Settling a rescue dog into the home, especially at night.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

We are getting our second dog on Friday - a rescue lab cross girl, aged about 4. We currently have a brown lab girl, with a very laid-back disposition. The two dogs have met, and seemed to react well to eachother, and the shelter volunteer was very positive about how the dog was reacting to our dog.

Dh and the dses went to see the dog today, and took with them a couple of our dog's blankets - one direct from her bed, so she can get used to the smell of our dog, and a clean one to go in her bed too, so that when she comes here, she will have something with her that smells familiar.

We are going to put their beds side by side under the stairs - it's our dog's safe place - her cage was there to start with, and now her bed's there - so the new dog will be with the old dog at night time.

She has some jealousy issues, apparently - it's why she was sent to the shelter - she got very attached to her owner, slept on her bed, and was generally allowed to be in charge, and we know this is going to be something we will have to deal with/guard against with her. Our current dog does come upstairs at night time for some time on the end of our bed, but goes downstairs happily when she's told it's time to do so, and then we have a stairgate across the bottom of the stairs - mainly to stop her sneaking back upstairs and eating the catfood!

I would be grateful for any advice that people can give us - this is the first time we have rehomed a dog from a shelter - I never had dogs whilst I was growing up, and though dh did, they were all raised from puppies - as was our current dog - so if anyone with more experience has any advice, we'd be very grateful.

I don't think you should start with the dogs beds being next to each other. The new dog will take a little while to settle in and your original dog may have her nose put out of joint. You will probably have some training to do with the new dog. It's quite a change.

I think it's often possible to over think these things. Three adult rescue dogs here, and regular fosters, who are expected to broadly get on and fit in. It's normal for things to be a bit tense for the first few days - all the dogs concerned will need to get to know each other, and learn the house rules, so expect a few odd growls and harrumphing. Feed well away from each other, and as previous poster said, I personally wouldn't put beds right by each other, but we've never used crates, so that may make a difference. In broad terms, we tend to find that dogs eventually choose where they'd like to sleep - each of our three has just evolved into various favourite lurking spots, and it generally works very nicely. Similarly, when going for a poo in the garden - each tends to have a favourite area

There are several very good books that help explain doggy behaviour and relationships (both with each other and with you) that you might find helpful and interesting to read. Often recommended on here - "In Defence of Dogs", "Don't Shoot the Dog" (about clicker training), "The Culture Clash" would all be great. The first two in particular are very readable.

I must say i like the idea of the dog getting used to the smell of her new friend by advance posting of the blanket - hope that helps settle things along.

Can we have pics please? The new arrival sounds gorgeous

Thank you for the advice - especially about the beds. We can put the new dog's bed in either the kitchen or the utility room, if it will be OK for them to have access to eachother, as we leave the hall, kitchen and utility open during the night, or we can put the new dog's bed in the dining room, which is closed off overnight, so that she has her own private space, which might be a good thing, I'm guessing.

I will definitely look out the books you mention, Scuttlebutter - I would like to do clicker training with ddog1 too, but when I tried to read up on it, and work out how to put it into action, my poor brain turned to porridge!

I will definitely post pics as soon as the dog arrives - we are due to pick her up on Friday. There are already pics of ddog1 on my profile, I think.

That is the most utterly, utterly adorable choc lab pup With a face like that I'm sure they could do anything....

The poncho - I cannot find the words..

Yup - the poncho is a bit ... unusual!! The dses have said that I am not allowed to wear it anywhere with them. So I might just have to (when it is eventually finished). evil

And Coco takes full advantage of her adorability - her food stealing exploits are legendary (though they'd be far less so if the males of the family remembered to put food out of reach, dammit) - three steaks, three salmon steaks, 15 mince pies, one raspberry turnover, a slice of birthday cake (the last two left unwatched on the front room coffee table - I am married to an idiot) and too many loaves of bread to count. But when you tell her off, she does Sad Face, and after that, it's hard to ground her or take away the PS2!

Coco is utterly scrumptious.

I think the poncho is superb, personally - possibly not to be worn to local shops, but superb nonetheless.

And if you have yummy things like that for Coco to steal, please can I come and live under the stairs too?

Any time, Elibean - you'd even be allowed on the furniture!

Well - the beautiful Mia has arrived home - she spent most of the journey lying on the back seat of the car, with her head on my lap. Settling in seems to be going as well as can be expected, at this early stage - lots of exploring and sniffing, but her body language is good - she's not hiding in corners or trying to run away, and doesn't seem overly stressed. Though it is early days, of course.

Pictures will be on my profile soon.

Oooh, look forward to pictures.

Glad its going well!

(I'll sit wherever you like for snacks )

glad to hear things are going well :) I hope you have a calm weekend! looking forward to seeing the pictures

Photos on my profile now - she's not easy to photograph, as she moves jolly quickly!

The first night went well - no crying/barking or destruction, though she did have an accident on the hall carpet - I assume that's to do with the new surroundings and will settle as she settles in (she is housetrained). Interestingly she can open doors (ddog1 has never acquired this skill), so she had a good mootle round most of the downstairs, and then decided that the front room couch would make a very nice place to spend the night! We are going to work out how to secure the front room and conservatory doors, as we don't want her sleeping on the couch long term, and do want her to stick to the same limits at night as ddog1.

Ddog1 stayed in her bed, despite having the run of most of downstairs - and I assume that, in time, ddog2 will get used to not having access to the rest of the downstairs (other than hall, utility room and kitchen) and will essentially forget that they are there at night.

Oh! She's gorgeous what a handsome pair she will make with Coco, shiny black and brown labs.....

You'd better lock your treats away, with all that lab blood in the house (Mia is lab x, isn't she?)

Glad the first night went well, sounds like very minor problems really - well done!