Advice, please! - We have to reunite our dog population, one (ex-)male, Pirinean Labrador cross (i.e., big), one (F.)German short haired pointer, one (F.)greyhound, respectively, 5, 3 and 3 years old, both f.'s spayed. Up till now, the girls have been with me and the chap with my partner looking after the horses. All are used to sleeping with their respective humans.
Has anyone any pearls of wisdom to share about getting everyone together peacefully in a small house with a large garden? Anything to avoid/include in the routine, traps to avoid etc? I need to have this sorted by Friday (!) - thought it would be later in the year, but it's now!.........Over to everyone!
Thanks in advance,
Rita
You say "reunite". Does this mean they have lived together, or spent considerable amounts of time together, before?
If so, and there haven't been any problems, then my pearl of wisdom (!) would be, don't worry.
If not, then it's a bit hard to say not knowing the dogs.
My own experience, if it's any help is: my now ex-partner (nothing to do with the dogs!) had two dogs (aged 4 and 1 at the time of meeting mine) and I had two (aged 11 and 7 at that time), all castrated males. They had all met and been on a couple of walks with no problems. When the partner and I lived together we just put all the dogs together in the same house and they were fine. We had a couple of 'reactions' from my terrier who disliked being bounced on by the exhuberant and clumsy Irish Setter, who soon learned that small feisty dogs are not to be bounced on. Other than that, they all got on fine, eating and sleeping together.
Thanks for the ideas - two of the dogs in question have spent some time together before big Reg went to Gerona, two live together, and two don't know each other (sounds like one of those ghastly logic problems........). Anyway, the re-union has been postponed until the end of this week, and I guess we'll go with not looking for problems until they arise.
Rita
Ooh, you lost me in the logic problem! With so many dogs, I'd be inclined to introduce them in an open environment, such as a park, with one dog per handler. Keeping them all on a lead at first, try introducing the two dogs that don't know each other (hmmm, thinking about it, start off with only the dogs that don't know each other, including the others later). Let the unknown dogs play together for a bit, before letting their 'known' mates join in, at a later time/date if necessary. A bit vague, but you get the gist (I hope!). I agree that a neutral environment sounds best, before putting them all together in a small house. When they DO all live together, I would have each dog's bed in a different room, too, to give them their own space. Unless of course you have a HUGE bed yourself!
Well, they're all together here, now - big Reg arrived this morning and they all met up in the garden - as a matter of fact, on the few occasions when I've had to introduce dogs here, I've always found it goes easiest just letting them all get together on their own terms, (there's nowhere we could do any other arrangement, anyway) so that's what we did - so far so good, but we'll be keeping Reg out of the house for a good bit, so the girls have their own space.Reg not too keen on the girls coming near his beloved master, but otherwise ok. Fingers continue to be crossed.
Rita
sorry if this is taking too much away from the equines but i too have a dog problem.
I have a 11 yr old welsh springer who is always fine with other dogs and our two cats. On a couple of occasions we have taken in another dog which doesnt like the cats and will chase them. but given time and a quiet acceptance it has always ended ok with the dogs stopping and evenually accepting the cats as part of the family with no chasing at all. However .. the gsd we have just rehomed 5 weeks in and she still charges at them. The one cat is really trying to make contact but she is so iffy my heart is in my mouth. So far we have got as far as:
GSD tied up in the living room with no other activity (ie a quiet settled atmosphere) I have brought the cat in his basket into the room. After one hour when she has really settled i opened the door and stroked the cat she just watches intently ( i repeated this over 4 days and she accepted what was going to happen) next training session i moved to encouraging the relaxed cat to come out and walk around me having strokes etc and then quietly going back into the basket (this was also repeated over several days) finally with the cat on my lap she was allowed to sniff and touch him ( a bit too "poking" really but ok . so now we are as far as .. dog tied up. cat in basket brought into room. dog loosed. allowed to approach the basket and sniff cat but tied again if she gets whining and excited. cat basket opened with dog loose ( but cat staying in basket. dog tied up and cat (after fully settled) encouraged to "Walk" not rush out of room up to top floor ( where dog cannot get to) so fully safe.
On one occasion she tried to mouth ? take hold of the cats paw which he had pushed out of the closed basket door . Not a snap but a mouthy kind of pick it up. the cat was not distressed but i did push the dogs mouth away and said "no" ( (i must add that she has had three litters of pups and apparantly been a very good mother , also she is quite Mouthy" ie picking up a slipper walks a few yards drops it. the cushion that i sit on if i go to the car she will have picked that up ( not shaken it but just picked it up). finally when the cats basket is empty she will always take the bed out.
the thing that worries me is that she is quite an alert dog and will hear a cat move upstairs and be focussed, if she then spots it she will rush at it and i believe her intention is to intimidate it so that it runs away. she does like to chase birds and anything that moves.
Can anyone give feedback on what i have done so far and suggest a way forward)
p.s. i do still have a horse and look forward to our next event.
My GSD also had an incredible drive to chase things when i got him at 8 months old. I basically worked on his self control in any circumstance I could think of. At 20 months he's now well under control - mind you, I don't have a cat!!!!!!
thank you soo much especially for being so quick to respond. It looks like i have been instinctively going in the right direction. Not too many u turns ahead but i am about to go to our first dog training class tomorrow so .....
