Hartley and the New Puppy

[Stella]

I started a discussion tpoic about introducing our new puppy to our older (14 months old) dog, and thought this would be a more appropriate place to post updates on our progress!! There are small victories every day. We followed advice and removed all toys, now they only get them when we go out and they are separated, or when we are supervising. The most succesful so far has been a Wubba that our older dog never really took to when he was a puppy. They play fetch together with it, tug nicely, and it is a great distraction when things are getting a bit out of hand! The added bonus it that all the running around tires the puppy out!!

[Margaret Erwin]

Perhaps I should think again about adding a second in the fall! Ella will be 9 months then, still very much a puppy and probably 60 lbs. I weighed her yesterday - 30 lbs and not yet four months. She has gotten very strong and our puppy classes starting on the 7th aren't coming too soon. We have no idea how big she will get, but I will guess 80 lbs. She has a stocky build like a Berner. We will see

[Stella]

We are still working on building the relationship between our two 'boys'! Generally, things are improving we even had an organised game of fetch today with the dogs taking turns to bring the ball back. But, there are still a few problems. When playing, the puppy often gets totally over excited, barking and growling at our older dog, and jumping up and biting at his face. Hartley, our older dog, is very quiet and hardly ever barks, so we are finding it hard to deal with our talkative new little fellow! Hartley still growls and snaps at the puppy, this appears to be terratorial - he won't let the puppy get close to him if one of us is there, and he will not let the puppy into the trunk of the car with him (we have a hatchback!!) - this is a bit of a problem as we really would like them to travel in the car together! If anyone has any tips, they would be greatly appreciated.

[Stella]

We played fetch in the garden together and there was no fighting!! Even though he has only had his second set of shots we have begun taking them for short walks together around the neighborhood, we are very careful about where we go - no parks etc. But, I was going to lose my mind if we didn't start walking him!!

[Stella]

The puppy put on two pounds in a week! He now weighs 15.7lb (at twelve weeks old), so I am pretty sure he is going to end up bigger than the predicted 35-40 pounds!! Perhpas he is desperately trying to grow so he can get his own back on his bigger 'brother'. There have been some really cute times of playing together, and earlier today I came downstairs to find them both lying down next to each other waiting for me.

But, there are still times when things get out of hand and Hartley grabs the puppy by the neck. I know he is trying to put him in his place but it gets a bit much sometimes as we have to step in and separate them. I long for the day when they get on well enough to curl up and fall asleep together. At the moment, if the puppy goes anywhere near Hartley when he is sleeping, he gets growled at!

[Penny, Comiskey & Beemer]

I was inspired by your photo of them together....that is a hard one to get....just got our new pup 10 days ago...Comiskey is 15 months and Beemer is 9 weeks....it sure is a challenge....but they are so wonderful when they are both asleep.....

[Sandy]

So cute! We had Toby at my Mom's today, and my brother had his two boxers there. Toby is a tired fellow now, although the boxers quite intimidated him at first. Toby was quite adept at distracting them, and then stealing their bones! I am hoping (fingers crossed) for a relaxed evening. We'll see.