Introducing an adult dog into an established pack
I have three dogs:
- Gryphon, female American Akita, 4.5 years old, spayed
- Gojira, female Japanese Akita, 1.5 years old, intact
- Ghidora, male Japanese Akita, 1 year old, intact
In a month I will be bringing home Mosura, an 8 month old female Japanese Akita, intact.
When I got Gojira and Ghidora, both were only 10 weeks old and fairly easy to introduce to the existing dog(s). I've had some experience with serious fighting between my females, which lasted about a month and took about three months to "fix." I have three chain link dog runs with indoor sleeping areas, as well as a largish communal fenced area. The dogs sleep in a joined wire crate and x-pen in our bedroom at night.
My question is how to do the very first meeting between the dogs and first 24 hours after I get off the plane from Japan. I feel that the initial introduction is very important for setting the tone of their relationship, and a bad experience will be harder to overcome.
Any thoughts?
- Gryphon, female American Akita, 4.5 years old, spayed
- Gojira, female Japanese Akita, 1.5 years old, intact
- Ghidora, male Japanese Akita, 1 year old, intact
In a month I will be bringing home Mosura, an 8 month old female Japanese Akita, intact.
When I got Gojira and Ghidora, both were only 10 weeks old and fairly easy to introduce to the existing dog(s). I've had some experience with serious fighting between my females, which lasted about a month and took about three months to "fix." I have three chain link dog runs with indoor sleeping areas, as well as a largish communal fenced area. The dogs sleep in a joined wire crate and x-pen in our bedroom at night.
My question is how to do the very first meeting between the dogs and first 24 hours after I get off the plane from Japan. I feel that the initial introduction is very important for setting the tone of their relationship, and a bad experience will be harder to overcome.
Any thoughts?
Comments
If you have a friend in an apartment complex with a gated pool area, that is a good place too at this time of year. Ive introduced dogs to Toki at my apt. pool and it goes well. Though, I'm sure pools don't allow pets, but I pretend to not read the signs...
We usually bring new dogs in and wait for the initial excitement to go away before we start introducing them. We introduce the to the "safe" dogs first, then move on to the "reactive" dogs, and then end with the "aggressive" dogs.
I'm not a fan of restraining dogs during introduction (muzzles, leashes, fences, crates, harnesses - any type of restraint). I feel it just leads to frustration, and that will always cause problems with dogs - especially when they are excited about something (like a new dog).
I dunno tho, I read about all the horrible situation with bringing in new dogs and such, but we never really have those issues. Maybe our dogs are strange or something.
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Rob