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The Key To Introducing A New Puppy To Your Older Dog

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How to Introduce a New Puppy to Your Older Dog

Introducing a New Puppy to Your Older Dog
Tracy King/Adobe Stock

Bringing home a new puppy with a current older dog at home can be challenging, but it can be done peacefully and positively. As dogs get older, they prefer quiet and comfy spots with minimal distractions. In contrast, puppies are loud, move really fast and can pester older dogs, which can quickly cause conflicts.

If you’re wondering how to introduce a new puppy to an older dog, start by separating them first. Keeping them separated in the beginning is the first step to peaceful co-existence. It’s a tool for teaching boundaries and polite manners while preventing dog anxiety and aggression from developing later on.

Watch Your Older Dog’s Body Language

Some pet owners assume their senior dogs will flourish with a new puppy around, but the opposite actually happens. When you introduce a new puppy to your older dog, you may notice your new puppy harassing him. If this happens, watch your older dog’s body language. If your older dog moves away from or ignores your puppy, support her decision by redirecting the puppy away from her.

Keep squeaky toys and yummy treats close by to give your puppy something else to do instead of chase his older sister. Your older dog will soon warm up to the puppy. It just takes a while to trust a roommate, especially if you didn’t pick your roommate. 🙂

Feed Meals Separately

Keep your new puppy and older dog separated during meals. Puppies should eat in their crates, so they learn good things happen there. If your older dog finishes her food quickly and walks over while your puppy is eating, redirect her with a potty break outdoors. Prevention is key to keeping your older dog from stealing food. Resource guarding behavior can easily rear its ugly head before you know it.

Never Allow Harassment

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Allowing dogs to “work it out” never works. It never ends nicely.[/perfectpullquote]

Puppy zoomies and sharp teeth? Yikes! It’s important to provide your new puppy plenty of playtime, but never allow him to harass your older dog. If your puppy chases, climb ups or harasses your older dog, that’s your call to intervene. Immediate intervention prevents an older dog from growling, snapping or biting your new puppy. Allowing dogs to “work it out” never works. It never ends nicely.

If your new puppy runs over to pester your older dog, call him to you and reward with super yummy treats. If your puppy continues to chase your older dog, quickly walk over and pick your puppy up. Now, walk to the other side of the living room and play with your puppy. Soon, your new puppy will learn that fun happens with you, and it’s rewarding to not pester an older dog.

RELATED: Choosing the Best Dog Monitor Camera for Your Home

Keep Them Entertained While You’re Away

Teach your new puppy that crates are fun, and keep your puppy crated whenever you’re not home. By now, your older dog has already earned free access to your home, so continue to allow your older dog to nap on the sofa while you’re away.

Do keep your puppy’s crate away from your senior dog’s favorite napping spots though. Try placing the dog crate in your bedroom or dining room. Turn on soft music and toss everyone a frozen food stuffed toy before leaving.

Having your new puppy and older dog in the same house with relaxing music on and letting them enjoy something yummy together teaches them to associate good things with being together. Soon, your puppy and older dog will enjoy chilling at home while you’re away.

Puppies and older dogs can get along happily, but it takes time.

How To Use Facebook To Help Dogs In Need

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Help Dogs in Need the Right Way

Help Dogs In Need
Bojan Pavlukovic/Adobe Stock

In a perfect world, social media would be packed with wagging tails, adorable puppy faces and darling dog tricks. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible. Eventually, a dog lover will stumble upon a desperate-dog-in-need post, and it will tear at her heartstrings. Before you hide the post or tag your friend in a comment, learn how to use Facebook to help dogs in need.

Verify the Dog’s Status

When desperate pleas pop up on your social media feed, take a few moments and verify the dog is still in need. Verify by clicking on the original picture and scroll through the comments for updates. Once a dog has found a foster home, or has been safely pulled from Animal Control, someone usually updates the entire group. If nothing is noted, this dog is probably still in desperate need.

After checking if a dog still needs help, please share the post publicly with your Facebook or Twitter family. When sharing, take a moment to copy and paste the original message including the dog’s location (city and state), specifics about the dog (breed, age, gender, contact person) and verification that the dog is still in need. If you’re unable to foster or donate to help the poor dog, the very least you can do is share his or her story.

