Older dog with new puppy

weeks! My Pilot dog (lab x) lay along the back of the couch and refused to come down for weeks on end - slabbering in sheer terror at the small collie puppy!

They ended up best of friends though:D
 
seems very variable, some take to it instantly others are horrified.

i have more experience of cats/kittens but most older cats are definitely put out by the idea of a kitten.

i think so long as you give lots of attention to the older dog, so it doesn't feel its place is taken by the other one, you should be ok, tendency is to make a lot of fuss of the newcomer and the other can be jealous
 
I've got an older dog (13) male non neutered lab and now have a brand new 8 month old female lab. She beats the living daylights out of the older one and although they are not nasty with each other you can hardly call them friends.

It really depends upon the dogs in question, some get on great some not so great. It really just takes time and patience and ensuring that the older dog gets equal fuss and attention.
 
My Collie HATED my labbidog puppy for about 2 weeks, then gave in and decided he was worthy to play with. Frances' older Lurcher hated the Patterdale puppy, it took about 2 weeks for him to play with her.
 
We've got a 10 year old dog, who's companion was PTS late last year, and he went downhill very quickly from loneliness. We got a new puppy but the older dog didn't want to know at all for the first couple of weeks.

We keep the puppy in a crate at night, and he only has access to the kitchen, behind a baby gate. This means he can't annoy the older dog or get into trouble chewing things he shouldn't. Within two weeks puppy and older dog are the best of friends.

I think it's very important to allow the older dog to escape from the puppy whenever he wants to. It must be annoying to be climbed all over and chewed all the time!!
 
Last year, when my Boxer Bitch was 11 years old, her older life-companion died, and my bitch went into severe depression. We had 3 weeks when I thought I was going to lose her too, until she spotted her own reflection in a mirror, and she didn't want to leave the mirror!! So I bought an 8 week old puppy. At first she was a bit unsure of this fast moving, lively, noisy creature invading her world, but slowly she began to want to play with him, and to lie with him. For about 2 weeks I had to make sure they had their meals apart, but then the puppy came and ate from the older dogs' bowl - and my bitch let him. Puppy had to sleep in the lounge, while my bitch slept with me - she wouldn't let puppy in the bedroom (I live in a bungalow) then one night she let him come in and sleep on the floor, and within a few days she allowed him onto the bed. I had to buy a dog crate with a divider because she didn't want to share her car space with him, but I only needed the divider for about a week. So, all in all, on a step by step basis, it took about 4 weeks for her to fully accept him and to love him. Now, a year on, they are the absolute best of pals, although occasionally she'll look at me as if to ask "Couldn't we have had a less active one?" and sometimes if he oversteps the mark she has to put him in his place, lol. For her it was the absolute best thing I could have done, and I think it's a good situation for the youngster too.
 
The thing is not to tell the older dog off for snapping at the puppy. So long as it's not a full on attack try to let them find their own level.
 
We lost our old dog last summer, leaving 7 year old Tuppence on her own. We bought Hugo, a ten 10 week old beagle, 3 weeks ago. For the first 24 hours Tuppence looked as if she were hoping it was all a bad dream and kept out of Hugo's way. By the end of the second day, she had started playing with him, then gradually let him snuggle up when he felt sleepy. They are now quite a team, and Tuppence is happier than she has been for months.

Hugo sleeps in his crate in the kitchen at night, while Tuppence divides her time between the sofa and our bed. We feed them together. If Hugo oversteps the mark, Tuppence will firmly put him in his place. He backs down immediately, then they carry on as before.

Mind you, when we introduced 2 puppies into the household many years ago, our then 15 year old bitch took to them straight away. She had been moping for her companion of 13 years, and this was just the tonic she needed.
 
We had a new male puppy in 2008 and already had a 6 year old and an 18 month old and 15 year old bitch.

The 18 month bitch took to the puppy brilliantly and wanted to play from day one - puppy loved her too.
The 6 year old was more reserved but it only tooka couple of weeks before they were rolling around on the floor together.
The 15 year old just wanted to ignore the puppy and had a lttle grumble andsnap if it bothered her but she was arthritic, limited sight and slightly dementia-esque so we didnt blame her not wanting a puppy all over her.

However we have never had any problems intorducing a new puppy but it all depends on the individual dogs and temeperaments/jealousies etc
 
My daughter looked after her friend's Chihuahua puppy last year for a couple of weeks, he was only about 8/10 weeks old. My little Yorkie who is 9 years old was absolutely horrified, she spent most of her time sitting on top of the back of the sofa, which was the only place he couldn't get to. He just wouldn't leave her alone, wanted to play all the time and my dog, Poppy, got really fed up with him.

She just started to play and bond with him the day before he went home - how typical is that :eek::eek:. I did think at the time though that it wasn't really fair on her and that I'd never get a puppy while Poppy is still with us.

I appreciate it doesn't always work out like that though. I think if you can keep the puppy and older dog separate from each other at times, they probably will become good buddies. And also make the older dog feel young again!
 
Just an update for anyone interested. We have had him for 3 weeks now and him and the older one are best buds. They play together, lick each other. I would say it took 2 weeks for the older dog to come forward to accept the puppy.
 
Glad to hear they've bonded, it must be a real shock for the older dog when this manic bundle of puppyness turns up and turns their nice quiet world upside down!

It was exactly a fortnight when this puppy came to stay with us and, literally, on the day he was going home, my dog decided to be friends with him :p
 
Great to hear things are going well.

I would totally agree with hormonalmare, think its very important that
the older dog has an 'escape' from a puppy to give him/her a break, and vice versa for the Pup.

Have brought a Puppy in several times, and kittens, over the years, never mine but friends or Boyfriends. I Had an older G.shepherd and a German Pointer. The Shepherd accepted anything and everything to the point the puppies/kittens could make their beds on his back legs but the Pointer was never quite so accommodating.

When I knew the Shepherd really wasn't going to be around for that much longer I honestly thought the Pointer wasn't going to be too far behind as he was best of friends with the Shepherd and had never been without him. I thought he would go downhill fast so I took the risk and bought a Staffie Puppy. This bucked my Shepherd up for a while until he had to be PTS at 13. I certainly had to monitor things between the Pointer and the Pup for a while, but once the Shepherd had gone the Pointer seemed to 'cling' to the Pup tbh and they settled into a comfortable routine, although in all honesty they were never the best of friends, purely down to the Pointer. When I lost the Pointer 18 months later, also at 13, I got another Staffie Pup and the two Staffies became the best of friends and are inseparable.

I always found Cats to be a bigger problem than Dogs. Always found Dogs would accept a Kitten/Cat, but always without fail had a
problem with a more established cat if bringing a new Puppy in. They would sulk for WEEKS, lol.

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