Introducing a New Dog into a Home with other Dogs

Excellent material and very important. I followed Ed's advice when I brought a 7 year old Jack Russell into my home with 2 young (2 years old) big dogs, a Husky & Wheaton/Retriver Mix. The Jack was fearful of the other dogs due to their size and she would become aggressive toward them, snapping at thier faces. After following this advice and other videos on the site they are all doing very well.

This video and Ed's article on introducing a new dog into a household with existing dog(s) has been very helpful to us. We brought an intact 17-month-old male Malinois to live with our neutered 3-year-old male Bulldog/Husky mix last summer. We followed Ed's advice on keeping control of the dogs and constantly supervising them. We also had the Mal neutered. It took nine months before we were willing to let them play in the yard together with us watching, AND we had e-collars on both to enforce Recalls in order to keep them from ramping up the play too far.

They get along well now, although we still watch them carefully for the first 15 minutes of outside play until they become less excited. During the habituation process, I kept remembering that "it takes the time it takes" when I was tempted to shortcut the process. Many people told us we were being too cautious and advised "putting the dogs together and letting them work it out." I believe that would have been a mistake. The Mal could easily hurt our original dog even though they are almost exactly the same size; Sizzle has far more drive and athleticism and could run Regal to the point of exhaustion or beyond if he weren't willing to handicap himself in play. The time we took to have them adjust to each other and form a bond has allowed them the opportunity to play together safely.

Two months ago we adopted a 15-month-old spayed female Mal who had been one of our Military Working Dog fosters. We are following the same program with HHarpy. The dogs were crated in the same room, they learned to be out together one at a time on leash, and now the two Mals have started to play together outside under close supervision with frequent Call Offs to cool down and relax. We expect it will take another 6-9 months before we are truly comfortable with all three dogs together, and it's possible that will never happen. After listening to Ed we will be fine with that if it's the way things have to be.

Thanks for providing this video for people like us who are not professional dog trainers so that we can enjoy our dogs and allow them to have fun safely.

This was a really fantastic and eductional video, well done. When someone asks me a question I refer them to Leerburg all the time. I wish this video was shown to all the prospective adopters at shelters before they get a new dog, whether it's an addition to their family or the first dog they have ever lived with. Keep up the great work.