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Advice re: introducing adult female to house - sorry long post.

MadPip

Well-known member
Hi everyone,
I'm after some advice. A work colleague has suffered and accident so cannot look after his 2yr old bitch (unspayed) for the next few weeks. Another friend of his has been looking after her since the accident, but this was only for a few days and for various reasons can't keep her from Wednesday evening. So we will be looking after her from then.

Now, just to recap, I have Maddie, spayed, aged 4 1/2 and Pippin, neutered aged 3 (well, his 3rd birthday is next week.:D). The last time Brandy came to stay she was 9 months old and was totally manic. Maddie told her off within 5 minutes, and Pippin took 24 hours to tell her off when she bounced at him one too many times. We were around at all times and crated her at night.

The trouble this time is that it is very much unplanned, and we both have to go to work as usual on Thursday and Friday. This will leave all 3 dogs alone for 4 - 5 hours in the morning.

Right, now to the advice bit. Brandy is used to being alone when her owner is at work, but as an only dog and I think she has the run of the downstairs. I'm worried how Maddie and Pippin will take to her, and obviously don't want any incidents when we're out. Likewise I don't want to crate her for that length of time if she's not used to it. My usual helper in letting the dogs out is tied up with her own poorly dog at the moment so may not be able to help.

Any suggestions - do I trust them to just get on with it, or keep them separated when we're not around? Maddie is so used to being top dog between her and Pippin, and I'm not sure if the fact she's spayed and Brandy isn't will make any difference.

Thanks in advance for any advice
 
I think the best thing would be to keep them separated whilst you are out as you are not sure how all three will interact. Even if they seem to get on when they first get together, if anything should happen while you are out, you will not be able to stop it.

There should be a thread somewhere on adding another dog. Even though Brandy is only staying short term, if it was me, I would treat her as if she was going to be a new member of the family, ie keeping separate while there is no supervision and feeding separately etc.

Hope everything goes ok and happy 3rd birthday to Pippin next week :D
 
Do you have an x-pen or a crate that Brandy can stay in while you are at work?

I know you'd probably rather have her running free, but she'll probably sleep while you're gone anyway, and that way everyone will be safe.

Also ... hopefully she's settled down quite a bit since when she was a 9 month ld puppy, so hopefully she'll surprise you and they'll all get along really well!
 
Hi madpip

I am sorry I havent read your post omly the heading you are having an older women coming to live with you ,just as friends I hope.:confused:
 
On a serious note, thanks for the advice, it's sort of what I was feeling anyway. I'll phone round all family and friends to see if anyone can come in while I'm out so she's not penned up for too long at a time.
 
Update after 24 hours

Hi all,
well so far so good apart from the fact that she's not eating. This is partly due to the new environment, but also partly due to the fact that she free feeds at home, there is always food down, so I don't think she understands the concept of eating a meal.:? She has about 5 kibbles then walks away. Unfortunately for her, she'll have to get used to 2 meals a day because if I leave food down all the time Pippin will end up as a very large dog. Not what I want.

The other thing is, the people who were looking after her weren't doggy people, so although she was fed and walked, there was no grooming going on, and her ears are soooo long.:yikes It's taken me ages (and a lot of patience) to get the knots out of those ears, but I've done it. She also desperately needs a bath (she's a bit smelly) which she's having tonight. As she's a real wriggler we flipped a coin and OH lost so he'll be the one to get really wet.:-D Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?
 
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