Introducing a new puppy into your home can be a fun and exciting time for your family. Don’t forget there are 2 sides to every story. While your all excited about the new addition to the family, don’t forget the other 2 sides to this equation. First your new puppy and second your adult dogs. Your puppy is going to be put in a new world in just a blink of an eye. Everything it’s ever known has suddenly disappeared and nothing is familiar now. It is dealing with new people and strange new scents. It will get nervous once it smells the scent of other dogs present. It doesn’t know if it has crossed a boundary and invaded another dogs space or if it is going to be attacked for doing so.
Don’t bring your new puppy home to a house with your adult dogs waiting to meet the new family member. Your puppy needs time to adjust to it’s new home for about an hour or more. Having an adult dog present will only make your puppy more nervous and could get it bit. Let it meet the family and get use to all the new surroundings, then in time you can let it meet it’s new dog friends.
Don’t be disappointed when you finally allow the new puppy and adult dogs to make contact and they don’t get all excited about it or like the new puppy. To an adult dog a puppy is just a pain in the rear. The puppy has terrible social skills and just don’t understand how dog society works at this point. The new puppy will break all the dog social rules because it has not learned them yet. This really annoys adult dogs so in most cases, there won’t be a welcome wagon put out for your new puppy.
So what are the social rules a puppy breaks? For one thing they don’t have recognition of the pecking order of who is the boss and who is who in the ranking order of dog society. The adult dogs you have at home already know this order and abide by it. Puppies just don’t give any respect to that because it doesn’t know anything about it.
Jumping on the adult dogs head when it’s sleeping. Puppies look to engage play but they don’t know how to correctly get it started. This will usually draw a low soft growl from your adult dog. They are just letting the new pup know that’s not the right way to go about things.
Stealing toys. If your adult dog is playing with a toy, the new puppy may run up and try to take it away. This may cause the puppy to get bit because your adult dog will be a little possessive and that usually applies to all the dogs unless it has been invited to a game of tug of war.
Biting tails and ears. Real tender spots on dogs and a big no no for puppies. Puppies usually bite too hard and that may cause your adult dog to bite the puppy.
Getting in my face. Adult dogs don’t like their space invaded and any dog including a puppy that gets in their face is considered a challenge to dominance. This could start a fight.
These are the most common rules a new puppy will break within dog society. Your adult dog may bite or nip the new puppy when it breaks these rules but under supervision it’s good to allow your adult dogs to teach the new puppy how to act. I stress supervised because some dogs could be overly aggressive and could hurt the new puppy. Always supervise your new puppy when it’s with the adult dogs. Be sure to give your adult dogs a break from the puppy by keeping them separated when play time is over. Adult dogs will only tolerate so much before they become highly aggressive towards an unruly puppy.
In time which may seem forever and a day, your new puppy will learn all the rules to dog society and be a welcomed part of the pack. It could take several weeks to several months. it all depends on your adult dogs and how quick your puppy learns the right behavior.
