I hope I land this in the correct collumn. I am nearing the time to retire my current dog and bring in a new one. This will be my third patrol dog. However I lost my first dog prematurely and acquired my second after his passing. So My question is this. My new dog will need introduced to my home where my retired dog will also be. Can I please have some insight or advise on how best to introduce these two dogs as they will have to live together. My current dog is in no way dog aggressive and I will not allow my new one to be dog aggressive. Any advise on first introductions will be appreciated.

Male/Female? Neutered/Spayed? Do you kennel the dogs in your home when you are not awake or present? In-yard behaviors may be different than inside the home. Even if a good co-living is established at first, this dynamic may change when your new dog undergoes training.

Both Males and yes they will be kenneled indoors during sleep times (ritual) which is daytime for me. This dog will be trained when he arrives home with me. And I thought about neutering my retired dog when he is done but have not made the final decision yet.

You will probably have to be very assertive as "pack leader" with the two, moreso since the retiring dog is not neutered. This will probably be even more difficult outside the house, when the dogs are not as close in proximity to you. I wouldn't advise leaving them together unsupervised at all, until they have a long-established relationship of easy acceptance. It's a judgement call you'll have to make for yourself, and just see as you go. Though the dog you have now is not what you call aggressive, he may get jealous. The more assertive you are as pack leader, the less they fight amongst each other for status.

There are some very nice black plastic muzzles that Leerburg products sells; buy 2 and use them until you can see that the dogs have acclimated to each other w/o any attempts at alpha status or aggression and both are under your control when running together.

Mike ,

I know alot of handlers that have successfully introduced their new K9's to retired K9's or just household pets . Usually it's done on-lead with the dogs in muzzles .

I have also seen some bad injuries to Police K9's from the "other" dog in the house (most just pets) .

I learned my leason the hard way with my first Police K9 . I introduced it to my "friendly" 4 year old Black Lab . Everything went great for a few months until a fight broke out , out of nowhere . Luckily neither dog was injured . My Lab then became my brother's Lab . It wasn't an easy decision either .

This is just my opinion but it's not worth getting your new K9 hurt . It's a tool needed by your fellow officers and citizens and it could too easily be hurt , potentially ending it's career prematurely . Your bosses might not be too understanding if they have to pay a big vet bill or hear their new K9 needs to be replaced because of a dogfight at home .

Most of the handlers I've worked with have brought their retired K9 inside the house with them , kept the new K9 in the outside kennel and kept them apart at all times .

Some have even given their old partner to Ex-K9 Handlers when they got a new K9 partner .

I know many don't agree with me on this but I just wanted you to be aware of the potential risks . Good Luck .

I have a dog aggressive female (adult) and when I introduced her to my other dog (male adult) who is not dog aggressive, I put them in crates about a foot apart from each other and for one week they didn't have contact with one another. If I took one out and the other started barking it got a verbal correction. After the week I put a muzzle and a lead on both of them and let them out to smell each other and get aquinted. I did this 3 times a day for just a few minutes for 2 days and then allowed them to come out on lead without a muzzle for the same amount of time and they just licked each other and wanted to play. After this I put them in my backseat together and took them to a field where they played with the kong together. It was a semi long process but no teeth or blood were involved.

Ed has a good article in his Training Articles section .
It's under the Dominant & Aggressive Dog Problems section and is titled " Introducing A New Dog Into A Home With Other Dogs " .

I'd read that it's got alot of good info . Sorry I don't know how to set up a link to it .

I still don't recommend introducing your new working dog to your old one . You have responsiblities to keeping that dog safe for use by your department . But if you're gonna do it I think this would be the best way .

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Ed has a good article in his Training Articles section .
It's under the Dominant & Aggressive Dog Problems section and is titled " Introducing A New Dog Into A Home With Other Dogs " .. .....

http://www.leerburg.com/introducingdogs.htm

Hey Mike,

Using muzzles is an excellent idea, and another routine is to do the initial introduction on neutral territory for both dogs. That helps to reduce territorial aggression issues as well.

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I hope I land this in the correct collumn. I am nearing the time to retire my current dog and bring in a new one. This will be my third patrol dog. However I lost my first dog prematurely and acquired my second after his passing. So My question is this. My new dog will need introduced to my home where my retired dog will also be. Can I please have some insight or advise on how best to introduce these two dogs as they will have to live together. My current dog is in no way dog aggressive and I will not allow my new one to be dog aggressive. Any advise on first introductions will be appreciated.