I recently took in my sister's dog and my 2 dogs aren't getting along well with the new dog. Can you please help?

Hello,

I have read your article about introducing a new adult dog into the home with other dogs and I just want to see if there is anything else you could help us with. My sister just asked me to keep her 9 year old German Shepard because she is moving to a big city and doesn?t want her to have to walk up the 5 flight of stairs. I happily accepted. Today was the first time we brought Sasha, the German Shepard, over to our house. We already have 2 dogs; a 2 1/2 year old min pin and an 11 month old collie. I did what I did when I brought the collie home at 14 weeks and introduced her to my 2 1/2 year old min pin, which consisted of just letting them sniff and meet one another. It went well there was no snarling or biting or anything. When it came to food the min pin did get a little aggressive and snap and growl at the collie which I quickly corrected and they have been great ever since. So I figured it would be the same with the Shepard. However I was horribly mistaken. After I read your article I realized that we should have handle it differently. The problem started when the Shepard put its paw on the min pin and the min pin got aggressive back and snapped and snarled. We did have the Shepard on a leash and the min pin and collie, who were running around the yard off the leash, are trained well and when we said no and called her name she backed off immediately. It scared me to death. When I informed my sister of what happened she told me the Shepard does that with her cats. I was very distraught after the incident and we separated them. I immediately started searching online for some answers and came across your article. We do plan on following your directions but I need to know if there is anything else we need to know or do. Is the Shepard to old to be introduced to a new family? I want her to really be apart of the family and not have to be an outside dog. Please help. I have 2 boys and my husband and I really want this to work out. The Shepard is not really well trained at all so this is very difficult for us but we are willing to try. The min pin and collie are trained well, enough that we let them off the leads at the beach and they stay right with us and come back when called if we do tell them they can go and chase the birds. I don?t want their training to go back a step either. Sasha is not aggressive towards any person or my children and is pretty calm when the other dogs were not in the yard. When they were all in the yard the other dogs seemed scared and the Shepard barked A LOT at them when she could not get to them. The Shepard?s tail was wagging but she seemed to be really pushy when we introduced just the collie to her. The collie let her for a little while then got irritated barred her teeth and walked away. I am just at a loss and need a little more direction. Can you please help?

Thank you so much already for all the advice in your article!

Sincerely,
Krystyn