Sunday, July 25, 2010

Please help. Need advice for helping old dog adjust to new puppy?

Our 8-year-old female golden retriever is not adjusting well at all to the new golden puppy. It's beyond not liking him -if he even ';touches'; her, she jerks up and walks to the other side of the room.





She also seems to be very sad and is no longer eating like she used to.





Some of the things we are doing is: greet her first when both dogs are in the room, give her lots of love even when she's sitting alone. Also, the puppy is in crate training so doesn't have free reign of the house, but still, I've never seen Dora so sad.





Is there anything I could do to ease the transition?Please help. Need advice for helping old dog adjust to new puppy?
things will change soon. u don't say how long ya have had the pup i'm guessing not long. pups can be annoying and what she is doing is right. if the pup keeps chasing she will end up correcting it...with a show of teeth. which will turn in to a growl or snap. should she get to annoyed. they best thing to do is not give her anymore attention then what she got before pup. use her in the training of the puppy. and be sure to walk them together. the pup will want to be at ur dogs side it makes heeling easier to teach. if u are playing with pup besure to include her. good luck.Please help. Need advice for helping old dog adjust to new puppy?
My dogs did something like this,but now they are best friends! Our dogs are outside dogs and the older dog acted like she had total control over the yard. So we divided the yard in half with some chicken wire (that way they can still see and sniff each other). We left them like this for about 2 weeks. Then we opened up a small opening so they could go back and forth with each other but we could close it up if they didn't get along. Just make sure that you are giving them both equal attention. My bigger dog gets really jealous if we are petting the puppy and not her!
She'll come around. She has to learn and feel the situation out for herself. Don't treat her any differently than you normally would. Showing her more affection in this state is only encouraging her ';sad'; behavior.





You need to act as if nothing has changed. Show her affection and attention but not to extent that its ';special';. Walk the dogs together (that is VERY important). Let the puppy play w/ her. If she gets up and leaves so be it, don't force it.





Train both together and seperatly. Play with them together and seperatly. Feed them together.





The puppy will pick up a lot of good habits (will help w/ potty training) when spending time w/ Dora.





As long as Dora isn't attacking the puppy (snapping and nipping doesn't count...she'll probably do that to establish personal barriers) its okay.





Good Luck
give your old dog more attention, show her that you still care about her. most of the time when owners get a new puppy when they have a older dog, the dog feels like he/she isnt important anymore and owners usually pay attention to the adorable puppy.





so just make her feel important! ;)
theres relly nothing you can do my older dog is always biting our younger dogs....i think its because the older dog had more attention before the younger dogs came in to it's life
Ohh poor sweet, she feels second best - keep treating her like the dominate dog. Feed her first, give her attention first and encourage and give her treats when she is loving to the pup. At least she is not aggressive, that shows that she feels 'left out', even though you are not. Treat the old one as the special one and the pup and second, the older one should soon realise he is not a threat but a friend.
This is normal behavior, Dora is jealous of losing her top spot. After about two to three months introduce another dog. This will give Dora a new ';enemy'; and she will bond more with the puppy. Then when the new dog leaves Dora will still be more friendly with the puppy. Overnight for a couple of days would be best.





I've been fostering for three years and this seems to be a pattern. We've had up to six dogs at one time, four of which are ours. Good luck.
This is unusual, but better than growling and biting. It sounds like you give her plenty of attention, but when you give her attention, don't dilute it by including the puppy.





Instead, continue to give her personal attention and uninterrupted feeding. But when you are playing with the puppy, then you can include her.





She has lost her one on one time with you. Give that back to her, even if you have to put the puppy in a different area. Then, when you play with the puppy, include her... during the puppy's play time.





The puppy probably pesters her to play all the time, and she wants him to leave her alone. But if you give her plenty of time when she wants it, then when you go play with the puppy, she may come over to join in...
Ok, this is what my neighbors are doing, it is working out rather well. The dogs are outside dogs but should work just as well for inside dogs. They have a kennle (you could use a room or fence off part of your house) and they put both the older dog and the puppy in it all day long and let them out at night and they still end up playing together. At first the older dog didn't like the idea of having a puppy around they seem to be just fine now. Whatever you decide to do I hope it works out for you.

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