Accepting a New Dog in the House?

Question

We've had our Chihuahua/Jack Russell mix for three months, and she's made herself at home with the family perfectly fine. She tends to be aggressive, but then very skittish after barking or growling at another dog. Recently, we got another JRT mix, and our Chihuahua made sure to let him know she was boss the first day, which I was told is good when accepting the new dog in the home. But then he began to take the upper hand, and our poor original doggie has been running away from him, and she won't eat, pee, or play when he's in the room. She's very scared and jumpy, and this has gone on for two days. I make sure to give her extra love, and I always feed her first, but the new dog totally dominates her. Is there anything I can do to make her feel less threatened and accept the new dog into the family, or can only time tell?

Answer 1

Firstly, dun encourage your original dog's behaviour by immediately petting or giving him attention when he runs away, wont eat, etc. Many dog onwers do this unconsiously and dogs actually learn that when they behave certain way, i get more attention from mom, so to get your attention, they keep doing it which is not what you want.

Stay cool and calm about the whole issue.
Treat both dogs equally and let them work out their hirarchy on their own. Make sure you discipline them consistently if certain behaviour is not allowed. e.g. humping or fighting.

Answer 2

I actually have the same kind of situation with my two female cats. Now I'm not gonna go into depth about how dogs and cats might compare in this situation, but let's just stick to saying the two work similar for now. While we've not been able to stop our youngest female from threatening the other older female (who had no original intentions of hurting back), we've tried to seperate them when it happens and get things back under control. As I'm sure is the same for you, the task of breaking up the fight gets tedious and tireding, but I still believe there's gotta be results. I think you just have to scold the younger dog with the right amount of harshness, while of course not going too far. Over time you can only hope that the younger dog will come to realize the consequences of bothering the original.

Answer 3

the ideal is for neither dog to be the boss. In theory YOU are the boss. Easier said than done, huh?

what you need to do is this. First, don't let the dogs interact with each other unless there is a person around. That means you need to crate them or keep them in separate rooms if they're alone in the house. When they ARE together, you should correct ANY dominant behavior. If the male tries to dominate the femals, flip him onto his back in front of her and hold him till he calms. Same withthe female. Often just a firm "NO" will stop dominant behavior before it really starts.

it really sounds like her initial "aggression" was fear based anyway, so you're going to need to deal with it before it gets completely out of control. If you're willing to make the investment it'd only take a session or two with a behaviorist or trainer to get all the info and training you'd need.

Answer 4

Your dog sounds like she hasn't been well socialized with other dogs and is generally fearful of them, so your new family member would be no exception. She tried to dominate him at first to protect herself, but he quickly discovered that she's too weak and fearful to really back it up and he can cow her into submission pretty easily.

Well, that's fine, it doesn't really matter which dog is the dominant one, as long as both respect you as leader and they don't fight (play fighting is fine, you should be able to tell if it turns serious.)

If you've only had the new dog for a few days, your first dog probably just needs more time to get used to him, to realize that he won't hurt her (assuming he doesn't!) and to discover that he can be fun to play with. It's a good idea to continue to have them do things together, like eat together, walk together, play together, etc. If she won't eat when he's there, try putting them on opposite sides of the room and standing between them. If that's not enough, you could try hand feeding her while the other dog eats.

Make sure that you aren't petting her and "consoling" her when she is acting frightened. That just reinforces that there is something to be frightened about. Instead, reward her when she is brave or calm, and ignore her when she is acting fearful, unless she looks like she might fight or hurt herself somehow (like trying to run away and running blindly into something or jumping off something too high.)

Try training them together, with some really tasty treats. Usually, a dog that is intent on obedience and getting a really good treat will suddenly ignore all kinds of things that bothered them before, and she will start to realize that being next to this other dog and behaving can get her good stuff!

Good luck!

Answer 5

Don't feed them seperate. Feed them together and watch them. My cats swap there dominance at each meal! Puzzle the youngest seem to be the 1 that takes the longest to feed. Normally during the time, our other cat Cameo(2yrs) comes up and steal Puzzle (18months) food.

Number 2; Try patting them together.

Number 3; Spend alot of time with them both. Try and give equal affection to both dogs!

I never had two cats before-So its new for me too, but i knew from previous research that you should feed them together.

Put food down together!

http://www.geocities.com/Augusta/2525/multidogs.htm

http://www.talktotheanimals.com.au/last_week.html

Answer 6

time will take over and they will get along and both love u! have the younger one realize that the other one is alpha. feed at the same time and walk both of em

Answer 7

you shold train your new dog to not dominate a much smaller dog like your first dog also feed them together and i think they would tolerate echother better

Answer 8

feed them at the same time and keep an eye on them, play with them together, take walks together