Help needed with grumpy tri-colour

Hi

We decided to have another dog since losing our Blenheim 18 months ago and we now have a little German Shepherd Dog puppy.

The only problem is that since he arrived on Saturday, our 6 year old tri-colour is being really grumpy about it and snapping at him for what appears to be no reason! The little one is keeping a distance from him but does go near sometimes and then he gets snapped at.

Has anyone introduced another dog, being big or small, and had any long lasting problems with them not getting on?

Any information or experiences will be helpful.

Thanks

This is pretty normal -- the resident dog is often not very happy for a while with a new arrival, and may be especially annoyed by a puppy as puppies tend to push their luck socially -- they can be a bit annoying. Some adult dogs simply don't care for puppies full stop and never will, and they will get along better as they get older. It is rare for dogs not to get along at all but this can happen -- and is more likely if the dogs are the same gender, and are not neutered. Just keep in mind that dogs like people do not always happily welcome new additions to their social group and best friends are not a guaranteed outcome though usually this will happen eventually... or at least they will learn to tolerate each other .

There's a whole thread on adding a second dog in the Library section -- I'll go look for the link.

In general you want to NOT give extra attention to the puppy, especially not in front of your resident dog. Also make sure interactions are always supervised and the two are not left alone together including at night until you are very sure they are good friends. And it is likely your older dog will need time outs from being pestered by a puppy.

I found that to also be a rough age to introduce a puppy, and in addition a large puppy would be worse. The older dog has to be able to correct the puppy themselves, you doing it will not change behavior. So as difficult as it seems, let old grumpy growl and snap at puppy until he learns to keep his distance.....of course, making sure no danger comes to puppy. I'll be honest, it took a good year for my 6 year old to accept the puppy and another year on top of that to like her!

Grumpy

Thanks for your advice.

The two are getting along a little better but still have occassional flashpoints. Our Cav is putting the little one in his place and I realise it's going to take time and gentle supervision. Hopefully they will eventually get along..........

Thanks for the links Karlin, I've read them all so I now have good information at hand to help us through this tricky time.

Buttercup

Izzy was like that when we got Joly, yet when Teddy came along, Izzy accepted him. Izzy and Teddy became best mates, but the relationship between Izzy and Joly just settled to acceptance.