Many scientific studies have proven that having a dog can have an enormous impact on one’s whole life. Some scientists even claim that the owners’ life expectancy rises to 25% because of the healthy and beneficial influence of their dogs on their mental health. This all bears witness to the plausibility of the old proverb “Dog is man’s best friend.” What is more, all this speaks volumes of the fact to what extent dogs are capable of loving and attaching to humans. In the same way, they can be emotionally attached to their owners, and they can also be easily hurt.
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Therefore, although getting a new puppy is an excellent thing and will certainly make both you and your dog happy, your dog can be scared and also stressed out at the beginning. This is because dogs can be stress-prone and scared of new things, especially a new canine friend you will be sharing your love with. To this end, it is very important that you train your dog to accept a new one.
In that light, make sure you check out this guide to training your current dog before you bring your new pup home!
Meet on Neutral Ground
Ideally, you should try to get your two dogs to meet for the first time on the ground other than the one at your property. This is because your dog is probably attached to your property and feels an urge to protect it from all the “intruders”.
In that way, it may be a good idea to take your dog for a walk and then to a friend’s or neighbor’s yard, where you can let them meet and hopefully accept each other. Otherwise, your dog may take up a defensive approach to the new puppy and even try to scare it and even chase it away. This beginning of a long friendship is certainly not a good one and will make things much more difficult, so try to prevent it.
Offer Sniffing Opportunities
Once you decide to let your dogs meet for the first time, it should be a kind of fence meet. This way, both your dogs will be less afraid of each other and will try to sniff each other. Of course, this is completely okay, so you should offer them plenty of sniffing possibilities.
However, it is not rare that they may attack each other, so you should be especially careful at this moment, so for more detailed information and professional guidance, make sure you check https://pawsomedogstuff.com/, where you can find everything you need if you consider yourself a serious dog lover. Although people may think they know everything about their dogs, it is always more than recommended to consult a professional so that you can give your dogs the best treatment.
Walk them together
During their sniffing, look for the positive signs and evaluate their behavior. If it tends to be rather positive, then you may try letting them meet without the fence. If everything goes fine even without the fence, then your next step will be to walk them together.
By now, if prepared well, they should have already created a bond, so you may try to take them to the park or some open place and let them play a little bit. However, don’t let them play too much because they may start fighting. Remember, you aim to awaken a positive interest for each other in them. Once you have noticed this, then you can start walking to your home.
Together in the house for the first time
Once they have reached your house, don’t bring them in instantly. Rather, let them sniff around your house or building because dogs are very sensitive to details and changes, so make sure you make the whole process as gradual as possible.
Afterward, you may let them in your house and play with them. However, for this first time, you should play more with your old dog and less with the new one. This is important because your old dog is more prone to jealousy than the new one. So try not to make it jealous, but instead, spend more time dedicated to your old dog.
Pay attention to the meal times
You need to be especially careful with this moment. Dogs have very strong instincts when it comes to feeding, which is natural since it is the primary instinct in all animals. However, when there is another dog that will have a food share, it can seem very upsetting to your dog, so make sure you feed your old dog as much as usual.
Of course, you should by no means give them food in the same pot, for this could easily turn into a fight. Instead, give your old dog its usual share of food, and afterward, give your new puppy food in another corner of the room. Nevertheless, if you have even the smallest reason to believe they could fight over food, then it is also completely okay to feed them in different rooms.
It is recommended that you take these careful steps for a few days until you are sure the dogs have created stable friendships and have gotten to know each other well.
Give them an equal share of your love
If you have to decide to have a dog plus, then you must remain consistent with some principles. Firstly, you need to give them an equal share of your love. Dogs can easily sense how much love you give them, and especially your old dog can become very depressed and jealous of their canine friend.
Likewise, if you spend more time with your old dog, your new puppy can easily feel neglected and lonely. Therefore, you should by no means underestimate their capability of feeling love, so always make sure you give them both enough love and care and that you never neglect them.
Dogs are some of the most beautiful and cheerful pets in the world. So please treat them like this, and give them the love they deserve.
