Introducing Dogs

My partner and I have been taking Dallas and Karitsa out for walks during the break. After the walk, we put the longer lead on Karitsa and Dallas loose in the yard hoping Dallas will meet her under his terms. Since she is such a friendly girl, she goes straight into play mode and it freaks the hell out of Dallas and he is clearly very uncomfortable with hackles up and everything. No matter how much I have her play with the others first to get her energy out, she still wants to play, play, and play some more.

Have any suggestions on doing a smooth intro between an overly friendly dog and a more reserved one?

If I understand this correctly, you have Maritsa on a long leash and Dallas loose. Let Maritsa off leash and allow them space to interact ... Not in a confined space, give them space in the open and back off, even if there are pistols at dawn. In my experience dogs rarely hurt each other ... It is mainly sound and fury, but no biting, all posturing and if filmed and played back in slow motion, it is like a ballet. It takes balls and faith to allow this to happen, but it will sort out who is the natural boss. We did this with our two Alaskan malamute crosses, tai and Ben. On and off for about a year, ww3 was regularly played out and we just let them get on with it. No serious injury occurred, although the spats were terrifying and very noisy with fur and furniture flying. We kept the faith and tai emerged as the boss ... From that moment onwards all was well between the two boys

I will not be doing that. Dallas can cause a lot of damage if pushed far enough. Plus, I would much prefer to find a way to introduce without causing unnecessary stress for him. He is fine meeting new dogs as long as they give him space in the beginning, Karitsa is not the type of dog that gives space, she goes straight into play.

I have been giving lots of treats, but as soon as she goes to play he freaks out.

Kraits needs to learn some respect and manners! What breed/s are they?

Woops ... That should have said kraits a!

O bloody predictive text!!

Ha ha ha.

Karitsa is a Kuvasz and Dallas is a Great Dane/Saint Bernard.

Kuvasz? Great Dane x St. Bernard sounds great ...

Ah, so that is what breed she was. I was having a ton of trouble trying to figure it out. Extremely uncommon breed here. Males usually won't hurt females, and I've always found it safe to let males and females kinda work things out together. But you know your own dog, so I won't tell you to do that.

If the female is sure to not attack, like bite, I really don't think the male will hurt her. Even males like my previous dog, who would (and did) viciously fight to kill against other males would not hurt a female, even the aggressive ones he backed down to.

As she is a new dog, hopefully it'll just a take a bit of time until he is used to her presence. I sure wish I could foster again.

As one would expect, Kuvasz are quite common here in Hungary. There are 3 in my village all belonging to farmers who use them for herding and as livestock guardians ... which is what they were bred for. You also sometimes see them as guard dogs for commercial properties.

From what I've read and learnt from talking to Kuvasz owners and my dogs trainer you don't train Kuvasz in the conventional way, but you "teach" them by using an older well trained dog to guide them.(Our own trainer for example, will use my Pei who's a calm, obedient dog when he's training more excitable ones).

I don't know whether it's feasible for you, but to help Dallas and Karitsa get to know each other, is it possible to put them both in adjoining enclosed areas, so that they can see each other but are prevented to coming into physical contact? My Miinature Schnauzer's breeder did this when my two stayed with him when I broke my wrist. Georgina, my Pei had her own enclosed area, where she could watch the 12 other young dogs playing without having to put up with them bouncing all over her!

The other thing that springs to mind is that as Kuvasz are working dogs, can you find a "job" for Karitsa?