Introducing a new dog

[Hanne]

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In about three months from now my son and his family -including a 5 year old male Corgi- will return to the Netherlands.
We will live on walking distance from each other and I am looking forward to that.
The thing is, our dog (also 5, a female live stock guardian dog, a cao de Castro Laboreiro) is not very fond of other dogs.
She likes a few male dogs that she has known since she was young.
Any tips on helping us and her make the introduction any easier and also be able to keep the peace (hopefully) seeing each other several times a week?
We have a big back yard which might help?

Hope to hear from you, any tips will be welcome... We have learned to be patient regarding our dog and know that things may take time.

 

[JoanneF]

I don't have multiple dogs but I can share what I've read over the years.

It's usually best for them to meet on neutral territory rather than in the home. A good technique is to walk them, on lead, several meters apart - either off to the side, or with the less tolerant dog behind so she can see the other one. The best distance is where she is aware, but not showing any reaction to the other dog.

Depending on how much she doesn't like other dogs, you may need to take more than one walk before the next step, which is while still on lead, bring the two dogs a little bit closer while still watching your dog's body language for signs of tension. Provided she remains relaxed, walk that bit closer for a while then open out again.

Then keep building on that until they can walk side by side.

After that you could do introductions to your garden then the home.

You might find this helpful too - Dog Reactivity

 

[Hanne]

Thank you. I wonder how she will react.
She knows and trusts my son and his family as she has met them several times at our place when they came over for a stay and their dog knows and trusts us since he has met us at their place several times....but the two dogs themselves have never met.

 

[JudyN]

I have a dog walker friend who walked a reactive dog who wanted to take him out with me and my dog. We started off walking on opposite sides of the road, with me ahead (otherwise her dog kept stopping to look round and we got nowhere), and progressed very gradually from there. When we got to open spaces, after a while we'd let mine off lead (he could be hot-headed but didn't want to mess with reactive dogs) and eventually could let them off lead together. Occasionally there'd be a bit of a flash point if they were sniffing in the same place and the reactive dog had a 'moment', but over very fast as mine was keen to de-escalate, or simply move away.

A lot might depend on the personality of the corgi - the above wouldn't have worked when my dog was younger, more hot-headed and ready to rumble. The trick is to go very slowly, and to know your dogs and be able to read them very well.

Also, being in the same house together could change the dynamics completely, involving territoriality and a lot less room to keep apart, so you wouldn't be able to assume that just because a walk has gone well, they'll be fine indoors.

Good luck!