Advice needed

Can anyone give me any tips on how to introduce a puppy to a house where their is already a dog. I think that when we are ready to take the puppy things will go smoothly, I just need a bit of reassurance. It is just that the dog we have at the moment, Gussie, a normally quiet placid dog, does have a habit of shouting at other dogs, andI am just wondering whether we will have problems with the introduction.

Sarah

Hi Sarah - when I had Bouncer and I brought Jack home I introduced them together outside on neutral ground first and let them have a sniff of each other then I took them inside and there was never a problem

I am not a specialist, there are some on here they will proberley answer it as well normally shouldn´t be a problem but i would take the dogs out for a walk on a neutral teratory that would be better then the bigger dog would not try in anyway to protect its terrratory hope this is a help

If possible introduce them on completely neutral ground. If that is not possible then introduce them in your garden. Allow Gussie to enter the house first. Always give her attention first. If you are feeding the pup more often than you feed Gussie then give her a small amount of food when you feed the pup, and put hers down first. Do everything to reassure Gussie that she is still top dog and number one in your affections. This may mean ignoring the new addition sometimes when you would really like to be petting/playing with him/her. The puppy must mean good things to Gussie so reward her with lots of attention and praise when she takes a friendly interest in him/her. Always recognise and respect her seniority. Ensure that you spend time alone with both of them - you want the puppy's strongest bond to be with you rather than Gussie, but do not neglect to give her one-to-one attention, i.e. walks/play/training, also.

I have recently introduced a younger dog into our family. I have Jas, and 8 year old stafford and we introduced him to an 11 month old staffy bitch.

I had Tam outside in the car, got Jas and put his collar and lead on him then got Tam out of the car. Tam was more nervous than Jas was but once they'd had a good old sniff of each other I let them off their leads. After a half hour running around in the garden everything was fine and haven't looked back since.

Just supervise them at all times just incase problems arise nad you can be on hand to sort it out.