Dating, dogs and the BIG introduction...

[shazbot]

I have a quick question about dating and your dogs and their dogs.

I'm dating a guy who's got an Irish Setter and loves his dog like I love my 3, yay, finally some one who gets me . We get along great, my question is how do I go about introducing our dogs? There are plans to go up to his cabin towards the end of Feb and all the dogs will be going. How would we go about making sure the dogs would get along while there?

I know we should take them to a neutral place and have them meet, but after that how do we introduce them at my place and at his? Should I introduce all 3 of mine to his at once or should they be introduced 1 at a time?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated...thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Tankstar]

How are they all with other dogs? Do you have a dog park near by?

 

[bubbatd]

Agree .... work on it now !!! You might have to do it separately as your 3 might want to gang up !!! Setters ( sorry , one owned one ) are thick skulled and in la-la land . LOL! Definately neutral ground !!

 

[Brattina88]

IME, I would introduce them one at a time, and make it someplace neutral. Keep it fairly brief and end on a positive note. I would do this a couple of times to be on the safe side, if you have the time, but that's just me. After 1:1 you could have your 2 with his, and then switch and have a different 2, etc...
The easiest way I found to introduce dogs and have them go home is to meet around the block (or something like this) and walk home together. I've found that they're much more accepting to the strange dogs in 'their' house

Oh, yea... We want more details on this guy! And his dog, of course! LoL

 

[Felix84]

IME, I would introduce them one at a time, and make it someplace neutral. Keep it fairly brief and end on a positive note. I would do this a couple of times to be on the safe side, if you have the time, but that's just me. After 1:1 you could have your 2 with his, and then switch and have a different 2, etc...
The easiest way I found to introduce dogs and have them go home is to meet around the block (or something like this) and walk home together. I've found that they're much more accepting to the strange dogs in 'their' house ...

i agree. i think that introducing the dogs 1 at a time is a better way for them to get a chance to adjust. i had this very same problem. when i had to introduce my dog to my girlfriend's 2 dogs i was pretty nervous. i did it one at a time. i think this helped a lot.

 

[shazbot]

Thank you all for your advice. I figured a neutral place would be good, but wasn't sure how to introduce them to into each others home.

We'll try introducing mine 1 at a time, and see how that goes.

I'm quite happy that I've met some one who doesn't think I'm crazy because my dogs are my world...he feels the same about his setter

 

[SummerRiot]

When I was first going with Tim, he already had Tyr and Princess (Tyr was jsut a puppy though).

When the dogs FIRST met I had Riot with me after a show in his area so I drove over to his parents place where he had brought his dogs for a visit..

We brought Riot out to the end of the front lawn and Tim brought out Princess first(since Riot is ALWAYS good with females). They seemed very friendly and even tried to play a bit on leash..

Then Tim went and put Princess away and brought out Tyr.. same place - same type of meeting.. of course Tyr wanted to play - Riot was very good(he can be grumbling with intact males) but Tyr had already been fixed etc etc.

Then we brought the dogs inside.. Riot was still on leash, same with his but we let them sniff each other all over, Tim let his dogs off leash. Princess couldn't have cared less anymroe so just laid down so it was Tyr that was sniffing Riot all over trying to play.

The next time the dogs met I brought Riot over to Tims place. Riot was off leash with Princess - they got along fine other then Princess trying to dominate Riot - which he had none of it.
Then Tyr was allowed out once Riot and Princess were done playing..

It ended up great though - every time Riot and Princess got into the dominating moods(mostly Princess trying to hump Riot and Riot being grumbley about it since hes a dominant intact male to start) Tyr would break them up with a wrestle match against Riot..

Now we all live together and the dogs get along great - other then those times where Tyr LOVES to push Riots buttons lol