). Managing more than one dog in a house can be exciting but also nerve wracking. Will your old dog, and new dog get along? How should you structure your dogs’ day to best keep peace within the home? What should you do if one dog doesn’t like the other? To be successful there are key factors in considering adding a second dog to the household. Time it takes to handle to two dogs upkeeping, knowing who your first dog is, play styles, preferred level of engagement with other dogs, how much time will the new dog need to adjust to the new household before meeting the established dog.
We’ve covered finding a dog in our recent blog posts “Ethical Breeders, And Why You Should Choose Them”, and “Genetics, Breeding, and Pet Dogs”. A second dog can be a little more complex in making a decision on what breed and personality you’re going to be bringing in. You’ll need to heavily consider your established dog. Many owners believe that the established dog’s quality of life is severely lacking because they don’t have a fury friend. This is not true, if you’re providing adequately for your dog they aren’t missing out on anything. While you do need to consider them and how they interact with the world, it’s important to focus on what you provide than getting a second dog with the sole intention of filling a mythical dog shaped hole in your first pup!
Considering the established dog in the home. Having a breed that tends to be more aloof to new comers, or is known for genetically being dog aggressive, you may wish to consider a more laid back second dog. An established dog having behavioral issues towards other dogs will need to have firm, clear boundaries before a second puppy is brought in. Knowing where the boundaries exist and knowing how to enforce them will ensure that the first dog will not only feel secure with the changes but also the new puppy won’t accidentally antagonize the first into a fight. Not to mention that the puppy won’t develop their own bad habits due to unenforced expectations. Puppies with great genetics, and not prone to dog aggression can still develop aggression towards the established dog if the first dog is antagonized enough to attack the puppy to create the space it keeps asking for. Don’t roll the dice on this scenario never happening, educate yourself, and advocate for both! It’s easier to prevent fights than to fix in house aggression problems.
Max, a large terrier mix with a strong dose of fear of other dogs, and Lucas a Belgium Malinois from harsh beginnings found themselves as housemates. Both dogs had their problems, Lucas’s was having no boundaries after having spent a better part of his first year not interacting with neither dog nor human on a consistent basis. While Max had unfortunately found himself attacked by strangers’ dogs in the past. Due to the attacks on himself, Max had learned the hard lesson that he was the only one who could protect himself. Lucas didn’t have any boundaries, and being a typical Malinois liked to create his own rules in his new home. Lucky for both dogs, Max and Lucas’s owners didn’t shrug their shoulders when Max started attacking Lucas. They took the problems seriously, and started searching for trainers to help them. That’s how Jackpot K9 came into the picture. In the consultation it was very apparent that Max was panicking at the lack of control in his environment causing resource guarding anything of value. He had to learn to trust his owners to advocate for him. Lucas needed rules just as much as Max did. Through dedicated of the boys’ owners following the training program and establishing strict boundaries two years later Max and Lucas get along well!
Having strong boundaries regardless of the type of dog you’re bringing into the home is only the beginning. An extra dog takes up lots of its own time. Whenever our clients bring home a new dog in the household, we recommend that the new dog waits to meet the established dogs. This gives you the opportunity to learn more about your new family member, establish your own relationship with the dog, and creating the appropriate rules for the new dog to understand. It’ll be important to do be cautious of giving the new dog too much freedom too soon. Employing methods of management can greatly help you here. After a few days or a week you can begin to introduce the other dogs of the household to the new comer!
Slow and steady wins the race! One of our favorite methods is exposure. Letting the dogs see each other, and understand that the existence of either one of them isn’t a big deal will help greatly when it comes to each dog actually interacting. Keep the first direct interactions short! If you’re dealing with a dog who takes a while to warm up you may wish to do 3-4 sessions of exposure first before allowing a short interaction. This may take a couple of days, so be patient, your dogs will have the rest of their lives together! As you’re letting your dogs be around each other, be continuously reading their body language. Body language is the number one method of communication between dogs. If one dog growls at the other, chances are you missed signs before the growl that showed the growly dog was not okay with the interaction at that moment.
No competition for resources! This means YOU! For safe practices to help prevent resource guarding amongst your dogs remember a few key things. Keep toys picked up, and only in use when you want to play with your dogs. Play with your dogs individually. This not only helps you bond with them, but also keeps each dog competing for your attention and toy to a minimum. When giving your dogs attention discourage them from jockeying for that attention. Be strict on not allowing your dogs to push each other out of the way, or to jump on top of each other when interacting with you.
Double the trouble or double the fun? How you approach growing your household can influence which one you get! Getting help from trainers, researching before you bring your second dog home, and understanding that there needs to be clear understandable boundaries set in the home, is part of what it takes for success!
Comments