So excited!

[Laguiri]

On Monday I bring home the cutest little mutt you ever saw! She’s under a year old, rescued from the home of an animal hoarder. She’s quite timid and submissive, and scared of the outdoors as she was never walked. Obviously no recall or housetraining whatsoever. Any advice on making her transition as smooth as possible, and ensuring peaceful interaction with my ageing whippet (they’re about the same size)? All contributions welcome.

Gorgeous.

Introduce them outside the house, maybe get a friend or DH to meet you with the other dog and walk home together.

Don’t leave them alone together until you are sure they get on.
Have them sleep & eat in separate rooms initially.

I had mine wear Adaptil collars ( both of them) and used Adaptil, diffusers too; my vet gave the new dog some natural anti anxiety supplements
Make sure the older dog can escape when it wants to.
A good sign is if they can relax enough to snooze in the same room ( with you there)
I had a male and added a female. They adore each other and liked to play together from day 1 , although DDog 1 was not entirely sure why this bitch thought she was staying 🙄. It didn’t take long though.

She's so cute!

I agree about introducing them on neutral territory - if you have a DH, maybe get him to bring your dog to the park so they can meet there.

In the house I would go for lots of separation unless you're right there to supervise. Separate feeding, separate beds, separate water bowls - in fact, entirely separate spaces would probably be best at first, as your rescue will probably be terrified.

Good luck.

She's adorable 😍

Thanks for your advice. Doing the separate spaces thing as far as possible in an open plan house. She´s basically on a lead attached to me all the time. Home dog is sleeping peacefully on his sofa. She got here around 6pm (so over six hours ago), and still hasn´t had a wee or poop, despite long periods in the garden??? I guess anything´s possible on the first day.

They can hold it for hours when they want - I'm sure she'll go when she feels a bit safer and more settled.

Aww what a cutie!

Day three and all going well so far. Half-blind home dog jumped on her today by mistake. He knows where there’s a step in the garden but can’t really judge it well any more so takes a huge leap; she was in his path and he landed on top of her 🫣. She just scurried away rather than snapping. Delighted; a new dog has one job only, which is at a minimum to ignore home dog, and at best, to become his friend. She’s getting less timid with me, is reluctantly learning to accept being in the car, is rapidly getting the hang of being housetrained and is starting to sleep deeply (I doubt she’s been able to sleep deeply since she was born). She now walks fine on the lead in the garden, and our next challenge will be to walk fine outside.
Sometimes, she stands on her hind legs to peer around, just like a meercat. She is so adorable!

She's absolutely gorgeous! Well done for giving her a loving home.