But things were going so well : (

[fomorii56]

So, things were going so well between shadow and the new pup, they even started playing with eachother in the morning. Last night I finally got out to see a movie. I got home, said hi to shadow, went and got the pup out of the crate and took them both outside. They went potty and poop and we came back inside. I went into the computer room to turn off the computer. I was sitting in the computer chair, shutting things down, and shadow came and sat at my left side, wanting attention. I think the puppy tried to get in front of him and lunged at her and actually wound up breaking skin I immediately put him in the bathroom for time out, got the puppy, cleaned her up then took both of them into my room where I pet them and lightly played with both of them at the same time. Then we went to bed. I soooo dont want this to happen again. Any suggestions? Should I only pet both at the same time so shadow gets used to the idea that he doesnt get all the attention all the time? Humph, it was very upsetting.

 

[smkie]

Victor liked the little stray dog i found until it dawned on him that it might be staying. then his eyes got all slanty and he didn't think so much of the little dog anymore. Mary didn't talk to me for a flat 3 weeks when i brought Vic home. I always honor the first dog's place. And let time do the work. They will be friends eventually.

 

[squirtsmom]

Good advice smkie.

 

[JTP]

Should I only pet both at the same time so shadow gets used to the idea that he doesnt get all the attention all the time? Humph, it was very upsetting.

There are a lot of things you can do, but you should only pet one dog at a time, and not allow the other to hog into, or interfere with the session, pet either dog only when you want to, and only on your terms.
Per one dog, and make the other wait their turn, oor just go away.

If you only want to pet one dog for doing something good, then only pet that specific dog..
This one thing will do more for household harmony than you can imagine.
You do not have to split the time, or share petting time equally.
Remember you are the leader, and as such you hand out the praise as you deem proper.
Do not go to them, call them to you.
This sets you as the alpha, master, leader, big boss person, or whatever.

Dogs should not be allowed to mob up on you, and demand attention in multi dog situations, as this creates a competition between the dogs for dominance, and attention.

It is a very important in multi dog households, espectially when you have recently introduced a new dog.

Allowing one dog to be dominant over the others will create animosities between the dogs, so by establishing yourself as leader, not allowing any other dog to rank above the other, you remove the biggest cause of dog fights.

They may well set up a pecking order of sort, but the more you let it become ingrained, the more likely you will have problems as the pup grows, and goes through different stages of maturity level. or even if it is an older dog who appears to get along, but as the dog bonds up to the household his more dominant side could come out,and you end up with a competiiton for top dog in the house, ie fights.

It is a technique I learned at a training seminar centered around aggressive dogs, and aggressive rescue dog rehab.
It works, and shows results immediately.

 

[fomorii56]

Im fine with the idea of petting them only when I want to, the only problem is, the two of them dont 'mob' up on me. Shadow just sits very quietly a few feet away, just like he was doing in this instance, he was just quietly sitting there next to the chair, I wasnt petting him. Which is why I was surprised at what he did, we werent in a 'high energy' situation, I wasnt even touching him, I just dont think he liked the idea of the pup being 'in front'. And for the most part Shadow doesnt really display any dominance over the pup, at this point they just kind of co-exist. For instance, they dont eat together (shadow I know has some issues with his food bowl) but they are perfectly content to get treats sitting right next to eachother. Shadow sits, gets a treat, pup sits, gets a treat. He has no problems with that, he'll just stand there and watch while she gets a treat, shes even tried to take his treats and he doesnt care, same thing with bones (though I do try to keep them seperate). So I guess Im just not sure what exactly happened or how to prevent it from becoming a problem. I'll definately work on being more structured (? maybe not the right word) with praise and who gets pet when.