What’s your experience of adding a new puppy to a household that already has a dog?

[chaosisaladder]

We’ve got a lovely 2 year old pug cross who is such a good boy (!) - though I’m reading threads on here and thinking we got quite lucky in terms of his ease of training. We raised him from a pup and although house training took a bit of time, he is very well behaved. We’ve just brought our new pup home, also a pug cross and she’s fitting in really well so far.

My question is - is separation anxiety still as bad for them when they have another dog around? They are getting on really well so far.

I don’t remember our boy being that anxious but it’s quite possible that I’ve just forgotten (DD2 was 6 months old when we got him so I was in the throes of sleep deprivation!)

Hi

we have had 4 ddogs in total now ...had ddog 1 then got ddog2 when first was 9 . No problems at all and ddog2 never had any anxiety, though he was hard to house train ..i thought he would just follow ddog 1 ..but no!
all four of ours have been easy , with ddog2 being hardest to house train but otherwise all easy
never had separation anxiety but we also never bought into the thought life stopped for yrs when puppy was little and you could never leave them etc etc. we crate trained and had no problems whatsoever
but it migh tbe a breed thing
we have cavalier spaniels ..notoriously lazy dogs so never minded being left to sleep for hours !

our current 2 came as a pair so always had each other...they are now 3 and ddog 5 is arriving in 4 weeks..a new puppy..three dogs i must be bonkers

I suspect a puppy is much better being left with a settled older dog as they aren't going from knowing their litter mates to a strange place on their own.

I think people may run into issues when they get another puppy to fix an older dogs anxiety when really the older dog wants the company of their owner who they have bonded with rather than a new puppy.

Hi we are two months into our new girl at home with our four year old dog. She def seems harder to house train although I think the "excitement wees" are more a bitch thing. Sometimes our boy looks at me like "seriously mummy she's a pain in the arse" but...he loves her. He's got a new lease of life and is having such fun playing with her. We have crate trained her for nighttime to make sure she doesn't hassle him all night (they sleep in kitchen) this is going well. If I can just sort the house training out we are flying, she's five months now so looking to crack it soon! On advice we fed her in her crate to prevent making our gentle boy food guard. Now though she gobbles her own (in unlocked crate) and sits patiently till he's had enough (he never finishes!) and then has a wee nibble of his leftovers. They are sharing the same water through the day despite having their own bowls. She walks on lead better than he does so really it's just her preference for pees inside to sort !

Sorry I totally ignored your question! Our boy is so much happier to be left alone now he has company. Although we really aim to do no more than 3-4 hrs tops and they are in and out through dog flap to big garden.

Thank you for these responses - really hoping the pup is fairly easy to train also. She seems to be getting to grips with weeing outside but not pooing, but it’s early days and fortunately we have no carpets downstairs

I’m due to go back to work in a few weeks, but only work 3 days a week and my DM pops in to walk the dog and spend time so hopefully all will be well!

Funny our girl's got the poos sorted but I swear she comes inside to pee!!!

Im thinking the same! She’s a tinker for sure.

We've always tried to have two dogs at the same time, bringing a pup into the family to join an older dog. We've never had problems with separation anxiety & the new pup just seems to slot right in & bond with us & the older dog. For two years we had three dogs, which wasn't really in the plan. We got a pup, thinking that eldest dog was getting towards the end of her life, but in fact new pup gave old dog a new lease of life & she lived another two years. I always think if you have to leave dogs home alone for a while they are happier with company. Our current two certainly keep each other amused.

DramaAlpaca that’s nice to hear - we got the pup in part for company for our boy. It’s been really lovely to see them together so far.

I have also have two pug crosses and a chihuahua and the only one who suffered a little separation anxiety (cured by my dad’s excellent babysitting ) was my eldest dog as she was an only dog for four years. She outgrew it fairly quickly and I think adding the other two once she was so well established and a very good girl was the best thing because they took their cues from her and have been very settled from day one. If your older dog is happy and confident and well behaved I don’t think you’ll have issues. Enjoy your puppy—they grow up too fast! 😭