new puppy integration

Question
Sandy, We have a 9 yr old husky...big baby. A 7 yr old min-pin/Chiwawa mix..neurotic ***ch. We had a friends dog stay w/ us for a couple months...horrible experience because of crazy min-pin girl. She was hateful to him...growling and fighting. We just got a baby 8 week lab. She is staring her same stuff w/ him. Just got him yesterday. Also Husky is showing jealousy. How can we make this work. How can we bring the baby in the family? Showering attention on the two..but little female is just mean to puppy when he gets near. They are both normally very sweet dogs. PLease help

Answer
Hello Anthony,

Sounds like you're doing all the things that you can by showering attention on the two older dogs. My guess is that you're simply going to have an unpleasant but not unbearable situation for awhile.

Dogs have an inhibition against attacking puppies. Puppies have kind of a free pass on pestering their older mates. So your older dogs may snarl and act "mean" toward the pup but I wouldn't expect any real violence to occur.

Due to the age of your dogs, I'd expect your lab to grow up and become top dog by virtue of his size and youth. There will probably be some real disputes then but it too will pass. Try not to intervene unless the disputes escalate to the point of real violence (which I doubt).

So my best advice is to just hang in there for a while and...

Good Luck!

Sandy Finley
Perfect Manners Dog Training
http://perfectdogtraining.com