Adding a large dog to a toy dog household?

[AnnieSnap]

I have had large dogs all my life (now 63). Weimaraners, a lovely Rottweiler (at the same time), then after gradually losing all of those, I moved into Standard Poodle. Met and married my husband when I had those, so he is used to big dogs too. After we lost our last gorgeous Standard. After a while we got a Toy Poodle as “it would be easier to get out and about with it”. Subsequently, we got his half brother. They are 9 and 6 now. I love them to bits, but I miss having a large dog and a bitch. I’m thinking and my DH has been brought around to thinking of buying a Weimaraner bitch puppy. It couldn’t be a rescue as the Toys are a bit scared of big dogs, so it would have to grow up with them. We also have two Siamese cats and chickens, so it would have to be a pup for that too.

Do any of you have a big, sometimes boisterous dog if the same, or similar breed, with Toys? Does it work, or do the little ones get ‘run over’?

I think it’s easier doing it the other way round - introducing a small dog to a larger adult dog, as a puppy being a puppy isnt likely to hurt a dog much larger than it.

Puppies can be absolute twats, and teenagers even worse… especially a high energy breed like a weim Id worry the smaller dogs may get hurt by a puppy trying to play, or the puppy might not take a telling off/piss off from a small dog that seriously.
Obviously constant supervision helps but I’d be worried I’d turn my back for 20 seconds once and something would happen.

Ive two dogs on the smaller side of medium and they are wary of big dogs when in close proximity with them and would find living with one immensely stressful, which is perhaps another consideration?

The fact that your OP states that yours are a bit scared of big dogs would be enough for me not to do it.
What if they don’t stop being scared of them? It sounds potentially immensely stressful for them.

My colleague (who is a very good dog trainer) introduced a newfoundland puppy to a severely reactive small terrier (rescue). She managed it to the nth degree and after a few months there was total harmony and they adore each other and have had no issues. They are still separated when they are not there. Pup is 4 now.

Management, like most things puppy is key. They would need total separation for most of the time and your time splitting between them whilst you slowly integrated them.

I think the idea of them growing up together is a nice one, but you'd need to have a plan in place if your current dog didn't adjust to the puppy.

Thank you all for your comments. It would be an 8-week-old pup. I wouldn’t get one that was older. It would then be quite a bit smaller than one of my boys and a bit smaller than the other (They are Toy Poodles). They love to play with other dogs the same sort of size of them and a bit bigger. So my thoughts are the size wouldn’t be a problem initially. I the pup would be about 16 weeks before growing bigger than my largest boy who is at the top end of the size range for TPs. As it grew then, ours would know her, so it wouldn’t be a suddenly big dog. My concerns are around it being bigger and heavier during boisterous play. @Newpeep your colleague’s experience is reassuring, since a Weim is small in relation to a Newfoundland. Also, I am very experienced training large dogs even though it’s been a while and both DH and me are retired so there are two of us to focus on the job.

We introduced a puppy who grew into an enormous vizsla to a JRT. The JRT ruled the roost till the day she died. The Viz knew better than to challenge her and they co-existed very amicably. We could leave them alone together with no worries at all.

JRTs are feisty buggers though aren’t they? Still, reassuring 🙂

'feisty buggers' 😂
That about sums them up.

I have a lurcher 2.5 years, a bichon mix 11 years, and a yorkie 15 years. The yorkie is blind and deaf and doesn’t really have much to do with the other dogs, he tends to be asleep on the back of the sofa, out of the way, and the other two find him too boring to bother with.
the bichon mix and lurcher get along like a house on fire, always playing together. Because we got her as a puppy, the lurcher has always been very polite with the other two who we allowed to correct her when necessary, she leaves them alone entirely when they’re going to the toilet and when they’re drinking.
The lurcher is very aware of herself and her space so she’s always avoiding the little dogs when she’s running (unusual for a lurcher, they’re typically the type to run off a cliff without noticing, wile E coyote style).

😂 at your comment about an eight week old Weimaraner being the smaller dog for a while!!
Ours is almost six months but he was growing 2-2 1/2 inches a week in the early days, happily he's slower to only an inch a week!
Surely your main issue is going to be bring any puppy, regardless of size, into your home with two older dogs. Especially if one is reactive to larger dogs.
Also bear in mind that Weimaraners have a higher prey drive so may we'll see your smaller dogs as fun to chase.
Our cats have learnt this the hard way 😂

After a while we got a Toy Poodle as “it would be easier to get out and about with it”

Does that concern not still apply?

Thanks for the new posts. We went for it in the end. We brought 8-week-old Flora home 3-weeks ago and all is well. Like @Jenzine’s experience, our Toy Poodle’s correct her. She was smaller than them for the first 10-days (she is growing like a weed) @drivinmecrazy 😂🤣

@BunnyBettChetwynd no, that stopped being a concern some time ago. I missed having a big dog. I wonder if part of me deciding to go for a Toy breed (it was me rather than DH, he loves all dogs) was because I was grieving for my last big girl who I lost just before getting our oldest. It still felt illogically disloyal to my last lovely big girl, when we brought Flora home. That feeling is lessoning now. She is really very respectful of the Poodles and the Cats for such a big, exuberant puppy.

AnnieSnap apologies, just noticed this was an older thread then recognised your name from other threads (and the Weimaraner FB page 😂)
Great to hear things are settling. We only have two cats and the puppy, our house is chaotic. Cannot imagine the madness and joy in yours!

Aforementioned Weimaraner puppy out on just her second walk with her small woolly brothers 🙂