Sarge isn't coping well with new puppy

[themamabeth]

Okay guys, I'm calling in reinforcements here.

Things aren't going as well as I would like with Sarge and the puppy, and I if anyone has any advice I'd be eternally grateful.

Keep in mind: I am the only adult in the house. My husband is away for work, but I could probably have my MIL come in this weekend to help if necessary.

So...yesterday afternoon around 3 PM we brought the new puppy home. I brought him inside and put him directly into his crate. Sarge was in his own crate across the room, I'm thinking it is about 20 feet. So I got the kids sitting down, and I let Sarge outside to potty. I put him on the leash (he's never had any leash reactivity issues before) and brought him into the house. He went to the crate the puppy was in and barked and growled, and lunged. So I backed waaaaay up, got a pocket full of treats. Once he was calm, I rewarded him. I rewarded him for not looking at the puppy. We sloooooowly moved closer and closer, and eventually I was sitting on the floor by the puppy's crate and he was fine. So he hung out a bit, just normal, no leash or anything. He ignored the puppy.

Later, I brought the puppy out of the crate and Sarge didn't react very well. He was very pushy and kept biting at but not biting the puppy.

Then, we had Sarge in his crate and the puppy was out. If the puppy got even remotely close to Sarge's crate, he'd do the barking/lunging thing. So I had the kids play with the puppy while I sat on the floor next to Sarge's crate, and doled out some high value treats for him staying laying down and being calm. We tried once more with me holding the puppy and him coming to me, and it went a little better but he's still not nearly "ok".

This morning we had more instances of him lunging at the puppy's crate and him barking if the puppy gets near his crate.

There is lots of yawning and lip licking going on on Sarge's part. Right now, the puppy is asleep and Sarge is just pacing around and around and around.

We have never had an issue with Sarge and other dogs before. He's met lots, and been fine. Gah. I'm stressed, and I'm sure that's not helping anything.

Any suggestions on how to move forward from here? Am I being too impatient?

[Greenmagick]

Too impatient....

I mean definitely keep an eye on things and keep working, but its going to take longer for him to settle and get used to the puppy. WIth the crate, that is not uncommon, kind of like fence/barrier aggression issues.

[themamabeth]

Thank you. I am honestly really surprised at how he is reacting, and (this is wrong I know) but I feel angry with him because of it. He was my wonderful sweet boy before, and now he is being kind of a jerk and I don't know how to cope with it. I just want him to "act right" but I don't know how to teach him to do it, does that make sense? And then I think we make progress, and all of the sudden we are back to square one.

I think I might recruit my MIL this weekend to take all the kids so I can have a few hours to focus 100% on the dogs. I guess I just expected him to react like Ranger did, which was no reaction. She didn't care, not a bit. I thought Sarge would want to play and that would be my biggest challenge-keeping a tiny puppy safe from a big dog, but not be crazy like he is-aka I feel like he wants to eat the puppy.

[Greenmagick]

Have you (carefully) tried them outside at all yet? I know with my crabby lab mix, he was much better if we did intros outside and got everyone met and calm before moving in. For him it was more of being older and harder to move made him really nervous and anxious about his space and new puppies tend to ignore that.

WIth Ivy I do intros outside too...its her safe play zone where there are more "rules" inside and not as much room to maneuver etc

[dukers]

Intro outside on a nuetral turf should help... and if you think possible walk them together.

[themamabeth]

I wanted to try outside today but it is cold and after running Ranger we were all ready to be done outside. We will try tomorrow.

We have a big lot and there is part that I don't think sarge has ever even been over there so we will try that.

[oshagcj914]

I introduced Finn and Asaah outside in the lane, then we went to the back yard on leash, then eventually went inside. That worked well for us. We were planning to introduce them at a park, but we got home from Florida at like 5:30 am and there was no way. At first there was some snarling when Finn was getting into Asaah's space and of course I was Freaking. Out. But now they get along just fine. Try outside later and see how it goes.

[jrturk]

I would have your MIL come so you can each hold a leash on a walk. That way you can separate easier if needed. Walking next to each other (rather than face to face) is supposed to be less intimidating, plus you'll be on neutral territory.

That's how they always introduce the new dog on Pitbulls and Paroles, seems to work well.

[karenNJ]

I agree, always meet new dogs on neutral turf. Have your MIL come over and drive the dogs sep somewhere they have some distractions so they are aware of each other but not in a empty field with only each other. It is best if you can walk both dogs on leash one behind each other giving them each a chance to sniff and then walking side by side but that may not be possible at such a young age. If anything an appropriate dog greeting is done in a arched formation so it is side to front or front to back. Never front to front straight on. I also think you are moving too fast. Instead of moving the older dog to the pup i would move the pup to the dog. I would reintroduce them in the house after some neutral time and then treat like resource guarding. Have your older dog in the main room and bring the pup in on leash till it is just inside the room (have you MIL do this) and you start giving your older dog (who is leashed) lots of praise and some really high value treat (hotdog, steak, chicken. whatever but super special). Then take the pup out and stop all praise/food. Keep doing this over and over until the dog sees the pup come in the room and gets excited for his praise party. Then SLOWLY bring the pup closer and closer always making a huge fuss and stopping when the pup walks out. A couple days of this and your older dog will be associating that pup with really good things.

