01/15/2025
Happy New Year, Swellions 🐶☀ Let's talk about helping an Adult Dog adjust to a new Puppy!
My parents got a new puppy (welcome to the family, Jozey!) just before our 1 week holiday visit with them. Here are some of the ways we supported my girl Indy with this big change:
✅Expectations kept in check: While having a puppy-friendly/ tolerant adult dog can be extremely helpful when bringing home your new puppy, it is never an adult dog’s responsibility to teach a new puppy the lay of the land- it’s the human’s. There can be several reasons why an adult dog might not appreciate the unabashed energy of a puppy; pain and discomfort, lack of predictability, etc. Indy (who will be 7 years old in March 2025) hadn’t been around puppies of Jozey’s age (9 weeks) in quite some time. While having Jozey get familiar with another canine family member was important, our main goal as Indy’s people was to advocate for her needs, first.
✅Game Plans for Greetings: We knew that Indy would care far more about seeing my parents than meeting Jozey, and so we specifically instructed her greetings with Papa & Baba to be outside and away from Jozey. This gave Indy the chance to process one thing at a time while simultaneously keeping Jozey safe from being accidentally trampled on or traumatized. We had a few drop-in type visits while we were with my parents, so organizing how the girls interacted with others was equally as important.
✅Baby gates, Barriers and Boundaries: This is management 101 y’all; if we don’t want the puppy to get into something, we have to prevent their access to it. Adult to puppy introductions are no different! While we suspected everything would be fine, we aired on the side of caution and kept Indy’s initial greeting with Jozey behind a barrier. No behavior is ever guaranteed, and if we were going to be wrong in our assumption about Indy, then the barriers were perfect for keeping everyone safe. They could smell and see each other without anyone getting overwhelmed or hurt. Having baby gates, barriers and boundaries is highly recommended for bringing a new puppy home, regardless if another dog is involved!
✅Assigned Seating: Similar to the previous point, when dealing with resources (food, toys, space, people, etc.), we made sure that both Indy and Jozey had space for grace in assigned areas. Resource guarding (a broad term that encompasses many behaviours; is sometimes called Possession Aggression) is a completely normal behavior for dogs. Typically, it is a ritualized set of behaviours that keep a potential intruder at bay from usurping resources. However, Resource Guarding can also be quite stressful for all parties involved, can result in injury and isn’t a great way to facilitate a secure relationship between dogs. During feeding times, the girls were kept apart completely- Indy in the kitchen and Jozey in one of her playpens. When one girl wanted to play (which, of course, would typically happen at different times), we made sure the other was out of the arena and occupied with something else (rest, enrichment, etc.). When one of the girls wanted to rest, or wanted affection, we made sure that the need was met without the intrusion of the other. Consistent “assigned seating” is a great way to build predictability in a developing relationship and will keep everyone safe!
✅Supervision and Signal Recognition is Required: Of course, we didn’t keep the girls apart all hours of the day. After all, we wanted to give the girls a chance to be confident and figure each other out on their own terms. During barrier-less interactions, supervision and understanding of subtle dog body language signalling was required. While the former needs no explanation, understanding the visual signals dogs might express during social interactions can help us humans recognize when support might be needed. As a generalized rule of thumb, puppies 6 months of age or less will not display the signals typically seen in ritualized aggression (ex: hard staring and/or half-moon eyes, bearing teeth, growling, etc.). Instead, they tend to default into using signals of appeasement, negotiation and displacement (ex: submissive crawling and/or rolling onto their back, licking the adult dogs mouth persistently, paw lifting, play bows, etc.). Similarly, a puppy-friendly or tolerant adult dog will also display subtle signs of stress (ex: lip licking, head and/or body turning, tension in the face and/or body, persistent avoidance, etc.) before taking any action against a puppy who is pushing boundaries. Furthermore, the action usually taken in response to said puppy behavior would be to give the puppy a quick, largely verbal warning (ex: teeth bearing, growling, barking, etc) and/or move away entirely.
I sometimes jokingly call this time of 6 months or less “The Puppy Card” stage where social dynamics between puppies and adults are much more forgiving. After 6 months, things tend to get a bit more complex. Again, there are absolutely exceptions to these rules and no behavior is ever guaranteed. However, recognizing these subtle signals of stress is feedback for the humans that support and intervention may be required. I'll go over some of the specifics in the videos attached to this post!
✅Escape Routes and One on Ones: When Indy would get fed up with Jozey’s puppy-ness, we made sure to give her an out- an escape route from the madness. Thankfully, Jozey had not gotten the hang of jumping up on couches or doing stairs at this point. Therefore, no matter which area of the house we were in, we made sure that the route was clear so that Indy could either jump up on the couch or climb a few steps to get some air. We did, of course, also make sure that there was plenty of one on one time, sans Jozey. This meant that when we were out for our daily walks with Indy, we were mindful to give her as much agency as feasible; she got to choose where the walk went, and how long to sniff (provided it was safe to do so). We also made sure to have lots of one on one play time (tug, fetch, etc.) during these adventures, too!
If you're having trouble with your adult dog and new puppy, please don't wait until conflict happens. Reach out to me here through facebook, or at www.swellhoundtraining.com so we can get everyone on the right track! 💙🐶💛
