Introducing new dog UPDATE AND SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

sealhunter

sealhunter

BANNED
BANNED
BANNED
Rating - 73.3%
21   8   1
Location
Back in the Peace Country
Well I went ahead and got the dog. He's actually a yellow lab cross.

So how do I Introduce the new dog. I have a german Shepherd who is 2,5 years old. Immediately my German Shepherd in guarding his food and water and toys. He is mostly just growling and letting the other dog know he's head dog. However. The New dog (Angus) picked up my German Shepherd (Stoeger's) bone. All hell broke loose. Stoeger pushed and dragged Angus all the way accross the yard and pinned him against the garage and then it was all jaws from both of them with Angus being submissive and me shouting and yelling and grabbing them both. I feel bad for both dogs. Angus was a rescue and I want him to feel at home and relaxed. Stoeger has been our Guard and Protector and footwarmer on the bed for almost 3 years, I don;'t want him to feel he is being replaced.

I took them both out in a field and let them run and run and run. They buddied up a little, and sat on the front seat togethr without too much issue.

Any advice or thoughts???

Also, Stoeger is blocking my wife and baby when the Angus tries to get involved with licking and petting and so on.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Getting the dogs involved in a shared experience such as a run in the field is important. Being away from the older dogs toys, food dish etc will also help them come to an understanding. Don't be too quick to step in and stop their interaction. Dogs have an amasing ability to work things out by many small and harmless stages. They must be left to establish a pecking order and unless physical harm might result I would try and leave them to it. I doubt there is any possibility they could ever be equals, one will be ahead of the other and one will be submissive. It is not harmfull and actually the dogs will be better balanced once their ranking is established. As long as you control when they get to the field , are allowed to eat, ride in the vehicle etc etc you will be number one and they will determine where each stands below that. Be sure and have the wife and other family members get opportunities to establish they also hold a higher rank than either dog. Little things such as making them wait for humans to enter or exit doors , having humans pick their seating position on the coach etc show the dogs who is above them. Dogs do not resent being in a lower position in the pecking order but adapt to their rank,. usually there is no need for a dramatic confrontation but rather a sustained occupation of the higher rank done through a whole series of small actions. Another example can be using food as in teaching the dog to leave it or take it on command. Place food and instruct the dog to take or leave on your command.
 
First off, you will have more difficulty as both are male dogs.
If you have not done so, make sure BOTH dogs are neutered, or there will be bloodshed.

It is important that they both have their own bowls and toys, this is very important. When you feed them, feed the Sheppard FIRST and make sure their bowls are not in close proximity.

When you give out cookies or hugs, the SHEPPARD comes first, always.

If you ensure that the shep is #1 dog, it should go smoothly. Do NOT leave them together "unsupervised" in case all hell breaks loose. Once they have bonded, no problem.
 
We always have 2 GSD's but make sure that they are male and female and are neutered/spayed.

Other than the occasional tussle they get along very well.

4.jpg
 
Before you do anything, get rid of all your Sheppards old toys. Give them both new ones to share. This is important because your original dog will feel as if there all his, which they aren't anymore. So throw them out and buy new for both. Secondly, feed both dogs out of seperate dishes. Especially the hard food, the water can be shared.

Both of theses lessons were learnt from past experience from when i picked up my female Golden, the second day i had her, out of nowhere my male (which i've had since he was a puppy 2 years prior) lashed out ripping a 2.5 inch gash on the inside of her ear. It was horrible, you could sele the insides of her ear and trying to close the wound was just as bad.

After that incident, i was worried i wouldn't be able to keep her, but it wasn't so. Them having that fight established the pecking order or so to speak. Now 10 months later, they act like siblings taking eachother agressively down to the ground any time there outside playing. I don't think i could seperate them now since they get along that well.

Above all, your the boss and the alpha of the pack. If thats established you shouldn't have much of a problem after a couple of weeks. You'll get through this tough time of breaking them in.

I also think you should show them each the same amount of love, but show you sheppard first so he knows hes still important. After a few months you'll be able to pet which ever one first. In fact, my two are always jealous of eachother when i pet one, 99% of the time your going to pet the other. Give it time and it will get better.
 
Since Geologist throw up another pic of his two good looking Sheppard's, i thought i might as well share another pic of my two.:D

DSC00345.jpg
 
100 percent agree with Murf. If you act as the alpha and let them sort out who is in which pecking order, you will find everything will smooth out. I don't think you need to throw out toys and buy new ones. You just need to establish that everything in the house is yours and you are letting either dog use it. With my lab even though the toys are his I always take them away whenever I feel like it and I don't tolerate any growling/nipping/barking he has gotten used to it and understands that.
 
Sadly, the yellow lab Angus was returned this morning to the Humane Society. He was doing well with my dog, and they were starting to get along. My Shepherd even let him eat out of his dish a few times, cautiously though.

Last night the yellow lab got up on our bed and was lying in my wife's spot. She lovingly tried to scooch him over a bit and he took a snap at her.
I didn't know why, so I then tried to coax him over and he went crazy and bit me about 7 times. I spent a fair bit of last night at the hospital.

I suspect it was probably something triggered from his past.

