Introducing a puppy (2nd dog) into a home

Hi, i was just wondering if I could get some advise from the collective!

We are thinking of a 2nd pug but not a decision we will take lightly.

As some may know we made some basic mistakes with saffy but are confident that we wont make same ones with a second pug.

However, are there any dynamics we should be aware of with regards to adding a puppy to our home?

I guess my main fears are them not getting on for whatever reason - how do we minimise this? Saffy sleeps in the kitchen at night - should the puppy also be here. I worry they may have some disagreements!

Sorry for the basic level of questions and if people feel there is a website to point me towards that would also be useful

Hi AJL
Well, please don't take my comments as gospel, I'm not an expert, trainner, or any kind of doggie proffessional, also we have two girls so it may be quite a different scene with boys, anyway, here's what we did.

First girl at 11 weeks didn't settle too well (Turns out the breeder had taken her back from an unsuccessful placing) when she was just past one year old we got another girl (7 weeks old)

From the beginning our first dog made sure that the newcommer knew her place in the hierachy, demonstrated the usual 'dominance' behaviour, and generally made sure that everyone knew who was the top dog.

Now they get on well, they indulge in 'play' fights occassionaly but never any blood drawn.

You may find the new puppy will want to hide behind the furniture, or under the bed, until he is confident your other dog won't eat him.

We always treat our two absolutely equal, same meals, same beds, same trainning, same everything. IMHO that's important.

Don't know if that helps. Like I say it's not 'expert' opinion, just what happened with us.

Hi AJL you don't say what age and sex the puppy is or how old your other dog is.

This is a previous post with a similar question .

http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=51842

and an article that may be of help too.
http://www.dogsey.com/dog-articles.php?t=8974

I think the most important think is to try and keep things the same for the first dog. Make sure you don't favour the new pup over the older dog and don't expect them to get on straight away!

I've got 2 older dogs (Woody Lab 11 and Pickles Terrierx 14) and recently got an English Springer pup - Isla. We knew Pickles would hate Isla as he hates all dogs under 1 year! But Woody is very soppy so we didn't expect any problems. To begin with Isla was terrified of Woody and screamed everytime he came near her. However as she got bolder (and he realised she was here to stay) he started to grumble at her. Looking back I think he was just letting her know who was in charge, but at the time it was a bit of a shock TBH. We made sure they were never left alone together and eventually Woody got used to her and they get on like a house on fire now.

I think the best thing to do is to get a crate for the pup so that you can seperate them if necessary.

You probably won't have any problems, but it's always good to be prepared just in case.