Comment Only If You Can Help

There’s no question that Facebook has certainly benefited dogs in need. Many dogs have been adopted due to lightning fast viral attention. However, there’s a downside too. Many well meaning dog lovers write comments that aren’t helping the dog in need. These excessive comments clog up Facebook posts and worse yet provide a false sense of safety.

We all want to help these dogs, but posting “Someone please help this dog now,” “I wish I could help, but I have 4 dogs already” or “This dog looks just like my dog” or tagging a friend within a comment actually delays help. Instead, comment only if you’re able to offer help.

Better Ways of Helping Dogs in Need

Foster, transport, donate or offer your skills. Most rescue shelters accept donations through PayPal or post an Amazon wish list on their websites. If nothing is posted, message the shelter and ask how to send donations. Then, share this link to friends and family on Facebook.

You can also start a fundraiser or make cute hats for shelter dogs. Many years ago, a Pit Bull rescue created beautiful flower hats to showcase available dogs up for adoption. If you’re crafty, offer to create beautiful adornment pieces, such as sequin ties for male dogs or hats. Be strategic with your social sharing, and offer help.

Don’t Scroll Past It

Simply put, seeing sad dogs hurts. Over the last year or so, I’ve noticed a sharp decline in social media shares for posts about dogs in need. I’ll use my social media friends and followers as an example.

I have more than 500 dog-obsessed friends and followers, but maybe only one of my friends will repost a plea for a dog in need. About 3 to 4 years ago, at least 40 people would’ve shared the post. Why such a huge gap now?

From my perspective, it’s gut-wrenching and exhausting to see animals in desperate need every day. Some days, between 5 to 10 pitiful furry faces pleading for help pop up on my newsfeed. Some posts rip my heart into pieces due to unimaginable animal cruelty. I scroll past quickly, telling myself that not seeing it makes it not happen. But then I remind myself that these poor dogs have no voice and that I do.

Social media is powerful, but dog lovers must be strategic to help dogs find their forever home.

Psychic Readings For Dogs: I Want To Believe

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My Experience With Pet Psychic Readings

Animal Communication
Monkey Business/Adobe Stock

Whether or not you believe in the supernatural, pet psychic readings are certainly an interesting topic. After polling pet owners on their supernatural beliefs, I found results were split right down the middle. I’m from south Louisiana and our culture strongly believes in supernatural powers and psychic abilities. While I mostly believe in science-based principles, sometimes I encounter tiny gray areas that allow supernatural power to seep in. Here’s my experience with psychic readings for my dogs. (It just might leave you scratching your head!)

Why I Turned to a Pet Psychic

Many years ago, I shared my home with an extremely aggressive dog. Since he was a young puppy, he was troubled, but had made tremendous strides during his adolescent years. Just when we had reached our dog training goals, he regressed.

After exhausting several veterinary behaviorists and fellow dog trainers for advice, a very good friend of mine recommended a pet physic reading. Honestly, if this recommendation had been from someone else, I would’ve scoffed at the idea. However, this person is world-renowned in animal behavior, is extremely accomplished in the pet industry and had great results from a recent psychic reading for her dog. Hum, could this work?

During the Psychic Reading

After waiting three weeks for an opening, I finally got on the phone with my friend’s highly recommended pet psychic. She was extremely pleasant, but kept small talk to a minimum and asked very few questions. Within 30 seconds of our call, she asked if I was calling about a big fluffy dog to which I answered yes. She said he’s a smart boy, but he suffered from really bad headaches. It’s important to note, I never reveled my dog’s gender during our call. I felt goosebumps run down my spine.

The psychic told me my dog’s exact age, gender and described him completely. She also mentioned specifics about his personality that no one knew except for me and my husband. She said my dog had an issue with his neck, and that was causing his headaches. We were advised to find a good chiropractic veterinarian and have his neck adjusted in a specific spot. After writing down the exact adjustment location, she said, “Hang on a minute, your little dog is so sad.” How did she know I had another dog?

