My resident dog has been with us for over 6 years. He was about 1 1/2 years old when we adopted him at a Petco adoption event. I was pregnant at the time and knew I had to housetrain and break in the "new guy" before the baby came. When I saw this lovely cinnamon brown adult dog in the last cage with the gooey dark brown eyes, I knew he was the one. As soon as my husband and I took him on a short "introductory walk", we knew he was IT. When we sat down with him, he leaned into me and gave me a big doggie kiss. We were sold and picked him up after we had done all the paperwork and been thoroughly investigated!
He quickly became my best friend and buddy, but had many fears to overcome. He would not initially leave his crate except to do his business, which generally ended up in the house before we could get him out the door. We gradually lured him out of his crate by moving his food and water dish from inside his crate to just outside his crate and inched it a little further away day by day. After about a week or so, we had success and he started exploring the house. We had to teach him how to ascend and descend stairs and even had to teach him how to play- he had never learned, which I found to be quite sad. We soon found out that our guy had a penchant for FOOD! Despite the walks and going on lite dog food, he became quite plump, and still is. I refuse to say he waddles, but he definitely sashays! Well, I became his personal human and he became my velcro dog. He looked like he was being taken to the executioner when the baby came home, but he quickly learned that he was not going anywhere- he was part of the family. He saw the baby as an extension of me and never left our side. He guarded my baby continuously.
So what does all that have to do with the new dog, the intruder, the competition? Just a background on the family bond. Now all the sudden 5 years later, "Mom" decides she wants to save another life. I saw a picture of an irresistible boy on Petfinders- a Shar Pei- Bully breed mix named Stubbs. I fell in love all over again and knew he was the dog for us. Again, after the paperwork, investigation, and home inspection, we were finally able to bring in the invader.
I introduced them in the fenced in back yard since Alex is a pure house dog and I thought he would be more accepting if it was on more neutral ground. After lots of circling and sniffing, we brought them both into the house. I made sure to praise both Alex and Stubbs, "the invader", so that no one felt left out.
In interactions with them, Alex always came first as I wanted him to maintain his status in the pack as the "lead dog". Stubbs is a wildman and likes to play, run, and romp. Alex is a pygmy hippo who loves to eat and cuddle. Hmmmmm.... What to do? I tried playing with both at the same time- tug of war with the wildman and fetch with Alex. Didn't work too well- resulted in a few dog fights over my attention. I also tried to encourage bonding between Stubbs and my daughter and husband so that Alex felt less threatened. That kind of worked, but Stubbs still wanted his new mama, just like Alex. During the first month, we had a few doggie fight skirmishes which I had to break up- always over who was getting more of mama's attention. After a month or so, that stopped. Oh yes, and it also helped that Stubbs was shipped off to doggie boot camp for two weeks to learn some basic commands and leash manners.
Once he was back, we established a consistent routine at feeding time. Stubbs was not food aggressive, but Alex became food aggressive (after all, that IS his favorite thing next to mama pets). We fed them on separate sides of the breakfast nook and gave them both the commands to "sit" and "stay" while the dishes were being placed. Alex gets to go to his bowl first, "OK, Alex!", closely followed by "OK, Stubbs!". I have seldom had a problem with food since except that when Alex failed to follow the commands on a few occasions and I attempted to pull him away from his bowl to start over, he nipped me. This was a shocker because he had never nipped anyone in his life, not even at our five year old daughter's birthday party when he was being mauled by 10 little girls! This happened three times before I caught on that he felt he needed to protect and gobble down his precious food so the "invader" didn't have a chance to get it. Now I just block him until I give the comand if I see him sneaking forward!
It has been almost 6 months now since we brought the invader home, and although I cannot say they are best buddies, they do tolerate each other. They have each established their own turf and repect each other's space. They get equal attention and mooch together. They don't play together, but they do enjoy chasing squirrels together in the back yard.
I guess the point I am trying to make is that introducing a new dog takes a lot of patience and time and you must NEVER ignore the resident dog and coddle the new one, otherwise there will be a lot of resentment. The resident dog should feel that he is the head honcho, and the newbie is the one joining the pack. Treat them equally. Mine probably would have bonded better had they been closer in age (they are about 5 years apart), but at this point I am settling for them tolerating each other, bonding while squirrel chasing, and maintaining a peaceable kingdom.
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