# Bringing home puppy with an older dog at home



## WendyS (Apr 6, 2011)

Hello everyone,
I am new to this forum. :wavey: We are bringing home our new golden pup from the breeder next weekend. I am looking for ideas and suggestions on how to integrate the new pup wth our 7 year old golden boy. We lost our senior guy last April. I haven't had a puppy in 10 years! My 7 year old came to us at 18 months fully trained and is such a good boy. He is used to living wih another dog but it has been almost a year since the other one passed. I know he is good with other dogs and cats when he goes to other people's houses, but having a new one on his turf may be a different story... I am wondering do I keep the puppy's crate downstairs by himself or upstairs with us? (especially since he will have to be let out a lot) The 7 year old sleeps at the foot of our bed upstairs right now. In general, will he realize the pup is a "baby" and take him under his "paw" or should I expect some sibling rivalry at first? Also, at 7 weeks old, will I have to get up and let him out every 2 hours in the middle of the night too? My dog that passed last year was already almost 11 weeks when I got him so he was able to go from 11pm-4 or 5am. Any help, links, or suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thanks!
Wendy


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## deemsnyd (Mar 28, 2011)

We brought our 9 week old golden home and introduced her to the 8 year old golden...it was fine in that Chloe never tried to hurt her or anything but she was having none of the "puppy play" that Gracie was interested in. She just needed to get used to her and establish her dominance with her...basically, she wanted to make sure that Gracie knew she was boss. When she was satisfied that Gracie knew her place, they were the best of friends. It didn't take long at all but there was definitely a "teaching of manners" so to speak. Don't be alarmed of your older golden puts the puppy's head and neck in his mouth a lot. Chloe kept Gracie drenched for the first 2 months...she was kind of leading her around and controlling her hyperactivity and puppy nipping. It was great to see her communicate with the puppy and teach her how to behave. We knew that she had accepted her when she started letting her jump all over her and wrestle. She will now willingly roll over for Gracie and let her jump on her, at first she wouldn't let her get on top of her at all. You can see by my signature picture how well they get along now but there was a little adjustment period for 3 or 4 weeks. We did have to take her out every 2-3 hours at first, she never had any accidents in her crate, though, even if we would forget to set the alarm and leave her in a little longer some nights. A good rule of thumb is 1 hour for every month of age plus one more..so at 2 months, we didn't like to go any longer than 3 hours-maximum. Oh, also, I don't know if it will make any difference that your older golden is male, ours is female, but I bet it will be fine. Another thing we did, and this may be silly, but we acted as if we were "giving" Chloe the puppy, like it was hers, to avoid jealousy as much as possible. And we didn't pet the puppy as much as we petted her at first. Now they're great together! Good luck


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## 2dollys (Jan 24, 2011)

*what we did*

I'd like to encourage you. Our 14 year old aussie died last June and our 7 year old golden, Rosie, really went to pieces. She was grieving so much and didn't even want to eat. She is really the reason we started thinking about getting a pup, we were less than sure that we wanted to have 2 dogs again--we were able to take Rosie a lot more places when it was just her.

We tested the water by doing a lot of puppy sitting with our friend's 9 week old dobie. Rosie loved it! All summer and early fall we continued this with the puppy coming over 1-3 times per week.

However...when Mango came to live with us, it wasn't so smooth. Seems like Rosie wondered why she didn't go home. She resource guarded food, treats, bones, toys and her mom. Even though Mango was really respectful and would back off with just a look from Rosie, Rosie would overreact and snarl or bite and growl and such. She even made contact during the first week and Mango had to go to the vet with a lac above her eye.


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## deemsnyd (Mar 28, 2011)

Ah, yes, the resource guarding. I forgot to mention that. Chloe would get Gracie's things and not let her have them back. Some growly, snarly behavior but never any contact. That has gotten much better now, though, with a few instances where Gracie has stood her ground and Chloe has allowed her to get her toys back. All in all, they have worked things out nicely between them and now Chloe will actually pester Gracie to play.