Apparently Stella, my Miniature Bull Terrier, was sad about our recent move. We had moved into our new home about six weeks ago. To help Stella through this adjustment period, the psychic said she would talk to Stella and explain our move was for the best. As I waited on the phone for a few minutes, I could hear Stella’s tail wagging underneath my desk. After a few closing pleasantries, we ended our call.

After Our Psychic Call

During our entire conversation, I took notes. After hanging up, I sat and cried. Honestly, I was shocked how accurate the animal communicator was about my dogs’ conditions. Stella was a different dog after my conversation with the pet psychic; she was back to her old self and played for hours. I found an amazing veterinary chiropractor and scheduled an adjustment for Santiago, my large Bouvier. As you guessed it, his painful area was exactly where the psychic recommended. While Santiago’s aggression never really went away, regular chiropractic adjustments sure helped.

Before pointing to social media or the Internet as hints during our psychic reading, I wasn’t on social media at the time. I had used rescue dogs as demo dogs in articles and videos back then, so it was impossible for the pet communicator to know specifics about my dogs. Trust me, I didn’t say much during our conversation, as I was too busy taking notes.

Other Dog Experts’ Encounters

Over the years, several dog behavior experts confided in me about their personal experiences with pet psychics and animal communicators. Some called because their dogs acted oddly during conformation shows, refused to jump or climb over certain agility equipment, had mysterious illnesses, or had recurring pains that vets were unable to detect. Regardless of the reason, most dog behavior experts were very satisfied with their pet psychic reading results. While this is an unconventional subject, it’s certainly interesting and food for thought if you really want to know what your dog is thinking. 

Have you consulted a pet psychic? If so, what was the outcome?

House Training An Adult Dog

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How to House Train an Adult Dog

House Training Adult Dog
nenetus/Adobe Stock

Potty accidents, caused by adult dogs, is much more common than you think. Most adult dogs will potty outside in the backyard, but will also potty inside when the right opportunity arises (e.g. when it’s raining outside :)). Regardless of the reason, some adult dogs may need a house training refresher course. If your dog potties inside your home, follow these simple steps to house train an adult dog.

Dog House Training 101

When teaching an adult dog potty training skills, you should follow the same steps you’d take for potty training a puppy. Remember, it’s up to you to teach a dog house training skills. Dogs aren’t pre-programmed to understand pottying indoors is considered rude. 🙂

Crate Your Dog

Confining a dog to a small area is an important step for house training an adult dog. Usually, dogs won’t potty where they sleep, so confining them in a crate teaches dogs to “hold it.” Crate training can be extremely helpful when used properly. However, you shouldn’t leave your adult dog or puppy in a crate for more than 4 hours. If you’re unable to keep an eye on your dog, toss a food filled toy into the dog crate and close your dog inside. This will prevent her from wandering into the formal dining room and pottying. When in doubt, crate your dog before chatting on the phone or reading through text messages.

Leash Your Dog During Potty Walks

When asked if their dogs potty in the backyard, pet owners swear their dogs do, yet their dogs come right back indoors and urinate on the carpet. While this raises a red flag from a dog trainer’s perspective, it’s important to rule out any health issues with a veterinarian first. Once health issues are cleared, it’s time for leashed potty breaks in the yard.

Bring your dog outside on leash in the most boring part of your backyard. Now wait for “it” to happen, and reward when your adult dog potties. Once she’s done, give her a treat and unsnap the leash. Leash walks aren’t forever. It’s a dog training tool to verify a dog is actually pottying outside, and it provides plenty of opportunities to reward good behavior.

If a dog doesn’t potty outside, bring her indoors and place her inside the crate with a food stuffed toy. After 20 minutes, take her outside again. Continue until she potties outside and reward her, so she learns that pottying outside makes treats happen.

Set a Schedule

Life gets busy, and dogs are usually forgotten. Creating a set potty schedule is key. Following a set schedule will certainly jump-start a house training protocol. Set your dog’s potty training schedule in a highly visible area, such as a refrigerator. Even better, set a reminder on your smartphone. Check out an example of a house training schedule.

There is One Big Difference Though

When house training a dog, the core principles and skills are the same regardless of a dog’s age. But there’s one big difference that most pet owners seem to forget, and it’s a challenging one. When dogs practice a behavior for a long time, they get really good at it. Behaviors become patterns and habits, which are challenging to fix. It will take longer to house train an adult dog than a new puppy.

