I have a friend who works in a dog shelter, she fosters dogs (we're not in the UK so things are a bit different here and stray / unwanted dogs is a real issue). We already have a 2.5 year old rescue ridgeback / staffy mix (we've had her since 8 weeks old) and were looking for another dog to keep her company.
My friend adopted a 9 week puppy (schnauzer mix) from the shelter that she would be very happy to keep but said we could have him for a couple of weeks to see how he got on with our bigger dog. If so, we can keep him, if not, she will. We are both experienced dog owners, we both work from home, have big gardens etc and obviously know that dogs are for life - we are not taking this lightly!
However, 5 days in and our big dog doesn't like the little guy. She growls whenever he comes near her or her crate, if he climbs up on the sofa with her, she gets down, if he runs into the garden, she comes into the house. He is mirroring her, wants to be with her all the time, doing his best to ingratiate himself with her, lots of play bowing etc but she's just not interested. We have given her lots and lots of attention, treats and obviously the pup doesn't walk with us yet. I often take him out in the car so he gets used to that so big dog has time without him too. We'll wait another few days but I'm wondering if this is ever going to work. I think that right now he'd be better off with my friend (she has just adopted another 9 week old puppy herself and is looking for a companion for him).
Any thoughts? Is this ever going to work? Is there anything I can do to help big dog like little dog?
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18 replies
MyFriendsCallMeOh · 13/11/2015 13:16
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