Advice on puppy joining our older dog

[stopwining]

Hiiii
I am hoping for some advice please on how to best introduce a new pup into our home.
We have a lovely tempered chocolate lab who is 4.5 YO. We have finally found a perfect black lab who will be joining us early December. We are so excited!!

We have of course done plenty of research online about the best way to introduce them but I am really keen to hear from anyone who has trodden this path before and is happy to share their wisdom?

We know it won't be easy. It hopefully worth it to give them both a lovely life!

We have already considered - meeting neutral ground, giving blanket to breeder for him to sleep with that we can bring home for older dog to get used to the smells, separate places to sleep (pup will be crate trained) separated at dinner times, lots of attention for our current dog and separate walks, separate toys.

Is there anything else we should be considering? I have read a lot of advice for the first meeting but not as much for the ongoing periods!

Thanks so much :)

We know it won't be easy with two labs it will possibly be very easy

Is your older lab generally happy with other dogs?

I would treat your older dog when the puppy is around, so good things happen when the puppy is here. My lab tended to ignore all the puppies for a while then over a week you would see him wagging his tail when they came up to him and then no problem from that point on.

Do not let the older dog have to sort out the puppy's behaviour. If it gets too rough stop the play. A good way to do this is just restrain the puppy and see what the older dog does, if they walk away keep the puppy away, if the come back to the puppy for more play if you are happy then you can let them back together again.

Initially as you have said I would walk both dogs separately, give your older dog his own time and also to give the younger dog training walks and bonding walks with you. You may have to work hard to get the puppy as interested in you as he is in the older lab.

Enjoy, how exciting

Awww😊
We know it won't be easy - with two labs it will possibly be very easy smile
Yes, it’s possible! My old boy (14 1/2 now) has been the go to Doggy of choice for six puppies belonging to friends and family so far because he’s so good with them - gentle and tolerant but ‘teaches’ them in the right way. Of course not all Labs are the same but you’ll have a good idea of what he’s like with other dogs, and over exuberant dogs out and about. That’s not the same as having them move in to his home obviously but you’ve got a good plan and I second making sure ‘good things’ happen when the puppy is around. Better place an order for extra sausages during December!

Oh and Pollys comment re watching for if/when the puppy gets too much is very important. As I said my boy is great at a proper balance between placid and tolerant and giving a proper good Woof! if they go too far however, there was one Border Collie puppy that just would not take Woof for an answer and my boy did look to me almost as if to say Please help me - so that’s when puppy had to be removed with human intervention.

@PollyRoulson ohhh I wasn't expecting such positivity thank you!

He likes other dogs but as he gets older he's more likely to play and then get bored and continue with his walk if his playmate isn't that interesting. Very different to when he was a teenager and would bolt to the other side of the field at the sniff of another dog!!

Fingers crossed our experience will be similar to yours.

How did you find getting up in the night? I'm worried our dog will wonder why we aren't getting up in the middle of the night to see him?

Nights were no bother. The older one will probably sigh, turn over and hope your turn the light off quickly.

I have found that sometimes the puppies can give the older ones a new lease of life (If the balance between the puppy play and given their own time is right)

The one thing we did have to sort out a bit was the feeding. The puppy had 3 meals a day and the older dog had two. So for a while I gave the older dog 3 meals just split the same amount into the 3 meals to prevent any issues.

Just make sure the breeder with have the dog back if they dont get on, seen it work seen it fail

@PollyRoulson again that's a brilliant tip thank you! We are super excited.

Will post a pic of the little boy

Oh it won't let me for some reason. Thanks for all the positive stories. Breeder will definitely have him back they have both mum and dad

Here he is

What a cutiepie.