This applies to humans as well. Don’t believe me? Try shaking hands with your left hand next time. It feels weird, and most people quickly return to what they know, which is shaking hands with their right hand. You’ve shook hands with someone’s right hand for years, so it feels weird doing anything else. Remember this when your adult dog has a potty accident; they’re relearning new habits and skills.

It Can Be Done

Patience and consistency is key. When your adult dog has an accident, it’s usually because she was allowed too much freedom too soon. Take a step back, and follow the three steps for house training an adult dog. Never punish your dog for potty accidents, as she’ll learn to potty in far away areas, which is counterproductive. Reward often and keep an eye on your dog until she’s had 30 potty accident free days.

UP NEXT: 5 Tips for Sharing a Home With an Incontinent Dog

Why You Should Avoid Pet Stores Selling Puppies

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Puppy Mills & Pet Store Puppies

Puppy Mills
sommai/Adobe Stock

Over the last couple of years, passionate dog lovers have successfully brought attention to a sore spot in the pet industry—pet store puppies. It seems like this movement is finally picking up momentum, as many large cities are now banning pet stores from selling puppies and dogs. This is certainly a win for dog lovers everywhere, and here’s why.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Puppy mills are run by heartless individuals looking to raise dogs cheaply and make a quick profit.[/perfectpullquote]

What are Puppy Mills?

Puppy mills are deplorable dog breeding factories. They mass produce purebred and designer dogs to fill demand for new puppies. Puppy mills ship very young puppies to any location regardless of distance.

Why Puppy Mills are Bad

Puppy mill dogs are kept in tiny cages where they’re forced to live in their own feces and urine. They don’t have access to veterinary care, are skinny from lack of nutrition, and have matted coats and severely overgrown nails due to lack of basic care.

Breeding stock aren’t health or temperament tested. Instead, they’re forced to have litter after litter to feed consumer demands from pet stores and unknowing pet owners. Puppy mills are run by heartless individuals looking to raise dogs cheaply and make a quick profit.

RELATED: Finding a Dog Breeder: How to Find the Right One

Looking at pictures of puppy mills is sickening enough, but witnessing a puppy mill in person is gut-wrenching. The stench will knock you off your feet and burn your eyes. These poor dogs are barely able to turn around in their cages and are left in dark rooms with no access to sunlight. Most puppy mill dogs have never walked on grass.

Watching these sickly momma dogs covered in mats and feces feeding tiny puppies just makes your heart hurt. Since these dogs have been handled and treated this way, puppy mill dogs are completely terrified of humans.

Given these horrible conditions, it’s easy to see why puppy mills are bad. Unfortunately, puppy mills are everywhere. Most are hidden in rural areas. When one is shut down due to animal cruelty laws, another one pops up to fill demand for puppies. It’s a never-ending battle, and dogs are the victims.

Pet Store Puppies

High consumer demand for puppies is the reason pet stores turn to puppy mills. Pet stores selling puppies are looking to fill inventory quickly, and puppy mills are the most convenient way to fulfill these needs.

Pet stores don’t help these poor puppies out. Pet store puppies are kept in crates 24 hours per day with no access to the outdoors and are forced to potty where they sleep. Potty training a puppy mill puppy is beyond challenging because they’ve learned to potty anywhere. Puppies are little sponges until they’re 16 weeks old, so keeping a puppy in a crate with limited interaction with the world is detrimental. In addition, pet stores don’t properly screen prospective pet owners. This means these innocent pet store puppies could end up anywhere.

Just Say No

Nothing will be done until we do something about it. As a concerned pet owner, I urge you not to buy pet store puppies and educate prospective dog owners on why puppy mills are bad. Don’t shop at pet stores that sell puppies and don’t purchase dog treats from pet stores that don’t sell dogs or puppies. At the very least, please share this article to educate others.

Don’t feed puppy mills. Just say no.

Dog Training Nation is a dog training blog for pet owners and dog lovers. We cover a range of topics from puppy socialization tips to dog aggression to dog health. It is our hope you share our content to make the world a better place for dogs.

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