Need advice

[gapeach]

Gracie is going to meet my mom and dad's new puppy today. Gracie is 6 she has played well with my parent's last dog Angel. But in that relationship Angel was the adult and Gracie was the puppy. Gracie has met other dogs but never played with them (besides Angel) She has been good as long as we were away from home. At home she doesn't like other dogs and wouldn't even tolerate Angel in our home (to be fair to Gracie I think she would have if we would have thought to do it when she was a puppy) The problem is Gracie sees my parents house as hers also. The last puppy (a neighbor's) that she met there she did ok. I had on leash and she met lowered her body to the ground but then each time I let her near she nipped him on the ear. She did it easy and didn't draw blood.But is that normal? I figur she was telling him" this is my house."

I figured the best way for this puppy is to meet 1st in a neutral area so it's not what she sees as "hers" on the leash. Then if that goes ok the next meeting can be at my mom's house. But keep a gate between them until we see how it goes.

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Maxy24]

My suggestion would be to let them meet on a walk in the neighborhood. Have the puppy walking ahead of Gracie and let gracie come up and sniff puppy's behind while keeping puppy moving. Keep the sniff breif the first few times, only a few seconds before stopping and letting the pup move forward. Bring treats in case Gracie gets frustrated by the pup moving away ( so you can reward her for walking with you), and some for whoever is walking the pup in case they have trouble getting him to ignore Gracie when she sniffs him. If that goes fine you can let the pup say hi when Gracie comes to sniff, but keep it short the first few times. Then you can start walking them side by side, just don't let the pup jump on Gracie, if she seems nervous move further apart. If the walk went well you might be able to just walk them both into your parent's house, puppy first. Just keep them on leash, with all toys/valuables picked up. You decide when they are okay to be off leash together.

Obviously don't do this if Gracie is ever dog reactive on leash, and move at whatever pace both dogs are comfortable with.

 

[Dizzy]

Just wanted to add, Bodhi is a different dog on walks, and doesn't always like dogs she meets.

However, inside she is very different, and whilst she isn't thrilled about them, she puts up with them.

When we brought Freddie home, I just let him have a waddle about outside, then carried him whilst she could get a good sniff. I did let her sniff the blankets and everything first, so she kind of Sussed there was another dog about. That and I stank of him.

We just did it very gently, and supervised every interaction for a long time. I think if they'd met on a walk, it would be a different story.

Now they love each other

 

[gapeach]

Thanks!

Thanks Maxy and Dizzy. I took Gracie for a long walk by ourselves first to tire her out some. Then met mama and Rascal at the park. They did very good together on the walk. Lots of smelling and being nice. We decided to take them to mama's house. We let them in the backyard still on leashes. When we went in the house we let them see eachother through the babygate. All of this went very well. Lots of petting and praises for Gracie and some treats. We decided to see how it went offleash. Every time Rascal tried to jump on Gracie we'd get her. We stayed right there on the floor with them for a long time still was going great. After quite awhile we took them back outside off leash. They ran around together. Gracie acted kind of scared of Rascal. After awhile of sniffing and more running around Gracie put her mouth all over Rascal. It made me nervous but Rascal rolled over onto her back to let Gracie smell. After too much of Gracie rolling her over and mouthing her she'd run and we'd get her up. A couple of times Gracie made Rascal holler. After each of those times we'd seperate them for awhile.

How many more times is normal for Gracie to want to mouth Rascal and have her roll over before she accepts her? Thanks so much for the advice!