By the way when I brought my swissy pup home my springer HATED her. The pup tried to play and jump on my springer (of course) and he kept growling and snapping at her. We did a lot of time outside and made sure the pup was tired out and on leash so she couldn't bother my springer. In no time they were literally best friends. A lot of adult dogs do not like puppies.

[themamabeth]

You guys are the best.

I decided to try without my MIL-she's kind of high strung, and I wasn't sure her energy would be right for the situation.

So I had my oldest daughter stand outside with the puppy, and I brought Sarge outside on the leash. We started waaaaay back, so he could see the puppy. Once he was calm we moved a little closer, waited, moved, waited. Once we were about 10 feet away, I started walking Sarge in a circle, gradually getting closer and closer. Eventually, we made contact. He did great! He was a little intense at first, and I rewarded him every time he pretty much ignored the puppy. Then I had my daughter move away and we just started walking around the yard, and Bravo just tagged along. There was one incident where Sarge stepped on Bravo's foot and that caused a minute of everyone getting a little worked up, but we moved past it pretty easily. Both dogs got visibly relaxed, Sarge was totally indifferent to the puppy, ears back, tail down, the puppy's tail was wagging and he was comfortable enough to romp around.

I felt pretty confident, so we moved to the house. I had my daughter go in first so Bravo would follow her, and then we went in. It continued to go well in the house, although when Bravo got worked up and started to run, Sarge got too worked up too and that isn't so good.

So much good progress! I'm so happy with how things went.

Thank you all again for your suggestions, it was exactly what we needed.

[mnmouse]

Usually, a well-adjusted adult dog will accept a puppy just fine. I say usually with caution, of course. Let them get used to each other outside, with no barriers and dragging leashes once you are comfortable. Sarge should be allowed to let the puppy know what his limits are, though. Don't make him tolerate all puppy nonsense. Step in and distract the puppy if he is uncomfortable.

[themamabeth]

We had more success tonight! Bravo had been in his crate, and Sarge was laying on the rug in the living room, and Bravo starting whining to go out. I got him outside, and then let him walk back into the house on his own. Sarge was fine! And...Bravo laid down on the floor, and Sarge laid down a few feet away. This was something I was a little nervous about because it was them being very face-to-face. Sarge was cool. He even let the puppy get a proper nice-to-meet-you sniff that is impossible when Sarge is standing up. Puppy is back in his crate for bed, and Sarge got a hunk off of the pork loin I cooked for dinner as a special 'thank you for not eating our puppy' treat. I don't really think he wants to eat the puppy, he's not being aggressive, he's just not as mellow as I'd like him to be about everything. He's excited and unsure.

There is going to be a *lot* of distracting Bravo and hopefully teaching him some good manners. He's the most intense puppy I have ever had, he goes after everything with crazy determination. So far, I haven't found what he feels is an appropriate chew toy-we've tried Nylabones (three different types) a stuffie, and these jerky stick things. He's very meh about all of them. But, the baby's ears are pretty awesome I think I might have a pigs ear around somewhere, maybe we'll try that tomorrow.

[karenNJ]

Frozen kong (have to work up to it) or bully sticks? My boy could care less about nylabones but I did find this fake wood stick thing in the pet section of Walmart and he actually likes it! No rawhide though. Also, be careful for really yummy things with a new dog in the house. You never know when resource guarding will pop up and you only want positive experiences right now. Sounds like things are going well!

[SuzanneRM82]

For PUPPY chews, bully sticks, dried trachea, dried duck feet. I use all 3 with Eisen and they work wonderfully. A kong is useless right now to him, and Ferg was the same until several months older. Check out bestbullysticks.com. They have all sorts of weird dried stuff that will take a puppy forever to chew. I give Fergus one of whatever Eisen is getting, then keep them separated to eat them.

[themamabeth]

Frozen kong (have to work up to it) or bully sticks? My boy could care less about nylabones but I did find this fake wood stick thing in the pet section of Walmart and he actually likes it! No rawhide though. Also, be careful for really yummy things with a new dog in the house. You never know when resource guarding will pop up and you only want positive experiences right now. Sounds like things are going well!

Oh, you know what? We have one of those fake wood things! I will have to find it, that's a good idea. When Sarge was a puppy we did rawhide, those little flat pieces, because he didn't ever actually try to consume them. They seemed to satisfy his gnawing need and provide a good distraction, but I'd just toss them if they started getting worn. It was a lot of monitoring though.

I am being very careful about the toys right now, but that's a good reminder to not let my guard down as things get more settled in. One of the toys the puppy seems most interested in is a stuffy, and Sarge is pretty used to being told to leave those alone since he likes to steal them from the kids.

The girls are about to have quiet time, so I think I'll take the dogs out for some more hang-out time outside. When we do go out as a group, I'm having Sarge wait and letting Bravo go in first (and I am *so* proud of Sarge's 'wait' lately. I had kind of let it slide recently, and he's picked it back up like a champ). And all of the times last night that I took Bravo out but Sarge stayed inside, he waited by the door for us to go out and then went and laid down and didn't get up when we came back in. He's such a rockstar, and now I feel extra bad about being frustrated with him that first day. He got lots of extra love last night, and I slept on the couch so he could sleep on the living room floor with me (he's still usually crated at night and our bedroom floor is all hardwood with nowhere soft to sleep).