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## WendyS (Apr 6, 2011)

Thank you both for sharing your experiences! OMG! How scary was that when Rosie did that to Mango's eye? I think I would be terrified to leave them together after that! If Prince tries to snap at the puppy for taking toys etc., do I intervene or let them work it out?


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## 2dollys (Jan 24, 2011)

*Yep!*

It was so scary! Here we had tried to do everything right and our little youngster (about 7.5 weeks) had been bitten! One good thing was that our vet said by the path of the bite, it was a lower canine--which meant Rosie wasn't trying to make contact but it was an accident. 

We would take away the high value things and Rosie would get time outs for bad behavior when she over reacted. But if she just lifted a lip, no time out. And we had to supervise all the time. But, like I said, Mango was really respectful, so that helped a lot. She has always backed off at the slightest body language.

Here is the poor baby! It was so close to her eye! So glad we got past that time and everyone enjoys everyone now!


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## WendyS (Apr 6, 2011)

Awwww.... Poor baby! I am glad they are pals now.


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## neo2000 (Jan 22, 2011)

My experience with several dogs has been that bringing a puppy into the house was fine with our male dogs and not so smooth with our female dogs. However, given time, everyone became good friends. Our females--one a golden, the other a black lab, were not at all pleased in the beginning to have a puppy brought home. I'll never forget the look on our black lab's face when I brought home a puppy 11 years ago--total disgust! "What did you do THAT for?!" seemed to be her feeling about it. However, given time, they were fine.


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## lyssie (Apr 6, 2011)

i've found the way they act reflects their personality. we've always had an older golden then got a puppy as we found the older one teaches the pup a thing or two and the pup keeps the older one young. i think our older one, clyde wouldn't have lived as long if jack wasn't around to annoy him !!!

our first goldie, bonnie wasn't a very nice step mother to clyde when we took him home. she played w/ him when it suited her but she wouldn't even let clydie sleep in the bed with her. (i've never done the create thing and have only heard of it just now while reasearching puppies. ignorant me !!) but they got on fine.

then i think clydie was such a FANTASTIC father to little jack to make up for the puppyhood he didn't get with bonnie. bonnie was never mean to him just not as much fun clydie was hoping for.

so clydie let jack do EVERYTHING !!! pull his tail, sit on his head, tug his ears. this of course resulting in jack thinking he could get away w/ everything. 

sadly jack never got to expierence being a step dad but honestly, he was still such a puppy himself he wouldn't have taught the pup anything other than how to be naughty !!! hehe.

i'm about to do the same as you w/ a 4 year old non goldie and i think he will be great. let us know how it all goes as i'll probably be doing the same soon.

happy puppyhood !!!


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## Mavrk (Mar 11, 2011)

We have a 4 year old mix breed and a new puppy. They get along great. Even so, we did not leave them unattended together for the first couple of weeks unless the puppy was in her crate. I suggest you do the same.

As for where to put the crate, put it where you want. I would at least put the crate in the room for the first few nights so the puppy isn't lonely. The puppy should be able to sleep for several hours in the night. If it whines, put your finger in the crate and see if it stops if not, then take it out to pee. Normally I wouldn't pay attention to a whining dog in a crate, but this is its first time away from the litter and will be lonely.

By the way, if you can wait until at least 8 weeks instead of 7 weeks it might be a little better for the pup (and you).


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## Colorwolf (Feb 21, 2011)

I find that you need to supervise the first few weeks when they are together, especially during the introduction phase. Must really be firm with both of them and keep puppy in control as not to agitate the adult. Just to let the adult get used to puppy behavior. 
From experience, after they become best friends, they tend to plan mischievous outings together.
Hmm... wonder where that came from ><


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## WendyS (Apr 6, 2011)

Thanks everyone! All good info that I will definitely use...


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