With a liitle one here, I would not chance defending his actions to myself, and let him stay.
I feel bad for him. He was licking me all the way back to the humane society

I played with hima fair bit this morning. Gave hima big feed, lots of petting, and hugs, i feel like #### for the poor little guy.
He'll be put down after the rabies watch is over

The humane society know little about why dogs are brought to them.
Interesting is that it is cheaper to bring a dog to the Humane Society than it is to have it euthanized. I would hope that a person who know a dog has aggression issues would not take advantage of that fact and simply gicve another reason for bringing the dog to the shelter.
 
Sorry to hear what happened, it's so easy to get attached to them. But you can't take a chance with him if he's a biter, especially with little ones.

Maybe it's bad genes but I'd be willing to bet a paycheque that it is more likely the fault of the original owner.
 
geologist said:
Sorry to hear what happened, it's so easy to get attached to them. But you can't take a chance with him if he's a biter, especially with little ones.

Maybe it's bad genes but I'd be willing to bet a paycheque that it is more likely the fault of the original owner.
Click to expand...

x2, a ####ty owner will ruin a good dog.
 
Damn, sorry to hear that! You did the right thing though, as soon as they bite anyone in the family they're gone. No Ifs, Ands or Buts about it. Just can't take the chance.

Unfortunately thats the reality of getting a dog from the pound. You never know how it was treated previously and some personality traits are just to hard to fix.
 
I'm so sorry to hear that, its a tough situation to be in. Too bad the Humane society didn't do behavioral tests before releasing the dog this could have prevented it all together.
 
I'm sorry, too. It sucks when you try to do the right thing and it doesn't work out. I'm so grateful all my rescues have gotten along regardless of ###. My first dog, a male Lab X Husky has always been willing to share everything. I do have 2 female cats that occasionally attack each other.
 
fully agree with both geologist and whammy... these are just blasts from the past... doesn't have to be the previous owner though, but something rough this pup went through...
if it was me, i would've kept him... been in a similar situation before, and by training and enforcing good manners, pup turned out to be great... still shy with strangers, but most loving to me, my wife, and our baby... and actually all our extended family and regular-visiting friends
 
surban said:
I'm so sorry to hear that, its a tough situation to be in. Too bad the Humane society didn't do behavioral tests before releasing the dog this could have prevented it all together.
Click to expand...

But you might be surprised how much grief Humane Societies get for using behaviour testing. The animal rights nuts say that they're just a test to allow the HSs to euth dogs but the real reason is liability. One dog like that one can cost $1,000,000 in a lawsuit and then there is no place for the dogs that need it. Read about the "Cheech" situation and the BCSPCA and you'll see how they get it coming and going.
 
Big Dune said:
fully agree with both geologist and whammy... these are just blasts from the past... doesn't have to be the previous owner though, but something rough this pup went through...
if it was me, i would've kept him... been in a similar situation before, and by training and enforcing good manners, pup turned out to be great... still shy with strangers, but most loving to me, my wife, and our baby... and actually all our extended family and regular-visiting friends
Click to expand...



I completely disagree with you. The dog is almost 2 years old and bit me 7 times and went after my wife. I am very surprised that with a small child or baby in the house, you would have kepth the dog.

This is not a pup, or a dog I had since it was a pip and is acting up and I need to work with him, ...

Had My little one petted him, I'm quite sure he'd either be in hospital or dead.
The dog attacked me and with several punches, a grab of his muzzle, etc etc, he kept coming.
 
sealhunter said:
I completely disagree with you. The dog is almost 2 years old and bit me 7 times and went after my wife. I am very surprised that with a small child or baby in the house, you would have kepth the dog.

This is not a pup, or a dog I had since it was a pip and is acting up and I need to work with him, ...

Had My little one petted him, I'm quite sure he'd either be in hospital or dead.
The dog attacked me and with several punches, a grab of his muzzle, etc etc, he kept coming.
Click to expand...

The reason it attacked you is because it wasn't sure yet who in the family is dominant! A few here will disagree with me but dogs NEED to know who is dominant & they NEED to feel brute force at least once to have it instilled in them!
I'll bet you still felt bad after the attack when it was licking you on the way back to the shelter :(
 
Very sad!

I would be so sad too, but rest assured, you did the right thing. Our male rottie went through a crotchety stage & we weren't sure what to do. He never snapped at anyone but he would growl a little just to show us he wasn't happy. Since this guy weighed about 120 lbs, we decided to speak to a dog breeder. The breeder told us that we could try to neuter him to see if it would make a difference. He said that sometimes after a male has bred, they can get a little cocky! We had him neutered, and we couldn't believe the difference. He became a big puppy again. It's been 2 years now, and he is perfectly fine. We have 4 kids (the youngest being 9) and our friends have 4 - 5 year olds. We haven't seen any kind of agression from him since we had him fixed! Of course, we got him at 7 weeks old, so he's been brought up with us, and hasn't endured any kind of abuse. Of course, we wouldn't have taken any chances if he would have continued to be miserable!
Here is a pic of my 2 (Jed -my big boy & Sissy - my lil girl)
sissynjed.jpg
[/IMG]
 
I agree with getting rid of dogs that bite people.
I dog sat my sisters Couvuos( some kind of old Hungarian breed). Knowing she had a biting past, but knew the dog all my life, so never thought much of it.

Suddenly, for no real reason, she bit me and I was going to shoot it on the spot, but didn't.

The dog went home after it's stay with me, and I started hearing more stories out of the wood work, about taking the occasional bite on my sister, her boys and a few guests, and they finally had to put the dog down.
I think in this dogs case it might have been old and senile?

Sad, but you have to take care of the family first...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom