Interaction

Question
Hi, My name is Shireen and my husband and I just got a new puppy. My older dog is 6 years old and she's not very used to having other dogs around, it takes her a while to warm up... outside the house they interact okay with minimal growling from the older dog. Inside is a different story. How do I go about about getting their interactions inside to be better?

Answer
Outside is a huge chocolate cake, You take a nice big piece of chocolate cake inside. Suddenly you ar forced to give half or more of it to someone else in the house.

Your older dog had the entire territory of the house to himself.  Now an active little puppy shows up and distupts the piece quiet and ownership the old dog enjoyed. Outside there is no territory in particular to claim becuase there is so much of it, neither dog needs or enjoys it all.

So set up an area that is exclusive to the older dog that iot already enjoys, Set up another area for the exlusive puppy territory. The remainder becomes the common ground. Play with each/both in the common areas where neither has a physical advantage. If you have been using a crate its easy, if the older dog has the run of the house and sleeps where ever, its harder. The puppy should be crate trained so it learns the crate is home, a safe place undisturbed where it can retreat to chey a toy, gnaw on a treat or sleep.  

Spend more time with the older dog, to avoid the sibling rivalry "you love me less becuase of the new baby takes all your time." Take time to play with and be active with each dog individually and also together. Avoid win/lose games that either pit the dogs against each other or between you and a dog. ie no tug of war. Dogs do play fight to learn physical and mental skills, but it should not be allowed to get to an agression stage.

regards,
Henry Ruhwiedel
westwind Kennels llc
www.dogkennel.org